SO MUCH GOOD STUFF, UPPER VALLEY!
Friday
Ninja Wizard at the Howe Library. This session of “Music in the Library” features fiddler Jakob Breitbach, banjoist Steve Hennig, and guitarist Kit Creeger: “All seasoned pickers and pickled singers playing hits from a previous millennium. Genres include Bluegrass, Country, and Western swing.” In the New Books section, no charge, 3:30 pm.
At the Hood Museum, “You Just Got to Laugh”. This gallery talk by Sara Shelton will focus on “how comedy shows up in art and how the viewer engages with it. Humor presents itself here in many forms—word games, staged scenes, or dress-up—and all of them introduce a break between our expectations and reality.” 4 pm.
Opening reception for Artistree’s Daily Artists. The group is dedicated to making art every day of the year, and their new exhibit shows off some of what they’ve accomplished over those 365 days. The reception starts at 5 pm in the Artistree gallery; the exhibition runs through Feb. 7.
Weathersfield Center Community Contra Dance & Social. This month’s dance features caller Steve Zakon-Anderson, along with an open band led by Naomi Morse on fiddle, Amy Englesburg on piano, Emmet McGowan on drums, and special-guest guitarist Owen Morrison visiting from DC. All dances taught, no special clothing, footwear, or experience required. 6-8 pm at the Weathersfield Center Meetinghouse, with a two-hour social hour to follow.
Family contra dance at Tunbridge Town Hall. Sponsored by the Ed Larkin Dancers (you’ve seen them at the Tunbridge World’s Fair), all dances taught. 7-10 pm, and it’ll be cancelled if the weather turns bad. More info at 802-436-1152 or [email protected].
Comedian Melissa Villaseñor at the Hop. The stand-up comic, singer, illustrator, voice actor, and first Latina cast member of Saturday Night Live brings her show to the Spaulding Auditorium stage at 7:30 pm. Advance tix appear to be sold out (though you can double-check at 603.646.2422), but there will be limited tickets available at performance time.
Jazz at the Junction with the Ray Vega QuARTet. Northern Stage brings in the Burlington jazz master along with Jeremy Hill (bass), Geza Carr (drums), and Evan Allen (piano) for a night of “original composition, timeless classics from the Great American Songbook, and works by jazz masters John Coltrane and Duke Ellington.” There are just a handful of tickets left. 7:30 pm.
Saturday
Opening reception for Patsy Highberg’s “Flower Power” at the Norman Williams Public Library in Woodstock. Highberg lives in town and, among other things, is a “noted plantswoman [and] alpine plant enthusiast,” the NWPL writes. Her watercolors, prints, and paintings focus on plant life. 11 am to 12:30 pm.
At Sunapee’s Abbott Library, “Listening to New England” with Mel Allen. Allen spent 48 years as a writer, editor, and editor in chief at Yankee magazine, and as you might imagine, he’s got a trove of stories. He’ll be telling some of them, talking about the magazine itself, and toting copies of his new book, Here in New England. 1:30 pm in the library’s Activities Room.
Ara Fitzgerald at the Tunbridge General Store with Slow Dancing is Easy. The NYC-based dancer, choreographer, writer, artist, and performer will be joined by Chelsea’s Dian Parker for a reading from her new book. “A romp through decades of performance, these delightful and innovative short scripts are filled with humor and pathos,” the TGS writes. 3:30 pm.
Hop Film screens Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere. Jeremy Allen White as The Boss at a career and personal crossroads as he wrote Nebraska and was recording the demos for Born in the USA. “This biographical drama focuses with gratifying specificity on the nitty-gritty of Springsteen's songwriting, while never shying away from the realities of his familial traumas and personal depression.” 4 pm, Spaulding Auditorium.
Horszowski Trio at the Hopkins Center. The NYC-based trio—violinist Jesse Mills, cellist Ole Akahoshi, and pianist Rieko Aizawa—is named for pianist Mieczysław Horszowski (1892–1993) “and takes its inspiration from his musicianship, integrity and humanity.” They’ll be performing Leonard Bernstein’s Piano Trio and Bedřich Smetana’s Trio in G Minor. 5 pm and 7:30 pm in the Morris Recital Hall.
Norwich contra dance and waltz session in Tracy Hall. Calling by Burlington’s Luke Donforth, with music by accordion player Mary Cay Brass and fiddlers Rose Jackson and Rebecca Weiss. All dances taught. Waltzing begins at 6:30 pm, beginner/refresher contra session at 7:15, and the contra dance itself begins at 7:30 pm.
The Lebanon Opera House brings in Juston McKinney’s Comedy Year in Review 2025. It’s the first time the NH-based comedian has brought his annual review to LOH, in which he “dishes on his New England life and looks back at 2025.” The review tends to sell out other NH venues, but there are still some seats left for Saturday. 7:30 pm.
Sunday
Hop Film screens the Met Opera in HD’s production of I Puritani. “Soprano Lisette Oropesa and tenor Lawrence Brownlee are Elvira and Arturo, brought together by love and torn apart by the political rifts of the English Civil War” of the 1650s, in Vincenzo Bellini’s 1835 opera. 1 pm in Spaulding.
English country dance in Norwich. David Millstone will teach all dances, “a blend of old favorites (some going back to the 17th century) and more recent compositions,” with music by Carol Compton (piano, recorders, accordion) and Thal Aylward (violin). Beginners more than welcome. Tracy Hall, 1 pm.
Agent of Happiness at the Howe Library. This kicks off the Howe’s Winter Film series, with Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó’s 2024 documentary following two Bhutanese officials as they travel the country, meeting ordinary Bhutanese, to measure people's happiness levels, which are then used to calculate Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness score. Stay afterward for discussion. 2:30 pm in the Mayer Room.
The Upper Valley Community Band’s winter concert at Lebanon Opera House. Works by Robert Russell Bennett and Chicago (yep, the band), Leonard Bernstein’s Candide Suite, Bruce Broughton’s Silverado, and more. 3 pm, no charge but they’ll happily take donations at the door.
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