SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2022

Hyde Playground, Newton Highlands

2pm  Blue Train Bluegrass Band
3pm  Olga Lisovskaya, From Opera to Broadway
4pm  George Russell Jr. Trio, Gospel & Jazz
5pm  Lydia Harrell, Jazz Singer
7pm  Debo Ray & Her Allstar Band, Dance Party!

Village Green, Newton Centre

1pm Circus Comes to Town with Circus Complex
2pm Plugged In Band
3pm Newtonville Books StoryTime with author Raul The Third
4pm Rob Siegel, Folk Music

Suzuki School of Newton, Waban

2pm  Austin McMahon, Jazz
3pm Hankus Netsky, Yiddish & Jazz
4pm  Crowes Pasture, Folk

SUNDAY, JULY 24, 2022

Hyde Playground, Newton Highlands

3pm  Thaddeus Hogarth Collectives, R&B, Soul & Funk
4pmEd Harlow & the Gringo Kings, Salsa & Latin
5pm Eli Cash Band, Rock
7pm Tema Siegel & Couch, Pop & Soul

The Allen Center for the Arts, West Newton

1pm Dance Currents, “100 years of Modern Dance”
2pm Andrus Madsen, “Improvised Fantasias”
3pm Newton Baroque: Alison Gangler and Andrus Madsen
4pm Nomadic Theatre Story Slam

Learn More About the Artists

FRIDAY, JULY 22

Newton Community Pride welcomes New Philharmonia Orchestra for a fun, patriotic Pops Concert! The diverse program is full of light classical music, show tunes, songs from the movies and even a march or two! Free and open to the public this fun early summer concert is another opportunity to hear wonderful music up close and personal!  Learn more here.

Followed by an Instrument Petting Zoo.

 Have you ever wanted to toot a flute? Slide a trombone? Bang on a drum?

The New Phil’s Instrument Petting Zoo is your chance! Children of all ages (that includes you too, grown-ups!), are invited to meet and try the instruments of the orchestra. New Phil musicians guide you on how to hold the instrument and how to make a sound. The Instrument Petting Zoo is a fabulous introduction to all the instrument families! Instrument Petting Zoos accompany each Family Discovery Concert. After watching New Phil musicians and the young guest artists play, your child will be inspired to try the instruments on their own! Discover a budding musician!

Grab your lawn chairs, picnic blankets, and some popcorn —  Join us at dusk at the Hyde Bandstand to watch the movie, Casablanca!  Casablanca won the Oscars for best picture, director, and screenplay, and was nominated for lead actor (Humphrey Bogart), supporting actor (Claude Rains), cinematography, editing, and music. The American Film Institute ranked it No. 2 on its 1998 list of the best American movies of all time, and No. 3 on the 2007 revised list. (It swapped places with The Godfather; Citizen Kane was No. 1.) It’s the 14th-highest rated film by Internet Movie Database users. In 2006, the Writers Guild of America, West voted it the best screenplay of all time.

SATURDAY, JULY 23

Olga Lisovskaya is a critically-acclaimed singer, voice teacher, and director of Talents of the World, an international concert organization,  as well as Executive Director at Commonwealth Lyric Theater, an award-winning opera company.  Ms. Lisovskaya performs regularly at some of the most prestigious concert halls in the world including Carnegie Hall.  Learn more here.

George Russell Jr.’s playing is filled with passion, fire, soul, and, most of all, spirit. He wowed the crowd last year at NCP’s September Song concert series and we are excited to welcome Russell back to this year’s Festival. As Russell continued studying music in college, he discovered jazz and the harmonies that were used in jazz. Then, he began to understand what exactly he was playing, both in church and from his classical repertoire. In that period of time, George’s unique fusion of Gospel and Jazz was beginning to form. George is the Chair of the Harmony Department at the Berklee College of Music. Prior to becoming Chair, He served as a Professor of Harmony and Piano at Berklee. George will often refer to himself as “a drummer who happens to play the piano.” His trio features Wes With on bass and Sean Skeete on drums.  Learn more here.

Lydia “The LovelySinger” Harrell is one of Boston’s finest musical treasures. NCP welcomes back Harrell, after her lively and enjoyable September Song concert in Newtonville last fall. Her sultry, soulful voice and evocative songwriting have garnered her the attention and respect of the nation’s finest musicians and venues.  Jazz/Soul is where her heart is, however, Lydia has shown an unbreakable ability to mold herself into any musical situation.  Learn more here.

After bringing the crowd to their feet last year at the Festival of the Arts, Debo Ray and her All Star Band is welcomed back to close out Saturday night in the Highlands with an energy-filled soulful R&B dance party.  Born and raised in Boston, MA, Ms.Ray is a graduate of Berklee College of Music. Ms. Ray is known for her many collaborative projects, the namely International group Women of the World, Senegalese Afro-beat fusion band Group Saloum, up-and-coming Pop-Jazz band led by Hal Crook, Behind These Eyes, as well as many others.  Learn more here.

Prepare to be dazzled by performances of silks, trapeze, and lyra as the circus sets up their amazing acts on the Newton Centre Green.  You will say WOW!

Circus Complex is a performing arts circus studio dedicated to inspiring creativity, athleticism, and self-confidence in people – regardless of race, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion, abilities, and economic status.  Learn more here.

