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Our concerts

Saturday, June 22, 2024 at 2 pm
The Ashplain Players at Forbes Library

Calvin Coolidge RoomDebut of Roy Rudolph Arrangements of trio arrangements of
Classical and Popular Music  
Northampton,  Massachusetts 

Janice Wright, Violin
Roy Rudolph, Viola
Laurie Israel, Cello 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Saturday, June 22, 2024, at 2 pm in the Calvin Coolidge Room at Forbes Library, Northampton, The Ashplain Players will premiere string trio arrangements by Roy Rudolph, featuring a variety of classical and popular music that was originally composed for other, often larger, ensembles.

The program will Include works by Elgar, Dvorak, Holst, Warlock and Grieg, as well as popular non-classical pieces by Scott Joplin, Cecil Sharp, Karl Jenkins, and The Beatles.

The performance will run about an hour with no intermission and admission is free. We hope you will also join us for some post-concert refreshments, immediately following.

Eventually, Roy plans to make his trio arrangements available on the IMSLP (International Music Score Library Project) website, a major free access resource for music in the public domain. We are delighted to debut his trios in this concert!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, August 16, 2022 at 2 pm
The Ashplain Players
at the Adams Free LibraryAdams, Massachusetts 

Janice Wright, Violin
Roy Rudolph, Viola and Violin
Laurie Israel, Cello 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Ashplain Players, July 2022.

We are called The Ashplain Players because Roy and Janice live in Ashfield, and Laurie lives in Plainfield. (The name was Roy’s invention.) We’ve been playing together since last summer. Luckily we live 12 minutes away from each other. Playing and arranging string trios, light classical from Renaissance to New Age, classic pop, rock and show tunes, too.   August 16 program:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, June 28, 2019
7- 9 pm  Woodstock 50 years later Village Church, Cummington

Laurie Israel sang “In the Year 2525”, accompanied by Gene Hall on the guitar.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, March 8, 2019
7- 9 pm 

Laurie Israel, Rochelle Wildfong and
Jack Barry in concert.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, July 1, 2018, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Laurie Israel with Jack Swindlehurst
and Helen Pollard
“What Songs Were Sung:
Songs of love, loss and the past”

at the Worthington 250th Anniversary Celebration
Worthington, Massachusetts

Program: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Songs
Song List
Readings

 

Friday, June 8, 2018, 7-9 pm.
50th Anniversary of 1968 Concert
Laurie Israel performing.
Village Church, Cummington, Massachusetts

Harvey J. Finison: Corporate Hero.
October and November, 2016 at Shaw Memorial Library
Plainfield, Mass.
Opening Thursday, October 13 at 6 pm. Artist’s talk at 7 pm.
An exploration of the Northampton Cutlery Company in 
new art and ephemera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Day is Same as Night”
Saturday, November 19, 2016
A program of Yiddish music of workers, love, and loss, from the
early 20th Century.  A benefit for Beit Ahavah, 130 Pine St.
Florence, Mass. Saturday November 20, 2016 at 7 pm. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Program
Translations

 

Friday, February 26, 2016  7 – 9 p.m.

Program

“Some Enchanted Evening”  — Songs of Love, War and Survival. 
Show songs and folk music from the United States, England, Ireland,
featuring Laurie Israel, with David Perkins
Village Church, Cummington, Massachusetts

As a stream running over a sandy bed is gradually strained and purified, so a tune
in passing through many relatively kindred recollections loses the particular marks
of individual minds and becomes the clarified melodic express of the race.
— Bertrand Harris Bronson, from “The Ballad As Song”.

 

Thursday, July 30, 2015 at 6:00 p.m.
Day is Same as Night
Wistariahurst Museum, Holyoke, Massachusetts

Program
Translations

Many Jews emigrated to the Pioneer Valley and other places in the United States as a direct consequence of the pogroms (religiously incited violence) in Eastern Europe during the late 19th and early 20th century. The most famous and deadly of these was the Kishinev pogrom of 1903, which elicited waves of Jewish immigration from the Pale of Settlement in Russia to the United States. as well as musical accounts of the tragedy.

Laurie Israel (singer, musician) will present songs created by Yiddish lyricists and musicians in the early 20th century on topics ranging from the Kishinev massacre to musings about life and love. She will be assisted by well-known children’s author Alice Schertle who will read excerpts from literature and contemporary accounts of the Jewish immigration of the early 20th century.

A segment of the program will explore Yiddish and American labor songs of the 20th century, including “Tog Azoy Vi Nacht” (Day is Same as Night), in which a seamstress graphically presents her distressing orking conditions, as well as “The Anthem of the ILGWU”. Most of the Yiddish songs have been newly translated into English by Laurie Israel.

Friday, February 6, 2015
“Looking Back: Songs and Readings from 100 Years Ago”
Plainfield Congregational Church, as a benefit for
The Shaw Hudson Historical House
7-9 p.m.
View Flyer
View Program

November 14, 2014 – “100 Years Ago”
Laurie Israel and friends
7:30 p.m. The Village Congregational Church
View Flyer
View Program

 

June 28, 2014 – Folk Program “Looking Back Again”
Laurie Israel and friends
7:30 p.m. West Cummington Congregational Church
View Flyer
View Program

 

April 25th, 2014 – Folk Program “Looking Back”
7 – 9 p.m. Village Church, Cummington, Mass
View Flyer
View Program

 

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