SO MUCH GOOD STUFF, UPPER VALLEY!
Friday
At Upper Valley Music Center, “A Little Lunch Music” with Allison Pollard and Will Ögmundson. The soprano and the pianist, both on the faculty at UVMC, give a free lunchtime concert. Noon.
At AVA Gallery, “Reflections and Anecdotes on Museum Work and Art”. John Stomberg, who’s retiring next month as director of the Hood Museum, and the Hood’s already-retired senior curator, Katherine W. Hart, “reflect on their careers through intimate, story-driven questions. The discussion moves from professional near-misses — works they tried but failed to acquire — to unexpected discoveries that stopped them cold.” And more. 5:30 pm.
Fable Farm in Barnard hosts Mike Calabrese for “FLATLANDER: a live-audience album recording event". The Lake Street Dive drummer and Neil Cleary—producer and “Tad Cautious” DJ—have pulled together a heck of a band to “tackle the questions we’ve all been asking,” like “Vermont is ‘country,’ so where’s its music? Do ‘coexist’ bumper stickers really work? Can ‘mud season’ be a metaphor for my feelings?” Ten songs recorded live starting at 5:30 in the Rumney Barn, 16 years old and up.
Summertime music on the patio between Three Tomatoes and Salt Hill starts up in Lebanon. Hosted by Three Tomatoes, jazz guitarist Billy Rosen and organist/bassist Norm Yanofsky will play from 5:30 to 8 pm Fridays and Saturdays (weather permitting), joined by special guests. This Friday it’s the Julia Waswo Trio, and on Saturday, Fred Haas and Sabrina Brown.
Hop Film screens Cycle of Love. Orlando von Einsiedel’s 2025 documentary/re-enactment tells the story of P.K. Mahanandia, a young artist and a Dalit (a member of India's untouchable caste) who in 1975 met a young Swedish woman who sat for him to sketch her portrait, fit an early prophecy about whom he would marry—and then left India. P.K., determined, headed off on his bicycle to cycle the 6,000 miles to Sweden to find her. 7 pm in the Loew Auditorium.
Pig and Wolf Community Dance in Hanover’s RWB Community Center. Following on the heels of the Pig & Wolf exhibit there, Bill Hammond hosts the Barnyard Band (with members from Pariah Beat and Western Terrestrials) for songs with a wolf or pig theme (think Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like a Wolf”). Open to all ages, 7 to 9 pm.
Saturday
It’s Vermont Open Studio weekend. All over the state—and definitely in the Upper Valley—artists will open their studios and galleries for visitors. There are too many even around here to list, but the Vermont Crafts Council’s laid out “loops” to plan your visits, with links, addresses, artists’ descriptions, and more. Loop 10 covers the Springfield area, Loop 11 is Woodstock, WRJ, Fairlee, and Barnard, Loop 12 covers Bethel, Tunbridge, Brookfield, and Randolph, and Loop 13 is up toward Ryegate. Runs Saturday and Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm. You can also get a PDF guide here.
HopStop presents Mr. Chris and Friends. The regional Emmy winners and VT PBS stars led by Chris Dorman give a family concert of classic and original kids' songs. 11 am at the Top of the Hop.
Apple pie festival at the Etna Library. “Nothing is more American than apple pie,” they write, so the festival—with pies baked by community members (feel free to bring one yourself, too) helping celebrate the nation’s 250th. There’ll also be a “build your own apple pie” table for kids. 1 to 3 pm at the library’s new gazebo.
Reception and talk by artist Arthur Zorn. Zorn, an abstract impressionist and musician/composer who lives in Barre, will open an exhibit at BF Southgate & Co. just up the hill from Quechee Village. Reception starts at 1 pm, Zorn will speak about his art at 3:30.
Hop Film with Frida Kahlo. The Exhibition on Film series reprises its 2020 blockbuster with some new material. It “offers privileged access to her works, her home, her studio, and highlights the source of her feverish creativity, her resilience and her unmatched lust for life, beauty and revolution.” 4 pm in the Loew.
Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble concert. The ensemble and the Dartmouth Chamber Players perform a concert of works by Mexican composer Arturo Márquez, including the world premiere of a new symphony for wind band commissioned by the Hop and dozens of other peer institutions; Sinfonía Nómada is Márquez's “first large-scale work for a stand-alone wind ensemble,” the Hop writes. 7:30 pm in Spaulding, preceded by a pre-show talk at 6 pm in the Top of the Hop featuring ensemble director Brian Messier and Márquez himself.
Sunday
Memorial Day events get going on Sunday with Springfield NH’s observance at 10 am starting at the Pleasant View Cemetery, and Norwich’s Memorial Day Parade, which starts off at noon at American Legion Post 8, winds past the town’s cemeteries, and ends up at the veterans’ memorial at Tracy Hall, followed by hot dogs, drinks, and music on the green.
Burger Night at Flying Dog Farm in Tunbridge. Beer from Brocklebank, music from Bluephonics, beef from the farm, house-made veggie burgers.
At Still North Books & Bar, Leyla King with Daughters of Palestine: A Memoir in Five Generations. Actually, it’s not just King, but her mother, May Kamalick, and her 11-year-old daughter, Beatrice, representing three of those generations. The Texas-based Palestinian American Episcopal priest and writer traces her family’s roots, migrations, and internal family journey. 5 pm.
Monday (since there’s no Daybreak that day)
It’s Memorial Day. At the link, the Valley News’s roundup of events in Claremont, Tunbridge, Lebanon, Enfield, and Hanover Center (including John Stebbins delivering a speech on “From the Hills and Farms of Hanover to the Battlegrounds of Freedom”). Also of particular note: Two years of planning, fundraising, and effort come to a head Monday in WRJ’s Veterans Park on Railroad Row, when the Hartford Monument Committee dedicates its new Korean Era, Vietnam Era, and 1975 - 2025 Service Era Monument at 10 am.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it stick around by hitting the maroon button:
And always, if you’re not a subscriber yet:
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt
And if you think one or more of your friends would like Daybreak, too, please forward this newsletter and tell them to visit daybreak.news to sign up.
Thank you!
