Judy Collins ‘looking at life from both sides’

Singer-songwriter will play Academy of Music on Saturday

By K eith O ’C onnor Special to The Republican

Penultimate singer-songwriter Judy Collins, who has “looked at life from both sides now,” will showcase her early but successful songwriting efforts during an intimate concert on Saturday at the Academy of Music in Northampton.

Showtime is 8 p.m.

Collins, who has been touring the country with a series of “Wildflowers” concerts performing her landmark 1967 chamber-folk masterwork in its entirety, will be accompanied in Northampton by the Rasa String Quartet.

Collins began her impressive music career at age 13 as a young piano prodigy captivating audience with her performances of Mozart’s “Concerto for Two Pianos,” but the lure of hard luck tales and the folk revival music by artists such as Woody Guthrie and Peet Seeger soon won her over.

In 1961, Collins released her inspired first album, “A Maid of Constant Sorrow,” which featured interpretive works of social poets of the time such as Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs and Tom Paxton. A member of the thriving Greenwich Village folk community, she introduced other singer-songwriters to a wider audience, including poet/musician Leonard Cohen and musicians Joni Mitchell and Randy Newman.

It wasn’t until the release of the Gold-certified “Wildflowers,” her sixth album, featuring “Both Sides Now” with its reflective lyrics “I’ve looked at life from both sides now,” that Collins would reach No. 5 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart, today remaining her highest-charting album. The meditative 10-song “Wildflowers” is one of the first orchestral pop albums of the 1960s, and it was a milestone entry in her career featuring her first three original compositions, “Since

You Asked,” “Sky Fell,” and “Albatross.” “Since You Asked” was written in response to a formative moment in 1966 when Leonard Cohen made a special trip to Collins’ apartment to play her his song, “Suzanne,” and, while there, asked her why she wasn’t writing her

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Net proceeds fund scholarships for students pursuing art Presented by Supported by own songs. When he left, she sat down at her Steinway and wrote, “Since You’ve Asked.” “Albatross” was featured in the 1968 film adaptation of “The Subject Was Roses.” In addition to these originals, Collins curated a stunning collection, featuring songs by not-yet household names such as Joni Mitchell—her version of “Both Sides, Now” featuring the unforgettable lyrics “I’ve look a life from both sides now,” was a Top 10 hit—and Leonard Cohen, including the song “Priests” which Leonard never recorded, along with adventurous selections by Jacques Brel and Francesco Landini.

Over the years Colins has amassed a catalog of over 50 albums, including her latest, “Spellbound,” released in 2022, today the only album for which she wrote all of the songs.

Collins’ choice of the Rasa String Quartet finds the group exploring a musical space not unlike hers, where classical music and folk traditions intersect and influence one another

Formed in 2019, the Boston-based Rasa String Quartet consists of violinists Maura Shawn Scanlin and Kiyoshi Hayashi, violist Emma Powell, and cellist Mina Kim, who are grad- uates of the New England Conservatory, the Shepherd School of Music, and Yale University. The ensemble are winners of the 2022 Associazione Europea Di Musica E Comunicazione International Chamber Music Competition in Italy, 2021 Music Teachers National Association Chamber Music Competition and 2020 Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition. The quartet were the 202223 ensemble in residence at Phillips Exeter Academy. In addition to Collins, they have collaborated with renowned folk musicians like Celtic harpist, Maeve Gilchrist, Hardanger Fiddler, and Dan Trueman. The Rasa String Quartet have performed their own programs at various venues and festivals around the country, including the 2023 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition, Rockport Music, WGBH, WBUR, and the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival, and have taught educational residencies at a variety of institutions such as UMass Dartmouth and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

Tickets, ranging in price from $39.50 to $75 before fees, are available online at aomtheatre.com.

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