So, we’ve piqued your curiosity about The Event In A Tent. Now how about a peek under the tent flaps to see what this June 30 happening is all about?
The Event In A Tent represents an innovative approach to building a program, a deliberate fusion of musical styles and art forms that you usually won’t find under one tent.
That’s on purpose.
“It’s an image not of dividing an audience. Let’s say we were to announce this big jazz concert. It would attract people who like jazz and leave out people who don’t,” said The Event In A Tent Artistic Director, Hugh Keelan. “I kind of want that to go away.”
Consider it gone.
The Event In A Tent is really several concerts in one, a multi-ringed
musical circus. Here’s some of what you’ll hear:
• Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. A perfect choice. Vermont is known
for its pastoral beauty; so is Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, which
evokes the beauty of nature and the joy people take in it. It also
conjures natures powerful, stormy side and celebrates the moment when
the storm passes. This performance is presented as an inspiring
acknowledgement of community rebirth in the wake of the damage
wrought by Tropical Storm Irene last August.
• There will be other Pastoral/Americana musical selections that specifically evoke Vermont, including the “National Emblem March” by Vermonter Edwin Eugene Bagley (it might be the most famous march by someone not named John Philip Sousa; believe me, you know it).
• Spirituals and Blues featuring two wonderful singers Samirah Evans and Moonlight Davis, with orchestra;
• A fusion of circus and sound, featuring excerpts from the opera
“Pagliacci” integrated with circus and trapeze arts performed by
acrobats from the Nimble Arts – Circus Arts & Productions; Barber’s Adagio for Strings, with dancers; “The Emperor Waltz” by Johann Strauss II; and a piece everyone associates with circus, “The Entrance of the Gladiators,” by Julius Fucik (believe me, you know this one, too).
• A large-scale fiddle/violin/Gypsy participation of Vittorio Monti’s
“Czardas” with orchestra, open to all ages and abilities.
If this all sounds a little bit unpredictable and eclectic, it is.
And that’s just the Main Event, which gets underway at 3 p.m. Grounds open at noon at Brattleboro’s Famolare Field, and there will plenty of things for people to do. You can try the violin workshop, a didgeridoo workshop where people will make and play the instruments, a circus workshop, and a drum ride workshop. There will also be a brief performance on the musical park bench, a brand new instrument invented in Brattleboro by Garry Jones and Erik Newquist of Harmonic Forge. Of course, you can just kick back, spread a blanket, enjoy a picnic and dig the scene.
It’s really a celebration of people and place and a moment in time
when we’re all together, under the tent, making something happen that
never happened before.
Tent image by sacks08, used under its Creative Commons license.