Buskers, and More This Weekend in Downtown Lebanon
Buskers, and More This Weekend in Downtown Lebanon
Upper Valley Music Center’s Sing and Play Festival
Your chance to busk may be at hand.
Rod Stewart in London’s Leicester Square, Josephine Baker on the streets of St. Louis, Tracy Chapman at Harvard Square in Cambridge, and countless other artists began their careers by performing on the streets. Improbably, Ben Franklin was a busker, or street performer, until his father dissuaded him, claiming it wasn’t viewed as respectable. And world-famous violinist Joshua Bell posed as a busker in a metro station in Washington D.C at rush hour in 2007, as part of a feature in The Washington Post. According to online sources, in the 45 minutes that Bell played, only seven people out of over a thousand who passed by stopped to watch, and he took in just $32.17. A shame, that.
Busking is just one of the activities coming to downtown Lebanon NH as part of the Upper Valley Music Center’s Sing and Play Festival this weekend. The Center “ . . . invites community musicians to participate through busking [at a tent near Lucky’s Coffee Garage], jams, sing-alongs, and other participatory events. All events are free and open to all ages, and take place in downtown Lebanon locations. The festival includes opportunities for families to enjoy and make music together, for musicians to connect with others in the community, and for everyone to celebrate the rich musical community here in the Upper Valley.”
The festival site encompasses many venues throughout the downtown area, including Colburn Park, CCBA Pavilion, First Congregational Church, Lebanon Opera House, and Upper Valley Music Center. Offerings range from chamber music to Cello Choir to Québécois Traditional Ensemble to a Suzuki Showcase concert. The Juneberry Community Chorus will bid farewell to its founder, Patricia Norton. There’s even a late afternoon disco party featuring students from the Upper Valley Music Center.
Come and enjoy, and if you’re bustin’ to busk, check with the Music Center to see if slots are still available.
Sing and Play runs from Friday evening through Sunday, June 3 to 5. For exact hours, a complete listing of events, and more information, click here.
(Photos courtesy of Upper Valley Music Center. To read the captivating reporting by Gene Weingarten about the Joshua Bell incident, click here.)
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Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.