Brookline Community Aging Network

 

Cultural Opportunities

Brookline is made even more livable by being near several colleges, universities, and cultural organizations. Many of the offerings are free and open to the public or available at a modest cost.

Arts Calendars

Several on-line arts calendars provide helpful listings of cultural events. Here are just three useful sites:

Arts Boston offers a comprehensive list of music, theater, dance, opera, and more – and will also, on request, send a daily email offering half-price tickets that can be picked up at a Bostix booth the next day. 617-262-8632

Boston.Com is the on-line calendar sponsored by the Boston Globe. You can narrow your search by asking for dance, music, theater, comedy, etc.

The Boston Musical Intelligencer is an online journal that provides a calendar of music events along with essays and reviews by critics.

Music in Brookline

Man & woman engrossed in performance - Photo by Mimi Katz
Brookline itself offers the opportunity to attend (or sometimes perform in) regular concerts by several local groups.

Brookline Chorus is a 100-voice auditioned chorus that is gaining a reputation as one of Metro Boston's premier choral ensembles. The chorus presents four concerts a year. Tickets are $25 each and $20 for seniors.

Brookline Music School  617-277-4593 is the oldest and largest cultural institution in Brookline. Founded in 1924 by the Brookline Public Schools, it became a private organization in the 1940s and was incorporated as a private, nonprofit school in 1967. Faculty and students are regularly showcased in performances.

Brookline Symphony Orchestra After a ten-year hiatus, this orchestra has had a rebirth. In addition to three annual concerts, the group’s goals include performances at schools and nursing homes. Tickets are $10 with a $5 discount for students and seniors. Most concerts are at All Saints Parish, 1773 Beacon Street.

Coolidge Corner Chorus - Photo by Mimi Katz

Coolidge Corner Community Chorus Open to singers of all levels and choral backgrounds. No auditions required. Its Bel Canto Singers offers more experienced members of the chorus an opportunity to work on more challenging a capella works. Concerts are in United Parish Church, 210 Harvard Street.

Music in the Brookline Library  Six Sunday concerts, free of charge, at the Main Library. Click here for schedule. 617-730-2370

Brookline Senior Center Presents varied musical offerings – everything from gospel, to jazz, to broadway, to classical performances. 617-730-2777. Senior Center Chorus - Photo by Mimi Katz

Professional Music Schools

Virtually every day during the concert season, musical performances abound at area colleges and universities – many of them free. In particular, schools that award degrees in music performance offer numerous concerts by faculty and students.

We are enriched by the presence in our midst of five professional music schools --

Cinema

Movie buffs know that there are several ways to see films at little or no cost in Brookline.

Coolidge Corner Theatre

Coolidge Corner Theatre - Photo by Mimi Katz
In the heart of Coolidge Corner sits one New England’s most beloved cultural landmarks. The Coolidge Corner Theatre, at 290 Harvard Street, is one of the nation’s most prominent independently operated movie theatres, run by the not-for-profit Coolidge Corner Theatre Foundation. Every Wednesday, all four of the Coolidge’s feature films playing before 4pm are $6 for senior patrons (ages 62 and above) and disabled patrons.

The Coolidge offers several support services, described here, for those with hearing difficulties.

290 Harvard Street
Telephones: 617-734-2500 (recording) 617-734-2501(office)

Movies at the Senior Center

Every Tuesday at 1:30 a current film is shown free of charge at the Senior Center, 93 Winchester Street. Come early for lunch – which must be reserved the day before by 11:00 a.m. (for Monday lunch, call the previous Friday). Call 617-730-2770 for lunch reservation.

Senior Cinema in the Libraries

Coolidge Corner Branch Library offers a free film every Thursday, 1:30-4 PM, preceded by refreshments at 1:00 p.m.
31 Pleasant Street
Telephone: 617-730-2380

Putterham Branch Library offers a free film every Wednesday, 1:30-4 PM
959 West Roxbury Parkway, Chestnut Hill
Telephone: 617-730-2385

Theater

Senior Center Theater Club

Fall 2013 Offerings

 All the Way      

Sunday, September 15 at 1:30 pm at the American Repertory Theatre

It's 1963 and an assassin's bullet catapults Lyndon B. Johnson into the presidency. A Shakespearean figure of towering ambition and appetite, this charismatic, conflicted Texan hurls himself into the Civil Rights   Act, a tinderbox issue emblematic of a divided America.  ($39)

Great Expectations                           

Sunday, September 29 at 1:30 pm. at the Senior Center.
Charles Dickens's story of Pip, who rises from poverty to wealth through the intercession of an unknown benefactor and whose arrogance is humbled when he falls in love with the cold, manipulative Estella.
Discussion and refreshments will be served after the performance ($20)

And in October and November:

Rancho Mirage

Sunday, October 20, at 2:00 pm at the New Repertory Theatre.  ($39)            

Mozart and Beethoven Concert

Sunday, November 3, at 3:00 pm at Symphony Hall   $40

Camelot

Sunday, November 24 at 2:00 pm at the New Repertory Theatre ($39)      

 

Transportation is included in ticket price.  Pick up at the Senior Center or 1551 Beacon St. For more information and reservations, call 617-730-2770.

L-R: Jason Schuchman and Anne Gottlieb in My Name Is Asher Lev at Lyric Stage. Photo by Mark S. Howard.

There is an abundance of excellent theater in the Greater Boston Area, much of it very close to Brookline.

Theater Club

Several times a year, members of the Senior Center Theater Club attend performances at area theaters. The fee covers tickets and transportation from the Senior Center. For more information, call the Club’s founder and coordinator Ted Shamitz at 617-487-5573 or 617-935-4223 (cell).

Museums and Art Exhibits

London Plane Tree, Back Bay Fens, May 2014. Photograph by Erik Gehring.
London Plane Tree, Back Bay Fens, May 2014. Photograph by Erik Gehring.

Gallery 93 at the Senior Center

Round the year, art lovers can be found admiring the exhibits at the Senior Center (second floor balcony), where they can view one-man or one-woman shows of watercolors, charcoals, photographs, oil paintings, collages, and more. A reception opens each exhibit, which remains displayed for a three-month period, Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm. To receive notices of these art exhibits or to show your own work, contact .

Photographs of Heritage Trees and Scenic Vistas from Olmstead’s Emerald Necklace will be on display through December 30 in an exhibit by Erik Gehring. “These trees are some of the biggest and oldest tree specimens in the park,” says Gehring. The 20-photo exhibit displays trees in every season.

Others

There are many other opportunities in Greater Boston to visit galleries and museums. Here are some of them: