Things gathered and gone past
Loved ones gone, spirits of the past, collections of memories and the ghosts that inhabit our lives. Local art gallery Studio & is celebrating this weekend’s Dia De Los Muertos – or Day of the Dead – with a uniquely Durango take on the Latin holiday. The Evening of the Dead group show, which opens with a reception from 5-9 p.m. today at Studio &, 1027 Main Ave., brings together many different artists’ interpretations of the holiday. Roughly 20 artists, including about 10 who haven’t shown at the studio, have contributed a batch of work that ranges from spooky to gothic, exquisite to bizarre. “It’s not going to be your traditional stuff-hanging-on-the-wall show,” said Studio & member-owner Shay Lopez. Along with metal lamps, paintings, brooches and life-size skeleton sculptures, the show will feature a driftwood altar and a surprising transformation of the gallery. Costumes are encouraged, and people are welcome to bring objects to contribute to the altar. Visit www.anddurango.com for more information.
Double-horn dance party
Two saxophone players, a drummer, a few found objects and one seriously assertive dance party. Moon Hooch, an instrumental trio from New York, will bring its muscular jazz-funk stylings to the Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Drive, at 9:30 p.m. Saturday. Band members Mike Wilbur, Wenzl McGowen and James Muschler, who met while studying at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City, caught the attention of fans with wild impromptu sessions on the streets of New York that turned into regular dance parties (and got them kicked out of at least one Williamsburg location). Wilbur and McGowan double down on horns with a powerful intensity and craft a unique sound by adding objects like PVC tubes to the bells of their horns. The band just released its second album, “Cave Music” in September. The title is a nod to their style, which is like house music, only so raw and primal that it belongs in a cave. Tickets for the Durango Massive show are $10 in advance, www.animascitytheatre.com for more information.
A play for voices
Monday is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dylan Thomas, the inimitable Welsh poet who crafted works like “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” before dying at the age of 39 in 1953. Thomas left behind a particularly ardent bunch of fans who appreciate his words so keenly that they are marking the anniversary with special events around the world. (Take a minute to think about that legacy. Whew.) One of those fans, Judith Reynolds, resides right here in Durango, and she’s not letting the day pass without a local homage to Thomas’ masterful manipulation of language. Reynolds has organized a staged reading of Thomas’ “Under Milk Wood,” a play for voices, at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Durango, 419 San Juan Drive. “Under Milk Wood,” which was originally written for the radio, evokes a day in the life of a small Welsh fishing village. The play, which features some 66 characters, delights in the ordinariness of life. “He’s focused on ordinary life, and he just makes it ring with beauty,” Reynolds said. “To me, it’s music. I feel like I’ve been to an orchestra concert after I’ve been to this play. He was such a magician with words.” Eight actors and three male singers will be performing the reading, which is free and open to the public.
Flute and romance
The St. Mark’s Recital Series continues today with an evening of classical music and an emphasis on romantic composers.
“A Romantic Potpourri” will introduce soprano Dori Smith to the community and will also feature flutist Rochelle Mann, tenor Curtis Storm and pianists Linda Mack Berven and C. Scott Hagler.
Smith is the new instructor of voice and theory at Fort Lewis College. She is a multi-lingual soprano who studied music at Colby College before working as an intern at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and going on to earn her master’s of music at the Longly School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Smith is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona finishing her dissertation.
On tap for the recital: works of Chausson and Schumann, Schubert and Tchaikovsky, Wolf and Fauré and Hungarian dances by Brahms. There will be solos, duets and double-piano numbers. The concert will take place at 7 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 910 East Third Ave. Tickets – $15 for adults and $5 for students – are available at www.durangorecitals.com.
