Abigail Charbeneau is still learning after all these years in music — more than 20 years after she started teaching piano as her day job, and more than 30 after she started playing the instrument in public for the love of it.
Take the Irving Berlin tribute concert that Charbeneau will play on Sunday afternoon at the Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site in Plymouth Notch, Vt., just up the road from her native Woodstock, with mezzo soprano Ellen Nordstrom, her partner in the Mairzy Doats Duo.
“I knew he’d written songs like God Bless America and White Christmas,” Charbeneau said on Monday night, during a phone conversation from her home in Concord. “But until I started performing with Ellen, I didn’t realize that he’d also written songs like Blue Skies and I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm.”
Charbeneau, who played piano for Woodstock Union High School choruses and musicals in the late 1980s, did know that she loved just about everything that Berlin wrote. Born Israel Beilin in Russia in 1888, he emigrated to the United States and made a mighty contribution to The Great American Songbook.
“His lyrics are just timeless,” Charbeneau said. “The tunes, they’re not terribly complicated but they’re incredibly catchy, very sing-able, something you can really relate to. They look back to happier times, but the message also is true to today.”
Charbeneau has worked summers at the Coolidge site in a variety of roles since her undergraduate days at Skidmore College. And for the better part of a decade she has been running the summer music program, which includes scheduling guest performers for the kind of “musicales” that Grace Coolidge used to host during her husband’s presidency in the 1920s.
Several years ago, Charbeneau and Nordstrom, a fellow teacher at the Concord Community Music School and also a former Upper Valley resident, started performing together at the musicales as The Mairzy Doats Duo. Those collaborations evolved, late in 2015, into an act that Charbeneau and Nordstrom, who sang with Opera North and Northern Stage during her years in the Upper Valley, now take on the road to gatherings of veterans and to nursing homes and assisted living facilities. They particularly emphasize “the songs that got us through” the World Wars and the Great Depression, songs by Berlin and many others.
“The first time we did a Veterans Day program, the response was just incredible,” Charbeneau recalled. “It’s always so moving to us when the audience starts singing along to this music.
“Reaching other people’s hearts in this way has been very moving to me.”
The Mairzy Doats Duo performs songs of Irving Berlin on Sunday afternoon at 4 at the Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site in Plymouth Notch. Admission is free.
Best Bets
Woodstock’s Yoh Theater players stage Bakkhai, Anne Carson’s adaptation of Euripides’ Greek tragedy (more commonly represented as The Bacchae) tonight at 7, at ArtisTree Community Arts Center’s Grange Theatre in South Pomfret. Admission is $10, with proceeds supporting the troupe’s upcoming journey to Great Britain to perform the play at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Along with the parade, a flea market, massive quantities of homemade food and paddle-boating demonstrations on Mascoma Lake, Old Home Days in Enfield this weekend offer a range of music, starting Friday night at 7 with the Upper Valley Community Band performing on the bandstand in Huse Park.
On Saturday, the North Country Chordsmen sing during the community picnic at 11 a.m., and the band Shaker plays at Huse Park on Saturday afternoon at 5.
And on Sunday, the Mascoma Valley Guitar Orchestra performs at the Enfield Shaker Museum at 11:30 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., the latter while leading a summertime singalong.
The Chelsea Funnery stages an outdoor production of Shakespeare’s farce A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Tunbridge Central School on Friday evening at 6 and on Saturday afternoon at 5. If bad weather intervenes, the play will be held in the Chelsea Town Hall. Admission is by donation to the troupe’s scholarship fund for performers ages 12 to 18.
The Woodstock Vermont Film Series screens Bombshell, the 2017 documentary about actress Hedy Lamarr’s life beyond Hollywood, at the Billings Farm and Museum on Saturday evening at 5 and 7. To reserve tickets ($6 to $11), call 802-457-2355.
Singer-guitarist-folklorist Guy Davis plays blues and folk music with bassist Mark Murphy and keyboardist Professor Louie at the Plainfield Town Hall, on Saturday night at 7. Tickets ($20) are being sold in advance; checks and money orders may be snail-mailed to Thom Wolke, 678 Stage Road, Plainfield, N.H. 03781, and PayPal purchases can be made electronically by sending to thomwolke.mgt@pobox.com.
