The NY Philharmonic has announced its annual Concert in the Parks, which is back after being canceled for two years because of the pandemic.
The Concert in the Parks series has become an iconic New York summer experience since it began in 1965. It transformed parks across the city into a patchwork of picnickers and allowed them to hear classical music under the stars.
The NY Philharmonic Concert in the Park series will happen from June 14-17, then again on the 19. All performances begin at 8 P.M. There will be fireworks following the performances in the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn.
Music Director Jaap van Zweden will conduct the concerts, which take place at Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx (June 14); the Great Lawn in Central Park, Manhattan (June 15); Cunningham Park, Queens (June 16); and Prospect Park, Brooklyn (June 17).
Jaap van Zweden began his tenure as the 26th Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in September 2018. He has also served as Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic since 2012. He has conducted performances on three continents, and at age 19 he became the youngest-ever concertmaster of Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
The program includes Wagner’s Prelude to Act I of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with Bomsori Kim as a soloist, Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7, and works by New York Philharmonic Very Young Composers: 14- year-old Naama Rolnick’s Keep Walking, and 17-year-old Alexander Rothschild Douaihy’s A Human Rhapsody.
The rich music history of the Capital Region was celebrated on Tuesday, June 7 with the Eddies Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Held at Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga Springs. The eight honorees included folk, ambient, rock, and acoustic artists, as well as a promoter, writer/musicians, and an independent radio station founder.
Paul Rapp, a musician and entertainment rights lawyer, as well as a 2020 Eddies Hall of Fame inductee knew them all and gave opening remarks noting such. Rapp, drummer for renowned Albany act Blotto, weighed in on each musician, offering heartfelt thoughts and a few laughs as he discussed his connection and the impact each of the eight left on the Capital Region scene.
Paul Rapp – photo by Erin Reid Coker
Honorees included Joel Ross, a 7-time Grammy Award winner who engineered songs for Broadway musicals and TV shows, and worked with Ray Charles and Tony Bennett among many others.
Joel Ross – photo by Joe Putrock
Brooks Brown, founder of WEQX, an independent radio station, was referred to by Rapp as having “saved the Albany Music scene” by creating a radio station that played local bands that couldn’t be heard elsewhere. Rapp noted that Brown took great joy in telling corporations looking to buy his station to “go fuck themselves.”
Jason Keller and Mimi Brown – photo by Erin Reid Coker
Super 400 from Troy has had an impact felt as far away as Spain, which led to Spanish band Red Apple sharing via prerecorded video how they were looking for bands that were real and similar to them. In discovering Super 400, they found a band on the same wavelength, as well as future friends. Red Apple then performed “Green Grass End” in tribute to Super 400.
Super 400 – photo by Erin Reid Coker
Greg Bell, the promoter who made Albany a jam band mecca and must hit tour stop, has run Guthrie/Bell Productions since the early 1990s. His presence in the Capital District will be profiled in the upcoming documentary from Mirth Films, Grapplin’ Greg. Rapp noted that no one has done more to support local bands than Bell, adding, “Music promoters are like adding kindling to a fire. The good ones make it burn bright.”
Greg Bell – photo by Erin Reid Coker
Rich Ortiz, the “fishin’ musician,” comes from a family rich in music history and plays more than 300 gigs a year and has been featured on the cover of numerous fishing magazines.. If night fishing were a thing, we may not have this legend from the Lake George region. Saratoga Springs guitarist from 80’s band The Morons, Steve Candlen, later performed Ortiz’ “I Love You Everyone.”
Rich Ortiz – photo by Erin Reid Coker
Michael Eck is many things – a painter, arts writer, Caffe Lena board member, and Ramblin Jug Stompers spoke with great emotion in receiving the Eddies Hall of Fame honor. Candlen later performed an Eck original “You’re a Mountain,” with the fitting lyrics “you’re a mountain, you’re a legend, you’re a king.”
Michael Eck – photo by Erin Reid Coker
Sara Ayers, with an eclectic career that includes folk, punk, bubblegum, rock, electronica and especially ambient music, was a crowd favorite as she was honored for her contributions to the scene.
