Tag: Carnegie Hall

  • RPI Celebrates Launch of New Music Degree with the Rensselaer Orchestra at Carnegie Hall

    A small yet well-known engineering school in Upstate NY isn’t somewhere that would be expected to produce the talent to perform at a world class concert hall. However, that’s what happened at Carnegie Hall on Oct. 24 when Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) celebrated the launch of a new Bachelor of Science degree program in music with a debut performance by the Rensselaer Orchestra.

    RPI Music Degree

    Produced by DCINY (Distinguished Concerts International New York), the show brought together friends, family and classmates of the performers along with NYC locals for an enjoyable night of classical music.

    Under the direction of Nicholas DeMaison, the Rensselaer Orchestra presented two pieces beginning with River Rouge Transfiguration composed by Missy Mazzoli (commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2013) and continuing with Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 82, composed during the years of World War 1.

    RPI President Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson began the show with some opening remarks about the new music degree and program. “…the degree is a means of preparing today’s contemporary musician for fluency in the arts as well as in the sciences…We all have recognized the degree to which the arts can spark innovation and the value connected with the arts, science, and technology.” Dr. Jackson continues, “our new Bachelor of Science in Music will enable us to further incorporate the arts throughout our research, curriculum, and student life experience…The theme of our musical program this evening is also about transformation that celebrates the work of two innovative and inspiring composers, Missy Mazzoli and Jean Sibelius.”

    Since the concert, the university has released a video of the concert which can be seen here.

  • Alice’s Restaurant Back By Popular Demand Tour Announced

    Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the movie “Alice’s Restaurant,” based on the song by Arlo Guthrie and to commemorate the occasion, Guthrie is arranging an extensive tour which will stretch from the fall of 2018 through 2020. The majority of shows just announced for this fall will take place in New York and surrounding states. They include a hometown show in Great Barrington, Massachusetts on Nov, 17 and a return to Carnegie Hall on Nov. 24. See the full list of dates below.

    Guthrie wrote a folk song about a series of incredulous events that began on Thanksgiving in 1965. “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” struck a chord with the anti-war counterculture. By 1967 Guthrie had gone from playing small clubs to playing festivals and stadiums.

    “Arthur Penn (who had just finished filming Bonnie & Clyde) heard the record when it came out in 1967,” recalled Guthrie in an interview with NYS Music. “He also happened to live in Stockbridge, where the events took place. He thought it would be a great idea to make it into a movie. And he did.”

    For this tour, Guthrie will be joined on stage by longtime collaborators Terry “A La Berry” Hall (drums), Steve Ide (guitar, vocals), and Carol Ide (vocals, percussion). His daughter, singer/songwriter Sarah Lee Guthrie, will be opening each performance.

    “I didn’t think I was gonna live long enough to have to learn ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ again,” Arlo Guthrie says with a smile. “It was a quirky kinda thing to begin with. Nobody writes an 18-minute monologue expecting fame and fortune. The initial success of the song really took me by surprise more than anyone else… I’m surely looking forward to it again being a centerpiece of my live repertoire.”

    Arlo Guthrie Presents The Alice’s Restaurant – Back By Popular Demand Tour
    Oct. 4  – Count Basie Theatre – Red Bank, NJ
    Oct. 6  – Gordon Center for the Performing Arts – Owings Mills, MD
    Oct. 7  – Keswick Theatre – Glenside, PA
    Oct. 10 – Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center – Stowe, VT
    Oct. 12 – Palace Theatre – Manchester, NH
    Oct. 13 – Durgin Hall – Lowell, MA
    Oct. 14 – Memorial Hall – Plymouth, MA
    Oct. 19 – NYCB Theatre – Westbury, NY
    Oct. 20 – College Street Music Hall – New Haven, CT
    Oct. 21 – Paramount Center – Peekskill, NY
    Oct. 24 – The Greenwich Odeum – East Greenwich, RI
    Oct. 26 – The EGG – Albany, NY
    Oct. 27 – State Theatre – Ithaca, NY
    Nov. 1 – EJ Thomas Hall – Akron, OH
    Nov. 2 – State Theatre – Kalamazoo, MI
    Nov. 7 – Ron Robinson Theater – Little Rock, AR
    Nov. 9 – Wildey Theatre – Edwardsville, IL
    Nov. 10 – Wildey Theatre – Edwardsville, IL
    Nov. 11 – Buskirk-Chumley Theater – Bloomington, IN
    Nov. 16 – Infinity Hall – Hartford, CT
    Nov. 17 – Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center – Gt. Barrington, MA
    Nov. 24 – Carnegie Hall – New York, NY

    More dates will be announced. Stay up to date on ArloGuthrie.com.

  • Carnegie Hall Tribute to Led Zeppelin to feature Betty Lavette, The London Souls, more

    On March 7, Michael Dorf, founder of The Knitting Factory and City Winery, will bring together a wide ranging lineup of artists once again for an annual tribute to a legendary musical act. This year, The Music of Led Zeppelin will be honored by 20 genre-spanning artists at Carnegie Hall.

    carnegie hall led zeppelin

    For the concert, the house band will be led by Tony Shanahan (Patti Smith) and will include Jackie Greene, Andy York, Andy Burton and Dennis Diken. Previously-announced performers for the benefit are Bettye LaVette, The Zombies, Living Colour, The London Souls, J Mascis, Orianthi and Richie Sambora, O.A.R., Erika Wennerstrom of Heartless Bastards and Brian Wheat of Tesla.

    Recent additions to the show include moe. and the return of Bustle in Your Hedgerow, a supergroup formed in 2003 that features Joe Russo, Marco Benevento, Scott Metzger and Dave Dreiwitz. Nicole Atkins, Joseph Arthur, Son Little and Patty Smyth fill out the lineup for The Music of Led Zeppelin.

    The March 7 show will be the 15th annual tribute concert Dorf has held at Carnegie Hall, with net proceeds benefiting music education organizations for underprivileged youth. Over $1.3 million has been raised by the series in since its inception. Benefits in the past have honored the music of Aretha Franklin, Bill Withers, David Byrne, Paul Simon, Prince, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, R.E.M., Neil Young, The Rolling Stones and others. For tickets and more info, visit Carnegie Hall’s website.