Check out all the action at Shalin Liu Performance Center (sent by Karen Herlitz)

March Continues With A Variety of Concerts at Rockport Music

Rockport Music presents the highest quality of concerts and presentations year-round at the stunning, seaside Shalin Liu Performance Center.  This March provides a variety of musical opportunities for people to enjoy—from classical to jazz.

Classical Concerts

On Sunday, March 24, at 3 pm, Blue Heron performs under the direction of Scott Metcalfe.  Blue Heron – Boston’s top early-music vocal ensemble—presents Divine Songs, connections and exchanges between secular song and sacred music, featuring the music of Johannes Ockeghem.  Unknown to many, Ockeghem is one of the greatest composers of all time. His endlessly fascinating sacred music has been characterized as mystical; his songs—each one a gem of invention—can be funny, heart wrenching, or profound.  The program includes Ockeghem’s songs Ma maistresse, Fors seullement, and Presque transi; De plus en plus by Gilles Binchois; and movements from the masses by Ockeghem based on those songs.  The Boston Globe proclaims, “Sensually rich, yet balanced and incandescent.”   Tickets:  $28-$48

Jazz, Folk, Pop, and World Music

On Friday, March 22 at 8 pm, Larry Coryell, known as the pioneer guitarist merging jazz, rock, free-form improvisations, and Eastern influences will perform at the Shalin Liu Performance Center.  Larry Coryell brings his eclectic style described by critic Whitney Balliett as “the most innovative and original guitarist since Charlie Christian,” Coryell’s career spans four decades, over 60 albums (dozens more as a sideman), and performances with some of music’s heavy-weights like Eric Clapton, John Scofield, Elvin Jones, and Chick Corea, to name a few. Also a consummate composer, he tells Rockport Music, “I write music because I can’t help it. I think perhaps I want to complement all the great compositions already out there…Wayne Shorter and Sonny Rollins come to mind, and of course, Monk!”  Tickets: $19-$34

Back by popular demand, the 17-piece Cape Ann Big Band will delight audiences at the Shalin Liu Performance Center on Friday, March 29, at 8 pm, with jazz, swing, soul, and rock n’ roll that will make you want to dance.  Led by Carlos Menezes, the diverse 17-piece big band performs big band classics from a nostalgic era like “Mack the Knife,” “I’ve Got You Under my Skin,” and “Take the A Train.”  Tickets: $19-$34

HD Broadcasts

On Saturday, March 16, at 12 pm, the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD broadcast of Zandonai’s early 20^th-century melodrama Francesca da Rimini returns to the Met for its first revival in more than 25 years, in Piero Faggioni’s production. Marco Armiliato conducts Eva-Maria Westbroek in the title role of a noblewoman who is tricked into marrying the brutal Gianciotto, sung by Mark Delavan, instead of her true love Paolo, sung by Marcello Giordani. Tickets: $20-$32

National Theatre of London presents People in a HD broadcast on Thursday, March 21, at 7 pm.

In this hilarious new play, celebrated playwright Alan Bennett (Madness of King George, The History of Boys) takes a stab at modern society by examining  the consequences of a self-serving government that turns a once-dignified nation into a “captive market,” with its people “rebranded as customers… available for easier exploitation.”   Through satirical social commentary, People offers up “classic Bennett comedy with a Downtown tinge” (Daily Express).  Tickets: $22 Adult, $15 Senior

For ticket information and details on these and other 2012-13 Season offerings, please visit our website at www.rockportmusic.org.  Tickets are also available through the Box Office at 978-546-7391 or visiting 35 Main Street, Rockport, MA.  The Box Office is open Monday-Friday, 10am-4 pm.