News from JAC Publishing & Promotions / New England Entertainment Digest

Spring is in the air, and in the listings are all kinds of outdoor concerts and performances throughout the warmer months. Be sure to visit the Performance listings at New England Entertainment Digest (NEED)-Online to see what's happening in the coming months, and if you'd like to submit a listing, just drop NEED a line!

New Releases

JAC is happy to release another pair of short plays by Con Chapman. This time, Chapman's West of Boston includes The 5:05 and Welcome to Endive, both connected literally in that one character on the train in the first play walks into the restaurant depicted in the second. In Welcome to Endive, we meet 3 couples out to dinner at an upscale restaurant. One couple is on the verge of a break up. Another married couple are dining out because they need help breaking out of the mental rut they're in. The third couple includes a woman who was dumped by cell phone and a friend who's there to console her. In The 5:05, a train car full of commuters at the end of the day unwinds and unburdens themselves on the way home. We learn that one man still goes into Boston every day, but not to a job. An acquaintance commiserates, but not too much. Another man concludes a business deal on the phone, and a woman is dumped by her boyfriend by cell phone; life goes on. Two women discuss the unfairness of their workplace, and concoct a scheme by which they'll help each other get a bonus, but then get bogged down in an argument over who should make the first sacrifice for the other. A nervous man or woman, a disheveled man or woman and a student-each oblivious in his or her own way to the life lived by the rest of the passengers-are along for the ride as well. Says Chapman, "The French have a term-tranche de vie, or "slice of life." I have tried in these two plays to slice through walls-physical and emotional-to allow you a glimpse into a crowd of characters you may recognize once you get to know them." ISBN #1-60513-104-0; JAC #2011-0009. This title is also available via Amazon.com.

New from playwright down under Shannon Murdoch is a hilarious new short play that taps into finding that special someone and making the relationship work - Act Accordingly. ISBN #1-60513-109-1 ; JAC #2011-0014. Alicia believes she is a human disaster zone when it comes to romance. She thinks her bad luck is continuing as she sneaks out from the latest Valentine's Day debacle, Nick. But there is nothing usual about this night. Before Alicia can get to the door, Cupid appears wielding a very large book simply entitled Love: The Manual and has had enough of Alicia not following the strict rules set out for a happy ever after ending. As Cupid tries to whip her charge into a love machine, Alicia and Nick slowly come together to make their own rules of love. This title is also available via Amazon.com.

For more information about this or any of JAC's play selections, visit us online, or drop us an email!

Featured Headline

Misha Dichter & the Harlem String Quartet Kick Off Music Mountain's 82nd Anniversary Season

FALLS VILLAGE, CT: America's oldest continuing summer chamber music festival, Music Mountain will celebrate its 82nd anniversary season starting June 19th. The season will feature sixteen Chamber music concerts, a series of Jazz and Country Music concerts, and a number of special events slated through September 4th. "This summer is about two things - great music and extraordinary quality of performance" stated Music Mountain's board president Nicholas Gordon. "The concerts will feature memorable works that range from those never before played at our yearly festival to audience favorites, heard many times over the years." Located in the northwest corner of Connecticut in the town of Falls Village, Gordon has again arranged for some of the most exciting talent from around the world to grace the Music Mountain stage-prompting The New Yorker Magazine to acknowledge Music Mountain as "The summer shrine of the String Quartet."

Concert enthusiasts will want to mark their calendars with the Opening Benefit and Reception slated for Sunday, June 19th (3PM) featuring the legendary pianist Misha Dichter in his Music Mountain debut and the acclaimed Harlem String Quartet performing the Schumann: Piano Quintet in E Flat Major, Opus 44 (1842). The Harlem String Quartet will also play the Barber second string quartet, with its wonderful Adagio and their spectacular quartet arrangement of Billy Strayhorn's "Take the 'A' Train."

The overriding theme of the 82nd season will be the music of Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms: Beethoven, perhaps the greatest of all composers; Schubert, divine melodist and poet of song; and Brahms, the successor to Beethoven, a true immortal, who created music of extraordinary beauty which has never lost its power to move audiences.

Quartets to appear this coming summer will include the St. Petersburg String Quartet (June 26, July 3, August 21), The Shanghai String Quartet (September 3) & featuring pianist Haochen Zhang - Van Cliburn Gold Medalist (September 4), and The Penderecki String Quartet (July 30 & 31). Other string quartets scheduled include Cassatt (July 10),The Daedalus (July 17) and with pianist Soyeon Lee - Naumburg Award Winner (August 28), The Flux - marking its first performance at Music Mountain - (July 16), Arianna (July 24),The Amernet (August 6), Colorado (August 7), and Avalon (August 14). See below for full schedule and check online: www.musicmountain.org.

Assisting artists to be welcomed this season include pianists Misha Dichter (June 19), Pamela Mia Paul - her 21st consecutive year - (July 31), Melvin Chen (August 7), Jonathan Yates (July 24) as well as Music Mountain debut artists Victoria Schwartzman (June 26, July 3), Benjamin Hochman (July 17) and Ursula Oppens (July 10). In addition, cellist Yehuda Hanani will make his Music Mountain debut (August 6) and the brilliant young clarinetist and Avery Fisher Career Grant Award-winner Alexander Fiterstein, will return (July 17). Others to appear include Avery Fisher Award-winning bassoonist Peter Kolkay, horn player Karl Kramer, and bass player Kurt Muroki (July 17). Music Mountain will also welcome soprano Ariana Zuckerman (July 17) and later in the season, her acclaimed mother flutist Eugenia Zuckerman (August 14).

Highlights of the season will include two "all Schubert" concerts. The first will feature the glorious "Shepard on the Rock," "Trout" Quintet and the Octet (July 17), and the other offering will include the magnificent Schubert Cello Quintet and the G Major String Quartet, Opus 161 (August 6). Another highlight will be the music of Nancarrow, Scelsi and Gosfield played by the Flux Quartet (July 16). Beethoven will frequently be represented with two concerts devoted to his quartets (July 30 & September 3) with more featured in three other concerts. The summer will conclude with Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" played by the Shanghai Sting Quartet at the final concert of the season (September 4).

In addition to the Chamber Series, The Jazz series on Saturday nights at 6:30 will present The South Shore Syncopaters in their Music Mountain Debut (June 25), Swingtime New York (July 2) and Vince Giordano and his Nighthawks in their first Music Mountain appearance (July 9). The Galvanized Jazz Band will return for their 18th appearance at Music Mountain (August 20).

The 2010 Season will also see Music Mountain welcome Country Music to its stage for the very first time. The inaugural season of Country Music brings the Cajun sensation The Bushwhack Band (July 23) followed by The Whiskey Boys (August 13th) and the award-winning group Gunsmoke (August 27) now celebrating their 25th season.

Ticket prices for the 82nd season of Music Mountain are $30 at the door, $27 in advance. (Admission is FREE for those 18 and under.) There are also three specially priced concerts in 2011. The Opening Benefit Concert & Reception and the Closing Benefit Concert & Reception are $75. The concert on Sunday, July 17 with Schubert's "Shepard on the Rock," "The Trout" Quintet and the Schubert Octet is $60. Concert times are 6:30pm on Saturdays and 3pm on Sundays. Group rates and pre season ticket vouchers are available. Discounts apply through participating organizations. For a complete summer schedule, special ticket prices, and to download a ticket order form visit www.musicmountain.org or call 860-824-7126.

Music Mountain is located in Falls Village, Connecticut on Music Mountain Road, where a short scenic drive will bring you to Gordon Hall atop Music Mountain. Free parking and picnic facilities are available.