Music East and West
The Shelter Island Friends of Music will open its 2025 season on Sunday at 3 p.m. at the island’s Presbyterian Church with a Chinese New Year concert celebrating opera and both Eastern and Western music. Hao Jiang Tian, an internationally acclaimed bass, will be accompanied by six iSING! Festival vocalists.
A 20-year veteran of the Metropolitan Opera, Mr. Tian has sung over 1,400 performances of 50 operatic roles worldwide. Since 2011 he has been the artistic director of iSING! Festival, an American nonprofit founded by the Asian Performing Arts Council that fosters cultural exchange between the United States and Asia. Almost 400 iSING! artists from over 30 countries have performed in more than 50 major concerts.
The program will include a repertoire of Western arias and songs; Chinese folk songs and art songs, including an ancient Tang poem; a Jewish folk song, and more. A reception with the artists will follow the concert, featuring Chinese dumplings made by Martha Liao, iSING!’s general director and Mr. Tian’s wife.
Admission is free; donations will be appreciated.
Ma’s House Honored
Ma’s House & BIPOC Art Studio has received an Engaging Communities Award from the Museum Association of New York. The honor celebrates the impact of “Shinnecock Speaks,” an exhibition hosted by Ma’s House in 2024 that included 27 Shinnecock artists. That show amplified Shinnecock voices through painting, photography, film, and sculpture.
The Museum Association also gave a Rising Star Award to Jeremy Dennis, the lead artist and executive director of Ma’s House.
Audition Update
The Hampton Theatre Company in Quogue is now accepting video auditions from nonunion and union actors for the role of Nick in its upcoming production of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Nick is a self-possessed and ambitious Midwestern biology professor in his mid-to-late 30s. He is protective of his wife, Honey, but treats her like a child.
Actors interested in submitting video auditions can contact Terry Brennan, the theater company’s general manager, at [email protected], for the sides. The deadline for submissions is Saturday. Actors selected from video auditions will be required to read at the theater in the next stage of the process.
The play will run from May 22 through June 8. After a preliminary read-through on April 3, rehearsals will begin on April 15.
Jamming Two Ways
The Glam Jam will return to Sag Harbor’s Masonic Temple this evening at 7 p.m. Walk-in musicians have been advised to arrive early to sign up on the jam board. All musicians and music listeners will be welcomed. Admission is a can of nonperishable food, which will be donated to local food pantries.
The Roses Grove Band, known for its improvisation of the Grateful Dead’s folk-rock and Americana sound, will bring extended jams, unique segues, and delicate transitions between songs to the temple on Saturday at 8 p.m. The $20 admission fee is partly donated to local charities.
Comedic Thriller
LTV Studios in Wainscott will celebrate Valentine’s Day with a screening of the film “Charade” tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. Directed by Stanley Donen and starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, it was called by one critic “the best Hitchcock movie Hitchcock never made.”
The romantic comedy-thriller finds a trio of crooks pursuing a young American (Hepburn) through Paris in an attempt to discover the fortune her dead husband stole from them. The only person she can trust is a mysterious stranger (Grant).
General admission is $10, $5 for students. Cafe table seats, which include champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries, are $50.
Book Group
The winter book group of the Horticultural Alliance of the Hamptons will meet via Zoom on Saturday at 11 a.m. The format typically features three books selected and described by a member of the alliance — often with accompanying slides. Each segment is less than 20 minutes; the entire program lasts about one hour.
This month’s books are “The Writer’s Garden: How Gardens Inspired the World’s Great Authors” by Jackie Bennett, presented by Ron Marcelo; “Derek Jarman’s Garden” by Derek Jarman, presented by Mary Ward, and “Colour Schemes for the Flower Garden” by Gertrude Jekyll, presented by Lydia Wallis.
Members will receive a link by email; nonmembers can receive the link at no charge by registering at hahgarden.org/tickets.
