2 weeks Ago
BENNINGTON — Vermont Arts Exchange (VAE) will be celebrating its 30th birthday (along with musical cohort Matty Stecks, who just turned 50) on Saturday, September 21 at 4 p.m. at Little City Cider at 139 Shields Drive in Bennington.
It will be a fun, family day, with bands intersecting world traditions, rock, funk & jazz Tickets are $15 in advance. $20 at the door. $10 for students.
Kids under 6 are free! Power’s Market will be available with food including BBQ chicken, hot dogs, veg kabobs, butternut mac and cheese, GF maple glazed cornbread, coleslaw and carmel apples. The VAE Art Bus will also be open to free art making in the courtyard. VAE celebrates 30 years of “Bringing the Arts to People of all Ages, Abilities and Income” through creative engagement and art-making with communities, partners and through neighborhoods.
If not playing at the Blue Note, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center or House of Blues, Stecks hangs out in the tri state area on any given night can be seen around the corner at at a local coffee shop. “Matty Stecks is an incredible, versatile musician,” says VAE Director, Matthew Perry. “He can go from playing in a tux to a full blown silly Halloween costume for our VAE parades.
He’ll pull together a set list specifically for the Pride Parade in minutes along with a trio to ride in the back of a rusty pick up bed”. Stecks performs primarily on woodwinds and composes in several musical settings internationally. He holds a Ph.
D. in Composition (NYU) and M.M.
in Jazz Performance (New England Conservatory), and a B.A. in Music (Wesleyan University).
Stecks’s versatility will be in display at this event as he pulls together a wide variety of talent of all ages. These include the Julian Gerstin Quartet, whose music includes Caribbean rhythms, Balkan and Arabic flourishes, beautiful melodies, and the intensity of jazz. Heard, a band with passion for West African, Brazilian and Caribbean jazz sounds improvising together, will also be playing creating grooves, set in a unique sonic tapestry.
Finishing up the evening will be Matty Steck’s Marauders, where, in an alt persona, once sax man Matt Steckler will emerge from the shadows to set alight the rock/dance space-time continuum. Find tickets on sale at.
