This Weekend: ‘Messiah’ Open Sing on Sunday, High School Coffeehouse Friday, ‘Frozen’ at Belmont Savings

By Leave a Comment

• The Belmont Performing Arts Club Presents: A Holiday Coffeehouse featuring a slew of student performers on Friday, Dec. 19 at 6:30 p.m. in the High School Cafeteria. Doors will open at 6:15 p.m. Come listen to our talented artists! Food, desserts, ice cream, hot chocolate and more will be available to purchase. Tickets, at the door, are $10; $5 for students; free for children five years old and younger. All proceeds benefit the Performing Arts Club’s New York City trip where the students will be attending two shows and being part of a workshop.

• The home opener for the Belmont High School Boys’ and Girls’ Basketball teams against Melrose High will be a doubleheader Friday, Dec. 19 as the boys’ be takin’ the court at 5 p.m. and the Girls’ at 7 p.m. Friday is also the opener for Boys’ Swimming at the Higginbottom Pool starting at 4 p.m.

• This is the final weekend for the Belmont Gallery of Art’s Small Works Holiday Show and Sale 2014. Get really nice and unique – and not that expensive – gifts for Christmas and the last days of Hanukkah and benefit the gallery and the local artists. The sale will be held on Friday, Dec. 19 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 20 and Sunday, Dec. 20 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

• The stars from the Disney hit movie “Frozen”, Olaf, Anna and Elsa will be at Belmont Savings Bank branches on Saturday, Dec. 20 to have their pictures taken with kids – and probably some adults – at these locations and times:

• The Belmont Public Library’s Children’s Saturday Sing-Along Series is back! So come dance, jump, wiggle and sing along with Jeff Jam on Saturday, Dec. 20 beginning at 10:30 a.m. He’ll play his own hilarious original songs and favorite classic kids’ songs on his guitar. For all ages.

• The Belmont Public Library will be holding a mini-Book Sale on Saturday, Dec. 20 from 9:15 a.m. to noon in the Flett Room. Children’s books, hardcover and trade paperback adult books, coffee table books and more will be on sale. Sponsored by the Friends of the Belmont Public Library.

• On the shortest day of the year, hear Belmont native and farmer/educator Rose Cherneff discuss “Planning Your Vegetable Garden,” in the Belmont Public Library’s Assembly Room on Sunday, Dec. 21 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Rose will talk you through setting goals for your garden that match your lifestyle and priorities, including how much seed to order, seed sources, how to create a planting timeline, how far apart and where to plant things, what crops do well in this climate, and how to increase the health of your soil. This class is sponsored by the Belmont Food Collaborative.

• One of the great musical traditions in Belmont will take place Sunday as Powers Music School’s Belmont Open Sings will perform the holiday-favorite, Handel’s “Messiah” on Sunday, Dec. 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the First Church in Belmont, Unitarian Universalist, 404 Concord Ave. Belmont Sings’ Artistic Director Mary Beekman will lead the musicians and the chorus made up of the audience in the great work. Tickets are $10 per person; No reservations needed.

This Weekend: Benton Open House Saturday, A-B Chamber Chorus on Sunday

By Leave a Comment

• The Benton Library, Belmont’s independent library located at Oakley and Old Middlesex, is holding it’s annual Open House on Saturday, Dec. 6, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Join the board of directors and volunteer staff to celebrate the season. Everyone in the community is welcomed to attend and anyone who hasn’t tried the Benton is urged to stop by.

• Students from Belmont’s Powers Music School are performing  their winter recitals with a holiday theme as they tour the area. They will be performing at the Watertown Mall, 550 Arsenal St. in Watertown on Saturday, Dec. 6 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Come early as the group will be a special holiday music story at 2 p.m. On Sunday, Dec. 7 at 1:30 p.m., the group heads to the Mall at Chestnut Hill in Newton.

• The Belmont Hill School’s Winter Concert will take place in Hamilton Chapel on Sunday, Dec. 7 at 2 p.m. Performing will be the school’s orchestra, jazz band, piano trio and the Belmont Hill B-Flats, the senior choral group, as well as the 9th grade’s A-Sharps. The concert is open to the public. 

• The Arlington-Belmont Chamber Chorus under conductor Barry Singer presents NOT-QUITE-WINTER CONCERT on Sunday, Dec. 7, beginning at 3 p.m. at Payson Park Church, 365 Belmont St. The concert will consist of six masses each from a different century and songs of poets over five hundred years. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and $7 for 17 years old and younger.

This Weekend: Arts and Craft Fairs, A Comedy from the Dramatic Club, Small Business Saturday

By Leave a Comment

Residents will have a pair of craft and arts fairs to find the perfect holiday gift.