Plugged In Band is a non-profit music program committed to creating an inclusive, loving, and diverse community empowered to change the world. They educate musicians in a non-competitive environment and provide band and individual performance opportunities in support of the community and charitable causes.  Enjoy a rockin’concert from some  of their talented students Learn more here.

In partnership with Newtonville Books, NCP welcomes Raúl The Third, a New York Times bestselling and three-time Pura Belpre award-winning illustrator, author, and artist living in Boston. Vamos! Let’s Cross the Bridge was awarded one of the year’s Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2021 from the New York Times and the New York Public Library. He is currently adapting his World of Vamos! books into an animated television series with Silvergate Media and Mercury Filmworks. His work centers around the contemporary Mexican-American experience and his memories of growing up in El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.  Learn more here.

Rob Siegel is well known in Boston folk music circles as an innovative songwriter who draws from his idyllic yet stressed-out middle-class suburban existence and produces memorable, intelligent, well-crafted songs. Rob has opened for Bill Staines, Vance Gilbert, Catie Curtis, Jack Hardy, Geoff Muldaur, and others.  Learn more here.

Austin McMahon is “one of the most in-demand jazz drummers in Boston.” Sought out for his versatility, he actively performs in an array of jazz and world music ensembles ranging from trio to chamber jazz and big band. He recently recorded with the Ayn Inserto Jazz Orchestra.  McMahon has recently performed at such iconic venues as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Dizzy’s, Jordan Hall and numerous festivals, concert halls, theaters and clubs throughout the United States as well as the Dominican Republic, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Finland, China and India.  Learn more here.

Newton’s own, Crowe’s Pasture, staring Monique Byrne and Andy Rogovin perform original music and eye-opening covers that reflect a mutual passion, sense of discovery and celebration of life. Their tightly blended vocal harmonies are mixed with an expressive instrumental style that is best described as “a banjo-guitar romance.” Crowes Pasture’s style of escapist folk transports and connects listeners through universal experiences in their “skillfully crafted, emotional songwriting” (Chris Eastburn, award-winning composer).  Learn more here.

SUNDAY, JULY 23

The Gringo Kings crush the world of Salsa and Jazz music into an amalgam of sometimes fiery, sometimes irreverent originals and covers penned by the group’s leader and tenor saxophonist, Ed Harlow.  Originally inspired by the great Salsa groups of Cuba, The Gringo Kings has evolved a style of music that takes the swinging creativity of Jazz and broils it under the heat of Latin rhythms.  Learn more here.

The Eli Cash Band has earned a reputation as one of the most talented and hardest working cover bands in Greater Boston. Known for their marathon sets, crowd banter, and stellar musicianship, the band has a versatility that few can match and a song-list that features R & B, 90’s alternative, 80’s, contemporary pop, country, and much more. At a private party, wedding, or a late-night show at a local bar, Eli Cash will get everyone moving and singing along.  Learn more here.

Newton’s own Tema Siegel and her rising star band, Couch is back in town. After touring throughout the country NCP is lucky that she has time to make a stop at our Festival. Come on over to the Highlands and be prepared to dance as Couch closes out the Festival with their energy laced with catchy hooks and powerhouse vocals, Couch aims to reshape familiar pop tropes in fresh ways. The Boston-based septet infuses pop songs with funk, R&B, jazz, and rock influences. Their vibrant sound is further defined by the members’ personal training in jazz, a cappella, and musical theatre. Learn more here.

Dance Currents and Kathy Hassinger present “100 Years of Dance”. Hassinger taught “Perspectives in World Dance” at Emerson College for eight years. She was head of the Dance Department at Newton Country Day School from 1990-2007.  Mrs. Hassinger received a NULA (Newton Universal Legendary Award) June 15, 2019, for “committing her life to excellence by impacting her community through the performing arts”.  Learn more here.

Andrus Madsen will perform “Improvised fantasias.” Madsen is an active performer on the organ, harpsichord, clavichord, and fortepiano and is the Minister of Music at Second Church in Newton. Madsen is the founding director of Newton Baroque and also plays with Exsultemus.  NCP welcomes Madsen and his eloquent Baroque style of improvisation.  Lean more here.

Newton Baroque presents: “Feeling Obligated” with Alison Gangler on oboe and Andrus Madsen on fortepiano.

Most keyboard parts in 18^th Century keyboard music were improvised from a figured bass line, but by the 1720s a new kind of chamber music appeared with written out keyboard parts identified as a harpsichord obbligato.  Alison Gangler and Andrus Madsen explore this exciting repertoire, playing pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann and Christoph Schaffrath.

The Nomad Story Slam is a great night of true stories, modeled on the Moth Radio Hour. These Story Slams have become legendary in Newton featuring everyone from celebrities, politicians, to next-door neighbors. They provide the light, you provide the face and the story. The idea is simple – a community storytelling night. Come to hear the stories, or if you’re game, throw your name in the hat to tell a story. They should be approximately 5 minutes long, and have happened to you. Beyond that, it’s up to you – funny, moving, poignant, insane, ridiculous whatever you like.  Learn more here.

Highlights from the 6th Annual Linda Plaut Festival of the Arts

ARTISTS:  Please fill out the form so we can reach out to you for further arts & cultural activities, performances & festivals in the future.