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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — This summer, the Clark Art Institute offers an exciting lineup of music performances. Most concerts are free. For outdoor performances, please bring a picnic and your own seating. Rain moves outdoor performances to the Clark’s auditorium, located in the Manton Research Center. For accessibility concerns, call 413 458 0524. Visit clarkart.edu/events for more information.
Summer music performances include:
Music on the Moltz Terrace Series
June 23, July 28 & August 11, 5 pm
Lunder Center at Stone Hill, Moltz Terrace
Enjoy a series of intimate outdoor music performances on the Moltz Terrace.
June 23
Garcia Peoples and Mountain Movers
The dynamic band Garcia Peoples, featuring guitarists and vocalists Tom Malach and Danny Arakaki, drummer Cesar Arakaki, bassists Andy Cush and Derek Spaldo, and keyboardist P.G. Six., takes inspiration from the improvisational and psychedelic jam bands of the 1960s. Mountain Movers, an underground rock band from New Haven, Connecticut, opens.
July 28
Glenn Jones and Emily Robb
Glenn Jones is one of the leading proponents of American primitive guitar, a style invented in the late 1950s by his friend and mentor John Fahey. His band Cul de Sac was active for almost twenty years and yielded nine albums. Jones began touring solo in 2003 and went on to release seven albums. Emily Robb, a prominent player in the rock underground and experimental music scenes, opens.
August 11
A.P.I.E., Family Underground, and Animal, Surrender!
A.P.I.E. plays a loose, sardonic take on country rock, a humorous and nonchalant antidote to the more studied aspects of Americana. Family Underground is a Copenhagen-based duo of noisemakers with an unconventional approach to music. Animal, Surrender! is a collaboration between Peter Kerlin and Rob Smith. They lead with a bass-driven rhythm section and spare electronics, creating a post-rock and folk trance.
All Music on the Moltz Terrance performances are free. This series is presented in collaboration with Belltower Records, North Adams, Massachusetts.
Concert: Dancing on a Volcano
Opera Lafayette Performs Music from the Eighteenth-Century French Caribbean
June 26, 6 pm
Manton Research Center, Auditorium
Unlike almost all the actors and actresses of the 1780s, the soprano Minette was a woman of African descent. The novel Dancing on a Volcano suggests the tensions swirling around this contemporary of artist Guillaume Lethière and composer Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-George. Soprano Ariana Wehr joins the musicians of Opera Lafayette to present music from the operas of Gluck, Philidor, Gretry, and others (which Minette performed), as well as music from the Chevalier de Saint-George.
Free.
July Outdoor Concert Series
July 3, 10, 17 & 24, 6 pm
Reflecting Pool Lawn
Celebrate the French Caribbean with some of the best musicians from Guadeloupe and Haiti. This series of outdoor concerts is presented in conjunction with the Clark’s Guillaume Lethière and Kathia St. Hilaire: Invisible Empires exhibitions.
July 3
Jacques Schwarz-Bart and Band
Born in Guadeloupe, Jacques Schwarz-Bart has voyaged from neo-soul back to his Caribbean roots. Playing Gwo ka and Vodou jazz, Schwarz-Bart connects jazz music with its Afro-Caribbean and spiritual origins. Schwarz-Bart performs with his quintet.
July 17
Nathalie Joachim Trio
Grammy-nominated performer and composer Nathalie Joachim is a Haitian-American artist whose creative practice centers on a commitment to storytelling and human connectivity while advocating for social change and cultural awareness. In this performance, Joachim sings and plays the flute, joined by her bassist and percussionist.
July 24
Lakou Mizik
In Haitian Creole, the word lakou carries multiple meanings. It can mean a backyard or a collective place where people gather to play music and dance. It can also be an extended community or a connection to one’s ancestors. As a band, Lakou Mizik embodies a little of each meaning—bringing music, community, and spiritual connection to backyards and festivals across the globe. Lakou Mizik also incorporates elements of Rara, a form of Carnival music based in Vodou, in which drummers and horn players lead joyous processions through the streets.
All July Concert Series performances are free.
Music at the Manton: Ximena Bedoya and LOCULUS
July 14, 4 pm
Manton Research Center, Auditorium
Ximena Bedoya, an interdisciplinary artist and designer from Perú, explores transitional states of mind, body, and space in her work. Using material exploration, video, sound, and installation, her art responds to the futility of controlling life’s fluctuating moments. Bedoya is half of Lobby Art Editions, a record and cassette label with roots in Western Massachusetts. LOCULUS, a dance collective founded in 2015 in Western Massachusetts, opens.
Free. This performance is presented in collaboration with Belltower Records, North Adams, Massachusetts.
Classical Concert: Rome is Falling
August 10, 4 pm
Manton Research Center, Auditorium
Rome was one of the greatest civilizations in the world; yet, like all empires, it fell. Why, and how? The story is a mixture of politics, betrayal, immigration, religion, climate, pandemic, natural disaster, xenophobia, and bad luck (in short, everything human, and everything we face today). Rome is Falling, an opera composed by American Modern Opera Company (AMOC*) member Doug Balliett, is a zany lesson on the absurdity of what can happen when powerful people lose power.
Tickets $10 ($8 members, $7 students, $5 children 15 and under). For tickets, visit clarkart.edu/events.
Outdoor Concert: The Knights Orchestra
August 31, 4 pm
Fernández Terrace
The Knights return to the Clark! To celebrate the Guillaume Lethière exhibition, the orchestra plays a double violin concerto by Lethière’s contemporary Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-George. A new composition by Kyle Sanna, featuring renowned Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh as guest soloist, rounds out this very special musical experience.
Free. This performance is presented through the generous support of the Sea Island Foundation.
Family Concert: The Knights Orchestra
September 1, 11 am
Manton Research Center, Auditorium
The Knights present a family-friendly concert for younger audiences that complements the Guillaume Lethière exhibition. This program, which follows the Knights’ large-scale outdoor concert on August 31, is intended to provide a fun and engaging introduction to classical music. Audience participation activities highlight musical details and showcase the way instruments can tell a story.
Free. Advance registration required. Register at clarkart.edu/events. This performance is presented through the generous support of the Sea Island Foundation.
ABOUT THE CLARK
The Clark Art Institute, located in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, is one of a small number of institutions globally that is both an art museum and a center for research, critical discussion, and higher education in the visual arts. Opened in 1955, the Clark houses exceptional European and American paintings and sculpture, extensive collections of master prints and drawings, English silver, and early photography. Acting as convener through its Research and Academic Program, the Clark gathers an international community of scholars to participate in a lively program of conferences, colloquia, and workshops on topics of vital importance to the visual arts. The Clark library, consisting of some 300,000 volumes, is one of the nation’s premier art history libraries. The Clark also houses and co-sponsors the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art.
The Clark, which has a three-star rating in the Michelin Green Guide, is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Its 140-acre campus includes miles of hiking and walking trails through woodlands and meadows, providing an exceptional experience of art in nature. Galleries are open 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday through Sunday from September through June, and daily in July and August. Open 10 am to 9 pm on Wednesdays from June 19 through September 25, with free admission from 5 to 9 pm. Admission is free January through March and is $20 from March through December; admission is free year-round for Clark members, all visitors age 21 and under, and students with a valid student ID. Free admission is also available through several programs, including First Sundays Free; a local library pass program; and EBT Card to Culture. For information on these programs and more, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 2303.