• The 13th Annual Crafts Fair at the Beech Street Center will take place on Saturday, Nov. 29, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. More than 40 vendors will be selling gifts, toys, cards, holiday ornaments, dolls, jewelry, scarves, sweaters, quilts, knitted goods, and other hand-crafted items, many of them one-of-a-kind. Sponsored by the Friends of the Belmont Council on Aging, the proceeds from table rentals and sale of donated goods go to support the Council on Aging’s programs, services, and scholarships. Cost is $1 – children under 12, free. Public invited.

• The Belmont VFW at 310 Trapelo Road – across from the Belmont Fire Department – is holding the Winter Light Arts Festival on Sunday, Nov. 30 from noon to 4 p.m. Put together by Joanna Brooks and Sharon Nahill of Oak Hill Pottery, there will be works by sculptors, potters, jewelers, fabric artists, painters, photographers and graphic artists.

• The Belmont Dramatic Club presents “Old Acquaintance,” a comedy in three acts by John Van Druten, today, Saturday and Sunday. Directed by Michael Trabucco, the play involves old friends and literary rivals who discover that love can lead to some surprising conclusions. Performances. in the historic auditorium of Belmont Town Hall, are Friday, Nov. 28 at 8 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 29 at 8 p.m. and a 3 p.m. matinee on Sunday, Nov. 30. Founded in 1903, the Belmont Dramatic Club is the second oldest continuously operating and performing community theatre group in the United States.

• Belmont is a great small business town. This Saturday, it’s time to give back. Since 2010, Small Business Saturday has been helping small businesses do more business a day after Black Friday. Don’t forget that twice as much of each dollar spent at a local shop or restaurant stays within the town in wages, taxes and money spent on goods. 

This Weekend: Saturday’s Ski Exchange, Printmakers’ Show Friday Night

By Leave a Comment

• The Belmont Gallery of Art is holding a special Friday Night showing today, Friday, Nov. 14 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. of it’s current exhibit, “Continental Drift: Printmakers Converge,” an exhibit of work by members of the Boston Printmakers and the Icelandic Printmakers Association. The gallery will also be open this Sunday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The Gallery is located on the third floor of the Homer Building in the Town Hall Complex, 19 Moore St., right off Leonard Street in Belmont Center behind the Belmont Savings Bank building.

• The Belmont High School Ski Team’s Annual Ski Sale and Swap held in the High School cafeteria on Saturday Nov. 15 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Proceeds benefit the BHS Ski team. Anyone selling equipment should arrive no later than 9:45 a.m. For information: 617-823-4233; scott@navfund.com

• Arlington’s Menotomy Musical Theater is staging The Wizard of Oz on Saturday, Nov. 15 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m as well as Sunday, Nov. 16 at 2 p.m. in the Belmont Town Hall auditorium, 455 Concord Ave. Tickets are $15 in advance online or $20 at the door.

This Weekend: Powers Music Tells Babar’s Story Saturday, Recycling Day Saturday

By Leave a Comment

The Powers Music School is teaming up with the Belmont Public Library in presenting “The Story of Babar”, part of the school’s Musical Storytelling Series taking place on Saturday, Oct. 25 at the Belmont Public Library’s Assembly Room. There will be two showing’s of the popular story at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. But be advised to come early as space is limited. The show is free and sponsored by Cambridge Savings Bank.

The Belmont Department of Public Works is holding its Belmont Recycling Day on Saturday, Oct. 25 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the town’s “transfer station” – the site of the former incinerator – at 1130 Concord Ave. near the Lexington town line. This is the day when residents can bring all those big ridged plastic items, textiles (Are you really going to keep those old drapes in the basement for another year?), paper that needs shredding, Styrofoam and electronics (you may have to pay a small charge). Belmont Savings is bringing its Universal Shredding machine and will be raffling off a $100 Target gift card. For more information, call 617-993-2689 or go online to.

Saturday afternoon, Oct. 25 will see a rare weekend sports doubleheader at Harris Field with Belmont High School Field Hockey taking on arch rival Lexington High at 2 p.m. – rescheduled from Wednesday due to the rainstorm – while Belmont High School Girls’ Soccer hosts Winchester High under the lights at 6 p.m. Come early for the soccer match as it’s Belmont’s Senior Night.

The Belmont Historical Society presents ‘The Belmont Uplands: A History of the Changing Use of Land and Water” by Belmont resident Anne-Marie Lambert on Sunday, Oct. 26 from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Belmont Public Library’s Assembly Room. The presentation is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. Contact the Belmont Historical Society for more information at 617-993-2878.