Sara Ayers – photo by Erin Reid Coker
Greg Haymes, a man who did so much for local bands, venues and aspiring writers and photographers, was the final honoree of the night. The late “Sarge” Blotto has a varied career in multiple genres and styles, and in founding local music website Nippertown, he had a connection to nearly the entire room of musicians, journalists and fans. Rapp pointed to one of the many quirks of Haymes, was his mentions in reviews of a musician’s shoes, considering those with good shoes to have ‘made it’, and with that, Rapp pulled out a ruby slipper. The unofficial Jug Stompers theme song, “Jug Band Music,” by the Memphis Jug Band, and performed by Tom Lindsay to honor Haymes.
A young Greg Haymes. Photo by Amy Modesti
While Haymes passed away in 2019, he was fêted by his fellow inductees in a slideshow retrospective. Ayers accepted on behalf of her late husband, noting that he lived an artistic life as a musician, a writer and a website publisher, and it was a life he was proud of. His not too serious approach to preparing himself for a performance on stage (whether with a customized washboard, or a typewriter for a percussion instrument), his experience as a musician made him want to share the passion of local musicians in the Capital District through his writing. In doing so, Haymes gave many writers and photographers a chance to, a tradition we continue at NYS Music.
Bard SummerScape returns in 2022 summer with eight weeks of live music, opera, dance, and theater at the Fisher Center, located on the campus of Bard College in New York’s Hudson Valley, from June 23 to August 14. Fisher Center supports artists, students, and audiences in the development and examination of artistic ideas, offering perspectives from the past and present, as well as visions of the future.
Highlights include the 32nd Bard Music Festival, Rachmaninoff and His World; a new production of Strauss’s The Silent Woman, directed by Christian Räth; a World Premiere commission from Pam Tanowitz and David Lang; a new adaptation of Molière’s Dom Juan, directed by Ashley Tata; and more.
Theater
Molière’s Dom Juan
SummerScape Commission/World Premiere Production New translation by Sylvaine Guyot and Gideon Lester Conceived and directed by Ashley Tata
Amelia Workman (Dom Juan). Photo by Maria Baranova
A glittering and ferocious study of lust and power, Molière’s portrait of the libertine Dom Juan combines slapstick comedy with the taut psychology of a thriller. In this bold new adaptation, director Ashley Tata (whose digital production of Mad Forest astonished Fisher Center audiences in 2020) sets the story in a fantasy world where 17th-century France meets late-1970s America, raising pertinent questions about class, faith and gender. Casting both the titular libertine and her sidekick as women, Tata’s production literally recasts this subversive and brilliant tragicomedy in a contemporary light—celebrating Molière’s 400th anniversary with a Dom Juan for the 21st century. Commissioned as the opening production of Bard SummerScape 2022, and marking this year’s global celebrations of Molière’s 400th anniversary, Dom Juan makes its world premiere June 23–July 17.
Dance
Song of Songs
SummerScape Commission/World Premiere Choreography by Pam Tanowitz Music by David Lang
Spiritual and erotic, playful and mysterious, The biblical Song of Songs (also known as The Song of Solomon ) is perhaps the greatest of all love poems—a hymn of yearning, steeped in images from the natural world. The poem’s unforgettable images of the natural world have inspired artists and lovers for millennia – indeed some scholars argue that the entire tradition of Western love poetry springs from its glorious verses. Now, composer David Lang and Fisher Center resident choreographer Pam Tanowitz join forces to create a major new dance-theater performance based on this radiantly beautiful text. A collage of sound, song, and movement that reimagines ancient rituals of love and courtship, Song of Songs holds the sacred and profane threads of the Song in perfect balance. The performance is making its world premiere July 1-3 as part of the 2022 edition of the Bard SummerScape festival.
“Tanowitz has long been one of the most formally brilliant choreographers around.”
