Berkshire Opera Festival (BOF) has announced the appointment of Martin Mansfield as its new President and CEO, bringing extensive experience in arts leadership, fundraising, law, and opera to the organization.

The theme for this year’s symposium, “The Living Forest,” focuses on the remarkable ecological, cultural and community connections that make forests essential to our lives. From carbon storage and climate resilience to tree health, forest management and the remarkable relationships between species, this symposium brings together ecologists, foresters, educators, and land stewards to explore what makes a forest a living, interconnected system and how we can become better stewards of it.

This December Kingston Gallery is pleased to present in the Main Gallery Mirror, Mirror, an exhibition of virtuosic new paintings and drawings by Mira Cantor, work which considers the incredible colors of skin, the intimacy of portraiture, and the courage it takes to look at one another. In the Project Space is A Clutter of Roses, the latest iteration of the ever-intriguing work of Nat Martin,

Repurposing discarded metal materials, Beerits crafts creatures straddling the line between the familiar and the mythic. In his realm, scythes become wings, colanders become scales, wrenches become pincers, and oil drums become feathers. Employing traditional metalworking and found-object assembly, he explores the spiritual power of the natural world through the materials of our human-dominated era.

The Berlin Philharmoniker performed a second program on October 9 and 11 to inaugurate Carnegie Hall’s new season. Brahms's challenging first piano concerto began the program. This difficult work began life as a two-piano piece, morphed into a symphony, and finally became a concerto. Its problems were not only solved by the pianist Vikingur Olafsson and the orchestra, but translated musically into virtues.

One of the most enjoyable plays of the season, Summer of 1976, by David Auburn is on view at the Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge The one act two -hander entails young mothers in a college town. Alice (Kate Baldwin) is a faculty wife whose husband, Doug, faces tenure review in the fall. Diana (Jennifer van Dyck) is a single mother and artist who teaches part time. Their five-year-old daughters, Holly and Gretchen, have become fast friends.

Minotaur, the new film by Andrey Zvyagintsev won the Grand Prix at Cannes. It is based on Claude Chabrol's 1969 film The Unfaithful Wife.  Zvyagintsev updates the narrative, setting it in Russia during the autumn of 2022, right when the partial military mobilization for the war with Ukraine began. On the surface, the characters lead an ordinary life, yet everything unfolds in a deeply ominous atmosphere.

The Berlin Philharmoniker painted soundscapes in Carnegie Hall to open their season. Collaborating with their chief conductor Kirill Petrenko, Rome and Italy came alive in New York. Tenor extraordinaire Jonas Kaufmann joined in to offer a grounded view of the struggles and passions of every person.

The two bodies of work read well together in the shared space. Transparent curtains fell from the ceiling, each carrying images from one of the artists. See-through colorful tapestries allowed a view of fellow gallery wanderers, and surely they could see. It is a very intimately arranged space.

Blurring the border between hunting and devotion, Pray Animal examines the autonomic nervous system’s response when agency is stripped away. Dark animal silhouettes—deer, rabbits, fawns, and snakes—stand is as vessels for women’s bodies in states of appeasement and paralysis.

With its highly metaphorical and abstract content, Chizu became one of the most important photobooks in the history of photography. This exhibition explores the full scope of Chizu through the MFA’s extensive archive of images, negatives, notes, contact sheets, and an original copy of the book.

Joey is sitting on a hard Toronto Transit Commission bench, haunting the street-level terminus of the Pape subway station. He is shielded from the hot summer sun by a concrete roof, but the dry heat nudges uncomfortably through the open sides of the bus bays. He feels the sweat slowly collecting under his arms and on his forehead. It is after 11 a.m. He has occupied his spot on the bench since 10 a.m. Waiting. And reading—often the same sentence several times.

Shakespeare Troupe of South Florida mounts Americanized adaptation of "Hedda Gabler." The production relocates the 1890s play to 1915 Connecticut. It unfolds in the intimate Sol Theatre in Boca Raton.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) announces the addition of recital dates in November and April by 2026–27 Artist in Residence Alisa Weilerstein. The acclaimed cellist, who performs Prokofiev as soloist with the BSO and guest conductor Paavo Järvi on February 4-6, adds fall and spring recitals to her residency.

Clear glass does not hold onto what touches it. It does not reflect its own ego, nor does it block the light. It simply allows life to pass through completely unimpeded, revealing the world clearly without distortion.

Ian Niederhoffer founded Parlando a little over five years ago, and his programming has been both adventuresome and unusual. His presentation of the film The City Without Jews, produced in 1924 and then lost, was an important step in restoring our picture of the culture of Central Europe in the crucial period between the First and Second World Wars.

A solo show, Mountains and Lakes, by Sandy Litchfield, is on view at Bernay Fine Arts in Great Barrington. She has also done public art projects, such as The Tree Inside Me a mural for the lobby of PS14X an elementary school in the Bronx.

The intense 60-minute opera tells of a young woman consigned to the convent as punishment for having a child out of wedlock. Having already subjugated earthly desires to serving God, she is asked to make one final sacrifice.

An obtuse title is but one of many complications in an ambitious but overreaching North American premiere of Urmetazoan by Alex Rugman. With a sci fi approach it is both micro and macro from the cosmic to quotedian. There is a simultaneous production in London which has opened to mostly positive reviews.

TheaterWorks Hartford, under the leadership of Artistic Director Rob Ruggiero and Managing Director Jeff Griffin, announces details for its production of LITTLE BEAR RIDGE ROAD, written by Samuel D. Hunter (The Whale). The 2026 Tony Nominee for Best Play is set to kick off TheaterWorks Hartford’s 26/27 season.

Barrington Stage Company will celebrate Tony Award-winning composer and lyricist Jason Robert Brown, recipient of the 2026 William Finn Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre, at its annual BSC in NYC event on Monday, October 19 at 6:00 p.m. at the legendary 54 Below.

Cape Ann Collectors autumn show, “Affirmation of Life: Bold Color Fields and Kindred Spirits,” opens October 17-18, 1-5 p.m., celebrating life, color and joy – an intentional nod to Manship’s “Hockney Reproductions” radiating intense, joyful, expressive chromatic hues. New ways of seeing, feeling and creating drove both Hockney and Blaine.

Mannes School of Music filled the nave of Our Lady of Good Counsel in New York with Giacomo Puccini’s Suor Angelica. Arguably the best music school in New York, Mannes produces wonderful operas and concerts week after week. They are offered free and they're always a treat.

Any solo show needs a premise to explain why the character is talking to us, the audience, and telling us this story. Playwright Mark St. German who adopted this from Eddie’s autobiography has created a very effective premise to explain this. Eddie is finally going to talk about his experiences the next day at a Synagogue. He is nervous so he is practicing in front of us who he calls his new friends.

Join Shakespeare & Company for Celebrating Jewish Plays, a three-day festival bringing Jewish stories, voices, and perspectives to the stage through powerful plays, staged readings, poetry, music, and conversation.