Arts & Entertainment
With a voice frequently compared to Joni Mitchell’s, Nancy Jephcote is gearing up for the release of a solo album this fall — but you can hear the Vineyard singer, songwriter and award-winning fiddler at a concert at 8 p.m. tonight, Friday, August 15, at Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven.
Well known for her work with the Flying Elbows fiddle band, songwriting has long been another side of this versatile performer’s offerings. Paul Thurlow and Brian Weiland will add instrumentals and vocal harmonies.
Susanna, a Neopolitan countess of the early 1800s, has a segreto, a secret: she smokes. Her husband, Count Gil, an obsessively jealous man — but a perfectly nice fellow in every other way — sniffs tobacco in the palace and draws a logical but preposterous conclusion: Susanna is having an affair with a man who smokes. The pair is at loggerheads, and more than willing to sing about it, courtesy of the great Enrico Wolf-Ferrari. Thus unravels the 15-minute intermezzo comic opera, Il Segretto di Susanna, to the merriment of all.
In the art gallery world, making it to the five-year mark demonstrates the stability and resilience necessary to survive in the competitive trade. As artist and gallery owner Louisa Gould prepares to celebrate her fifth anniversary with an opening of her own work and the creations of Ovid Ward and John Holladay, she has little time to rest on her laurels. By her own reckoning, the fifth year is just the beginning of the journey.
BY JULIA RAPPAPORT
It may not quite measure up to Fashion Week in New York city, but Saturday evening will find a back alley of Main street Vineyard Haven temporarily transformed into a catwalk complete with leggy models, elegant couture and dazzling jewelry. Outside Che’s Lounge — the coffee shop known for good eats, an excellent cup of joe and a rockin’ weekend music scene — an outdoor fashion show will begin at 5 p.m. and the proceeds will go to benefit local musicians.
Island artists Jenifer Strachan and Steve Lohman will open the doors to their West Tisbury studios Tuesday August 19, from 4 to 7 p.m. This couple’s artwork, created from the unusual mediums of wire and broken shards, has become instantly recognizable and much loved by residents and visitors alike.
Steve Lohman has been a local fixture in the Vineyard art scene for over 25 years. He is internationally known for his lyrical steel and wire sculptures and whimsical carved wooden furniture; with recent projects in Barcelona, New York and California.
“Newfoundland is a beautiful, dangerous place,” laughs Great Big Sea’s Sean McMann, about the locale that forged his band’s sound. Part shanty reel, part chiming pop, part sweeping folk, ten albums in, the little band from the island that was a shipping and fishing outpost between Mother England and Canada has let its isolation protect their individuality.
