On Halloween (Saturday, October 30th @ 8pm), I’ll be sitting in with Schooltree performing for Brendan Boogie’s Cover-Up series at the Lizard Lounge.  It’s going to be a fun night of music featuring your favorite local bands covering some of your favorite songs from your favorite time of life: childhood (think The Muppets, Schoolhouse Rock, Willy Wonka, Disney, Saturday morning cartoons, etc.).

The Line-up: Larry Banilow, Apple Betty

Dylan in the Movies, Brendan Boogie & The Best Intentions, Schooltree (members of Steamy Bohemians and Valhalla Kittens), Ashley and the Pussycats (from Boston Band Crush), Ryan Schmidt, and many more special guests!

At Brookline Music School we are celebrating the guitar with it’s own month: Guitober!  This year’s activities include clinics, concerts, videos and a giveaway.

Head on over to Guitober.com or BMSmusic.org for all the details.

And play a Guitcrossword puzzle while your at it!

Here are two clips from our performance in Chicago this past April:

The Puppets are back!  And with new material!

On the 25th of June, we will be doing a full hour-long show of story-time featuring the Elephant’s Child, The Story of Heckedy Peg, as told by Karin Webb, and a new shadow puppet show based off of three Aesop’s Fables.  It’s going to be magical.  See press release for more details:

PRESS RELEASE

On Thursday, June 25th at 7:00pm, Brookline Music School Guitar Coordinator Brendan Burns and Friends perform a selection of bedtime stories with live music and original shadow puppets in Brookline Music School’s Bakalar Recital Hall. Stories include “Mice in Council”, “Mountain in Labor”, and “The Lion’s Paw” from Aesop’s Fables, “The Story of Heckedy Peg”, and Rudyard Kipling’s “The Elephant’s Child”. This is entertainment for the whole family!
The cast includes four musicians, five puppeteers and five voice actors. Musicians include Vessesla Stoyanva, MIDI Marimba, Cara Frankowicz, violin, and composers Brendan Burns, guitar and Valerie Thompson, cello. Puppeteers are Anne Marie Taylor, Molly Zenobia, Gonzalo Plaza, Mali Sastri, and Co-Director Dylan Gould. Voice actors are Dann Brown, Nate 
St. Laurent, Lainey Schulbaum, and Co-Directors Karin Webb and Jill Gibson.
New Exhibition Room’s Artistic Director Nora Long said, “It was magical! The music is astonishing and filled the story beautifully.  The actors provided excellent foils for one another, and the puppets were imaginative, interesting, and abstract without being obtuse.”
Story-Time at Brookline Music School is free and all ages are welcome. Come in pajamas if you wish to enjoy the evening’s bedtime stories from 7:00pm to 8:00pm. For more information contact Brookline Music School at 617-277-4593 or visit the website, www.bmsmusic.org.

Event Details:
Story-time with live music and puppets
Brookline Music School’s Bakalar Recital Hall
25 Kennard Road, Brookline, MA 02445
Thursday, June 25 at 7:00pm

Just like a master musician, Martin Luther King uses melodic, rhythmic, and dynamic tension to emphasize and captivate when he speaks. I will be showcasing Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech where he speaks tonally and with the influence of western harmony, blues & gospel music.

This presentation will include a transcription of Dr. Kings speech in musical notation, a performance of the entire speech on fretless guitar, and analysis of the speech’s key points. There will also be time for Q&A.

The class is open to the public, so bring yourself and a friend.

Brookline Music School 25 Kennard Road Brookline MA 02445

Dear Secret Agent 009,

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to come to the Lizard
Lounge in your best spy attire this Friday!
This message is to inform you of a convergence of fellow spies, secret
agents, femme fatals, covert operatives, holders of state secrets and
arch-nemesis at the above location Friday-May 8th!
This event is hosted by Fluttr Effect.

An infamous cast of musical performers has been assembled to entertain
you for the evening.
Starring (but not limited to*) Molly Zenobia as Golfinger, Mali Sastri
as Pussy Galore, Brendan Higgins as M, Gonzalo Plaza as Oddjob and
Goli as the Fembots!

The evening will feature (under) cover songs and the spy music of the
Covert Operation Chamber Orchestra!  (Fluttr Effect + friends!*)

The Details:
Lizard Lounge-www.lizardloungeclub.com
1667 Mass. Ave. (outside of Harvard Sq. below the Cambridge Common Restaurant)
Cambridge, MA
Doors at 9pm.  Show at 10pm.

21+ $10

*I’ll be covertly stting-in on a couple of tunes.

This post will self-destruct in 15 seconds.

Following the outstanding 40th anniversary concerts of Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 2007 and White Album in 2008, Brookline Music School will complete their Beatles concert trilogy with Abbey Road.

Nearly 100 Brookline Music School students and faculty will perform exciting new arrangements of the songs from one of The Beatles’ most successful and beloved albums, including Here Comes the Sun, Something, Golden Slumbers, and Octopus’s Garden.

The event will take place at Pine Manor College’s Ellsworth Theater (400 Heath Street, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467) on Saturday, May 16th at 7:30pm and Sunday, May 17th at 2:00pm.

Tickets are $15 General Admission

Call Frank Pesci at 617-277-4593 x233
or email tickets@bmsmusic.org, with “Beatles Tickets” in the heading.

–

My guitar ensemble’s featured arrangement is going to be Here Comes The Sun.  It calls for 6 guitars, double string quartet, bass, drums & vocals.  It’s going to be a blast!

Here’s about half the kids gathered for a cast photo:

I had a wonderful experience learning this music. It’s challening and beautiful. I’ll let you know when we get this up & running again.