R5 Westchester County Arts and Culture Events for June 2012: Fiona Apple, Michael Bolton, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Bolton Upright
Michael Bolton is still out promoting his 2011 Gems: The Duets Collection, in which he shakes up well-known songs and matches them with other well-known recording artists. On the album, for example, he sings Sting’s “Fields of Gold” with singer/songwriter Eva Cassidy, and he also performs U2’s “Pride (In the Name of Love)” with violin prodigy Anne Akiko Meyers. Yet our favorite collaboration of his happened when he recently teamed up with Saturday Night Live’s The Lonely Island to sing a goofy song about Captain Jack Sparrow—do you think he’ll play it when he performs at the Tarrytown Music Hall on June 15? Those lucky enough to get tickets, please report back.

By George
It’s never too early to feel patriotic. If your flags are waving and you’re showing your stripes, head to the Westchester Broadway Theatre for a performance of George M. The musical tells the life of George M. Cohan, whom you’ll recognize by his work, if not his name. Cohan wrote the songs that pop up every Independence Day, including “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” and “Over There,” in addition to the unforgettable “Give My Regards to Broadway.” Why such pride for Lady Liberty? Cohan himself was born on the Fourth of July. George M will run from June 7 to July 1—but chances are you’ll have his songs stuck in your head for the rest of summer.

Photo by Andrew MacPherson

Author Dennis Sheehan

Book It
Where do you fall in the good-book food chain? No matter who you are—agent, author, enthusiast, bookstore hound—there will be something of interest at the Books Without Borders event taking place on the Yonkers waterfront on June 9. Readers can browse booksellers’ wares and chat with authors and publishers; creative types can attend workshops and panel discussions on topics such as creative writing, querying an agent, eBooks, and marketing; and kids can visit children’s authors, hear stories, listen to music, and get their faces painted. Participating authors include Dennis Sheehan (Purchased Power), Warren Berger (The Purples), Norb Vonnegut (The Trust), Charles Salzberg (Swann’s Last Song), and many, many others. It all takes place riverside, stretching from in front of the Riverfront Library, through Ella Fitzgerald Park, and down past X2O Xaviars on the Hudson.

Summer Lovin’
Sure, to most of us, the summer is just beginning. But, for Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, it’s already midsummer. At least it’ll feel that way on June 23, when the International Music Festival opens with Felix Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. (The world-famous “Wedding March” is among the incidental music that Mendelssohn wrote for A Midsummer Night’s Dream—anyone out there feel like getting affianced?) Acclaimed violinist Gil Shaham will sit in with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s for the performance.