CALENDAR OF EVENTS 2023

MUSIC AND WORDS EVENTS

August 12, 4:30 p.m.
Karen Allen
Join multi-award winning actor and director Karen Allen for a fast- moving, interactive afternoon as she shares highlights of her exciting career, from her film debut in Animal House, to her iconic role as Marion Ravenwood in Raiders of the Lost Ark, to major roles in Starman and The Perfect Storm, and her many other movie, television, and stage performances. Karen will tell us what it’s like to work with such luminaries as Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, and Jeff Bridges. She will also share how being engaged in creative arts led to her opening Karen Allen Fiber Arts in Great Barrington. Karen will be interviewed by Barry R. Shapiro.

August 26, 4:30 p.m.
Alison Larkin   
Alison Larkin is a comedienne, founder of the Berkshire based audiobook company Alison Larkin Presents, and the bestselling author of The English American, an autobiographical novel about an adopted English woman who finds her birth parents and a new life in the United States. She is also the award-winning narrator of The Complete Novels of Jane Austen and the host of The Jane Austen Podcast with Alison Larkin. Hailed by The Times (London) as “hugely entertaining,” Alison will talk about many things, including England, America, and how she came to choose the Berkshires as her home. Alison’s new solo show, Grief … a Comedy, premiers this fall at London’s Soho Theatre and will be filmed as a TV comedy special in early 2024

September 2, 4:30 p.m.
Simone Dinnerstein  Harold Lewin Memorial Concert

Simone Dinnerstein has performed with many of the world’s finest orchestras and in some of the most prestigious concert venues, including Carnegie Hall, Philharmonie Berlin, Vienna Konzerthaus, Kennedy Center, and the Sydney Opera House. The Washington Post states that “Dinnerstein is an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity. These attributes, combined with elegance and grace, lend her music-making its captivating beauty.” The New Yorker remarks on her “lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance.” Dinnerstein’s 2023 program, performed on our magnificent Bechstein grand piano, includes works by Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, and others. 
Please note that her 2021 performance at the Meeting House was sold out in advance.

September 9, 4:30 p.m.
Tasting the World with Melissa Clark and Madhur Jaffrey

Two of today’s great cookbook writers come to New Marlborough to discuss food, cooking, and their careers crafting delicious recipes. Madhur Jaffrey single-handedly introduced Indian cuisine to the West with An Invitation to Indian Cooking.  Melissa Clark has been writing a weekly food column for The New York Times called “A Good Appetite” since 2007 and is the author of more than forty cookbooks. Together they share how food culture has changed and what it means for health, taste, and tonight’s dinner. These two renowned authors will share some tips of what they are cooking right now, and where they are headed next.

September 23, 4:30 p.m.
Wincenc – Nikkanen – Asteriadou: Trio Calore                          

Trio Calor consists of flutist Carol Wincenc, violinist Kurt Nikkanen and pianist Maria Asteriadou.  They will perform works by Jacques Ibert, Franz Doppler, Bohuslav Martinu, J.S. Bach, and others.  Renowned recitalist Carol Wincenc is no stranger to the Meeting House stage having performed here several times over the past thirty years. Concertmaster of the New York City Ballet Orchestra, Kurt Nikkanen also has an active solo career, performing with numerous orchestras. Heralded as “an artist with intense personality, virtuosic flair, unusual poise, and intimate contact with style” by The New York Times, Greek pianist Maria Asteriadou performs as a soloist as well as chamber musician.

October 7, 4:30 p.m.
A WRITER AND A ROBOT WALK INTO A BAR: Writing in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Simon Winchester, acclaimed author, most recently of Knowing What We Know, returns to The Meeting House to lead a discussion on the future of writing in the age of AI with three distinguished figures in the world of letters: Francine Prose, writer of fiction and nonfiction and critic, is the author of twenty-one novels, including Blue Angel, which was a finalist for the National Book Award; Timothy Bent, Executive Editor of Trade Books for Oxford University Press; and Chandra Prasad, author of adult and young adult fiction, whose forthcoming novel focuses on the intersection between artificial intelligence, identity and environmental ethics.

ART EVENTS

June 23 - July 23
Coming Together
Opening Reception Friday, June 23

The New Marlborough Meeting House Gallery begins its 2023 season with “Coming Together.” At a time of rampant discord nationally and around the globe, art can communicate in a way that bridges divides. It can create spaces that achieve surprising harmonies. Presenting the work of some dozen artists,

“Coming Together” aspires to show that disparate elements can be combined to reveal new insights.

July 28 - August 27
Motion/Emotion
Opening Reception Friday, July 28

Only in the most literal sense is a work of art, pinned to a wall or perched on a column, a stationary object. As established in “Motion/Emotion,” the Meeting House Gallery’s second show, art moves and emotes. As it captures the moment, it also inspires a narrative of the before and after, the shift from darkness to light, the transition from birth to bloom.

September 1 - October 8
25th Annual New Marlborough Artists Show
Opening Reception Friday, September 1

In 1998, the Meeting House Gallery hosted its very first exhibit, a show of works by artists residing in New Marlborough. It is a tradition that has continued (with the exception of 2020, year one of the Covid pandemic) every year since. A celebration of the rich creativity that surrounds us in New Marlborough, this season’s show includes works by Ron Brecher, Ann Getsinger, Nikki Hayes, Peter Murkett, Katheryn Vita, Nanci Worthington, and Joan Griswold, and a collaboration by Kenzie Fields and Sarah Reynolds North.