Jazz singer-guitarist Jose James and his band play tribute to R&B master Bill Withers at Dartmouth College’s Spaulding Auditorium on Wednesday night at 8. For tickets ($12.50 to $30), visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
Looking Ahead
Opera North will open its Summerfest at Lebanon Opera House on Aug. 3 at 7:30, with the first of four performances of Jacques Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffman. Stagings of Rossini’s Barber of Seville are scheduled to begin on Aug. 5 at 5 p.m. For tickets ($20 to $90) and more information, visit operanorth.org or call 603-448-0400.
Theater/Performance Art
The Parish Players complete their production of Sam Shepard’s True West this weekend, starting with a 7:30 performance tonight at the Eclipse Grange on Thetford Hill. For tickets ($10 to $15) and more information, visit parishplayers.org or call 802-785-4344.
The New London Barn Playhouse continues its production of the showbiz musical 42nd Street over the next two weekends, including a staging tonight at 7:30. To reserve tickets ($20) for this and subsequent productions, visit nlbarn.org or call 603-526-6710.
Northern Stage’s Summer Musical Theater Intensive students perform the Broadway adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s book James and the Giant Peach five times over the coming week, including a preview tonight at 7:30 at the Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction. The production officially opens on Friday night at 7:30 and concludes on Sunday afternoon at 2. To reserve tickets ($17.75 to $23.75), visit northernstage.org or call 802-295-7000.
The eighth annual Vermont Summer Pride Festival stages three plays built around lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer characters at Randolph’s Chandler Music Hall this weekend, starting Friday night at 7:30 with Tanya Barfield’s Bright Half Life, a dramedy spanning 45 years in the lives of a lesbian couple.
On Saturday night at 7:30, after the staging of her comedy Aunt Jack, playwright S.P. Monahan plans to attend the performance and to answer questions at the end.
The festival concludes on Sunday night at 7:30 with a performance of A Perfect Fit, about a middle-aged woman whose daughter’s lesbian affair triggers a re-evaluation of her role as a heterosexual housewife. Playwright Lia Romeo will answer questions after the final curtain.
Tickets to individual plays cost $15 to $20 in advance and $17 to $22 at the door. Passes covering all three plays cost $25 to $55. To learn more, visit chandler-arts.org.
Music
Wilder’s Jes Raymond and The Blackberry Bushes play a set of Americana during the Feast and Field Market in Barnard tonight starting at 5:30.
The Hunts perform alternative and indie rock tonight at 7 on the bandstand at Lebanon’s Colburn Park, and The Moonlighters Big Band plays Monday night at 7.
The South Royalton Town Band performs on the Richard W. Ellis Bandstand in South Royalton tonight at 7.
Soprano Anastasia Robinson sings at the First Baptist Church of New London tonight at 7:30. To reserve tickets ($5 to $25) and learn more, visit summermusicassociates.org or call 603-526-8234.
Folk musicians John O’Connor and Nat Williams play protest songs on the back lawn of the Woodstock History Center on Friday evening starting at 5:30. Admission is free.
Pianist Sakiko Ohashi and cellist Maxim Koslov perform chamber music at Woodstock’s North Universalist Chapel on Friday night at 7. Admission is free.
Singer-songwriter Jim Hollis performs at the Flanders Stage on Sunapee Harbor on Saturday afternoon at 5.
As part of Fairlee’s celebration of completing the auditorium in Town Hall, saxophonist Michael Zsoldos, bassist Peter Concilio and keyboard player Bruce Sklar will play jazz on the adjoining town common between 5 and 6:30 p.m. And from 7 to 9 p.m., The Flames will play rock and pop oldies for a dance in the auditorium.
Dana Lyn leads her Mother Octopus ensemble into Claremont’s Union Episcopal Church to play an “Aqualude” — a sea-themed blend of folk, avant-garde rock and contemporary classical music. Admission is by donation to the West Claremont Center for Music and the Arts.
Smoke & Mirrors covers rock classics at the Newport Common on Sunday night at 6.
