Vermont Arts Preview

BRATTLEBORO — The Brattleboro Music Center’s Chamber Series features the new piano quartet Espressivo! At 7 p.m. Friday, June 2 at the BMC. The program features “Morpheus” for viola and piano by Rebecca Clarke, Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 15 by Fauré, and Piano Quartet in A Major by Brahms.

Four great artists with a passion for chamber music — violinist Jaime Laredo, cellist Sharon Robinson, violist Milena Pajaro-von de Stadt and pianist Anna Polonsky — formed this new group, and since they are known for their wonderfully expressive playing, Espressivo! seemed the perfect name for this collaboration of piano and strings.

For decades, Laredo and Robinson, with their piano trio partner, the late Joseph Kalichstein, were considered “chamber music royalty” (Washington Post), a term that might apply to their Espressivo! Partners are Pajaro-von de Stadt, formerly of the Dover Quartet, and Polonsky, one of chamber music’s most sought-after partners.

Tickets are $30 general admission; call 802-257-4523, or go to bmcvt.org online.

Gamelan Sulukala

PLAINFIELD — The Goddard Gamelan Sulukala is featured in a public performance of music and dance at the Goddard College’s Haybarn Theater at 7 p.m. Saturday, June 3. Javanese Gamelan is a group — or orchestra — of about 30 instruments ranging from huge gongs to tiny flutes with lots of xylophone and kettle type instruments in between.

Gamelan has a long history in central Vermont going back to the late 1960s when Dennis Murphy built the first gamelan anywhere in the world outside of Java at Goddard College. Gamelan Sulukala (named in honor of a Murphy composition) was purchased anonymously for Goddard in the ‘90s. Made in Java, it is a full complement of instruments fashioned from bronze and iron. Currently it is being played by a community group of 16 members who range in age from their 20s to 70s with every decade in-between represented.

This will be directors Kathy and Steven Light’s last performance with the ensemble so come wish them well in their future endeavors.

Tickets are available at the door and at sevendaystickets.com/events/124902 online.

‘Full Frontal Fairytales’

ROCHESTER — Bald Mountain Theater presents “Full Frontal Fairytales” at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, June 2 and 3 and at 2 p.m. Sunday, June 4 at Spice Studio. This live performance features original, very short stories inspired by fairy tales, with the addition of art songs and percussion. Trees talk, statues come to life, animals take revenge, and children rise up. Just the kind of performance you would expect from Bald Mountain: irreverent, unexpected, intense, and fun.

“Our definition of ‘full frontal’ does not mean sexually explicit,” says Artistic Director Ethan Bowen, “but rather open, revealing, and no-holds-barred.”

Writers and performers include Brigid Breehan-Meese, Dana Yeaton, Erica Robinson, Vander Gak, Robert Melik Finkle, Amy Braun, Erica Furgiuele, Katie Reich, Killian White, Ethan Bowen, Wilder Bowen, and Dick Robson. This evening of storytelling will run for an hour. Parents should be advised that content includes intense subject matter, people consumed by wolves, and some descriptions of blood and unhappiness.

Tickets are $15, available at the door or at baldmountaintickets.ludus.com online. The show is available for streaming thanks to Dominic Spillane and TheaterEngine; go to www.baldmountaintheater.org online.

Pievy Polyte & community

MONTPELIER — T.W. Wood Gallery is presenting two exhibitions — “Pievy Polyte: Art Standing with Community” and the Annual Members Exhibition June 1-July 2. The opening reception is 4 to 8 p.m. Friday, June 2, in conjunction with the Montpelier Art Walk, with an artist talk at 6 p.m.

Burlington artist Pievy Polyte is a Haitian Vermonter. His acrylic paintings are inspired by Haiti and Vermont’s people, landscapes, shipyards, spiritual traditions, and music. In 2005, Polyte founded Peak Macaya Co-op in his home country of Haiti, on its second-largest mountain. Peak Macaya Coop has 1,000 acres for coffee production. Polyte gives farmers land, provides seeds, and teaches farming. Farmers give a percentage of their sales back to the co-op, to fund the only school in the region for about 500 children, also built by Polyte. However ,in 2016, when Hurricane Matthew destroyed most of what Polyte had built, he moved to Vermont to send money back.

The Annual Members Exhibition features local Vermont artists and features a range of techniques that many different artists have used to create beautiful and unique art pieces from oil, acrylic, pastel, watercolor, mixed media, and ink.

For more information, go to www.twwoodgallery.org online.

John Gorka & more

PUTNEY — Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present contemporary folk singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist John Gorka, plus folk duo Lizzy Mandell and Barry Stockwell, at Next Stage at 7 p.m. Sunday, June 4.

Gorka is perhaps the quintessential iconic singer-songwriter of the 1980s folk scene. Hailing from New Jersey, he honed his craft and persona as shy, wry and insightful in the Greenwich Village “Fast Folk” and Boston music scenes. He has released five more solo albums on Red House, plus one with label-mates Lucy Kaplansky and Eliza Gilkyson under the name Red Horse. He continues to tour, playing festivals, theaters and clubs all over North America and Europe.

Vermont-based singer-songwriter Mandell’s debut album “Made for Flying” won Times Argus/Rutland Herald Tammie Awards for best singer-songwriter and best album in 2012. After releasing a collaborative album “Free Now,” she is currently working on her second solo album, and performing select concerts with The Stockwell Brothers guitarist and vocalist Barry Stockwell.

Tickets are $28, $25 in advance, $10 for virtual; call 802-387-0102, or go to www.nextstagearts.org online. Next Stage is located at 15 Kimball Hill.