The Homestead Band sings and plays folk and Americana during the weekly concert on Sunday afternoon at 2 at the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish. Admission is included in the park’s entry fee of $10.
Singer-storyteller Steve Blunt performs kid-friendly material at Grantham’s recreation park on Tuesday night at 6.
Bob Amos & Catamount Crossing play bluegrass on the bandstand at the Fairlee common on Tuesday night at 6:30.
The RoadTrash Band performs classic rock, country and “cow punk” from the bandstand at Lyman Point Park in White River Junction on Wednesday night at 6:30.
The East Bay Jazz Ensemble plays the Ben Mere Bandstand overlooking Sunapee Harbor on Wednesday night at 6:30.
Dance
The roots band Blind Squirrel sets the rhythm and Mary Wesley calls the steps for a contradance at the Pavilion Dance Hall in East Thetford on Saturday night at 8. A walk-through for new and rusty dancers will take place at 7:45. Dancers are encouraged to bring bottles of water as well as a snack for the break. Admission is $5 to $10. To learn more about this and other upcoming dances in the Upper Valley, call 802-785-2855 or visit UVDM.org.
Bar and Club Circuit
The Dinosaurs roam Peyton Place in Orford with a set of Americana music tonight at 6. On Sunday night at 6, Rick Clogston covers country and rock classics.
Rose Hip Jam pulls into Windsor Station tonight at 7 to play a set of roots music. Ben Bivins performs a set of rock at 9:30 Friday night, and Guano Loco rocks the house on Saturday night at 9:30.
Singer-guitarist Alison “AliT” Turner performs at the Inn at Weathersfield in Perkinsville on Friday night between 7 and 9.
Jack in the Pulpit plays jazz on Friday night at 9 at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland Four Corners.
Acoustic rocker Chris Powers performs at Salt hill Pub in West Lebanon on Friday night at 9, and the John Lackard Blues Trio performs Saturday night at 9.
Singer-guitarist Ted Mortimer plays Hanover’s Salt hill Pub on Friday night at 9. And on Saturday night at 9, FLEW-Z frontman Alec Currier plays a set of acoustic rock.
Stewart Ross & The Temp Agency play jazz and roots music at the Salt hill Pub in downtown Lebanon on Friday night at 9, and singer-songwriter Mike Preston appears on Saturday night at 9.
About Gladys rocks Newport’s Salt hill Pub, Saturday night at 9.
Pianist Sonny Saul performs jazz at On the River Inn in Woodstock on Saturday and Wednesday nights from 6:30 to 9.
Souflix plays The Farmer’s Table in Grantham on Saturday night at 7.
Keyboardist Doc Winslow, bassist Tom Lord, guitarist Kit Creeger and drummer Bryant Harris perform at Poor Thom’s Tavern in Meriden on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Moxley Unplugged plays an acoustic set of rock at SILO Distillery in Windsor from 1 to 3 on Sunday afternoon.
Jazz guitarist Billy Rosen and singer Susan Brison perform during the buffet supper ($10 to $25) at Loch Lyme Lodge on Sunday night at 6, and Boy’s Night Out rocks the room during the weekly cookout ($8 to $20) on Wednesday night at 5:30.
Open Mics
String players of all ages and abilities are welcome at the weekly acoustic jam session at South Royalton’s BALE Commons on Friday night from 6:30 to 10.
Joe Stallsmith leads his weekly hootenanny of Americana, folk and bluegrass on Monday night at 6 at Salt hill Pub in Hanover.
Jim Yeager hosts open mics at Bentley’s Restaurant in Woodstock on Monday at 7:30; and at the Public House in Quechee on Tuesday at 6; at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland Four Corners on Wednesday night at 8; and at ArtisTree Community Arts Center in South Pomfret next Thursday night at 7.
Lebanon’s Peter Pardoe hosts a comedy open mic for adults at the Salt hill Pub in Lebanon on Monday night at 8:30. Registration begins at 8.
Fiddler Jakob Breitbach leads a weekly acoustic jam session of bluegrass, Americana and old-timey music on Tuesday nights at 7 at The Filling Station Bar and Grill in White River Junction.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304. Send entertainment news to highlights@vnews.com.