New York Times
Opera
The Silent Woman (Die Schweigsame Frau)
By Richard Strauss The American Symphony Orchestra Conducted by Leon Botstein Directed and designed by Christian Räth
Jana McIntyre (Aminta) and David Portillo (Henry). Photo by Maria Baranova
Considered Strauss’s only true comic opera, this rarely performed work is by turns elegiac and incisively witty. The brilliantly written libretto by Stefan Zweig (loosely based on the Renaissance play by Ben Jonson) features a madcap cast of characters in a variety of guises. The imaginative and colorful production by Christian Räth (Das Wunder der Heliane, SummerScape 2019) featuring a stellar group of performers will be sung in German with English supertitles. Räth’s colorful, fast-paced new staging runs for five performances on July 22, 24, 27, 29 and 31.
a stentorian bass … with impressive focus, carrying power and quiet charisma
New York Times
Bard Music Festival
Rachmaninoff and His World
The Bard Music Festival returns for its 32nd season with an exploration of the life and work of Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943), perhaps the last great exponent of Russian Romanticism, who nevertheless embodied many contradictions.
Through a series of themed concert programs, lectures, and panel discussions, Rachmaninoff and His World explores such themes as composition during the Cold War, virtuoso pianists and their public, and America’s ongoing love affair with Rachmaninoff’s music.
An edifying mix of academic and aesthetic delights.
– New Yorker
Through the prism of his life and career, Weekend One traces the complex course the composer navigated between Russia and Modernity (Aug 5–7), and Weekend Two investigates his relationship with the New Worlds he went on to conquer (Aug 12–14).
Spiegeltent
After a two-year absence, a magnificent Spiegeltent returns to SummerScape for a celebratory 15th year. Highlights include your first chance to experience new performances from Ms. Lisa Fischer and The Badass & Beautiful Band; the return of Black Roots Summer, a celebration of Black roots music curated by Michael Mwenso and Jono Gasparro; and returning favorites Mx. Justin Vivian Bond, Nona Hendryx, Susanne Bartsch, and more!
Gala: “Summer Enchanted Evening”
On July 16, Bard’s Montgomery Place Campus plays host to “Summer Enchanted Evening,” a special gala celebration to benefit the Fisher Center and Bard Music Festival.
SummerScape tickets
Tickets for mainstage events go on sale on March 9, starting at $25, and Spiegeltent tickets go on sale in April. For complete information regarding tickets, series discounts and more, visit fishercenter.bard.edu. or call Bard’s box office at (845) 758-7900.
The New York Guitar Festival is back with in-person performances after two years of being streamed online. The shows will be held in The Greene Space, WNYC’s multimedia performance venue in Soho from June 14 to 17. Featured performers include Bill Frisell, Vernon Reid, and more.
The festival was founded in 1999 by David Spelman, the Artistic Director of the festival, and WNYC’s John Schaefer, host of the “New Sounds” radio series. The main focus of the festival is the use of the guitar, and how it is in many different genres of music.
Glenn Jones has a background in rock and experimental music but is best known for keeping the flame of “American Primitive” music alive, which is a folk-based style. Jones’s music is full of unexpected textures through his uses of capos, half-capos, and a variety of tunings. Vieux Farka Toure is known as “the Hendrix of the Sahara,” with roots in playing West African music. He has released five solo albums rooted in the sounds and rhythms of West African blues.
Gyan Riley started his career playing with his father’s band Terry Riley and The All-Stars. Now, he works with Grammy-award-winning artists and plays different genres, from classical to spacey electric guitar excursions. Bill Frisell is regarded as one of the best guitarists of our time, and he is the subject of a new biography called Bill Frisell: Beautiful Dreamer. Luke Bergman is part of Bill Frisell’s Harmony Quartet and is a bassist, guitarist, and pedal steel player.
Badi Assad is a guitarist, singer, and percussionist who also uses the guitar as a percussion instrument. She was the co-curator of the 2014 edition of the New York Guitar Festival. Badi is also the younger sister of the great Brazilian guitar duo of Sergio & Odair Assad. Vernon Reid is one of Rolling Stone magazine’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He gained fame as the main songwriter for the rock band Living Colour, and as a founder of the Black Rock Coalition. Laraaji has recently performed as a duo with Vernon Reid and is an ambient zither player,
June 17 at 7:30 P.M.- Marta Pereira da Costa and William Tyler
Marta Pereira da Costa plays Portuguese fado music and writes her own music and collaborates with other musicians. She is among the few women playing this type of music, as it is mostly dominated by men. William Tyler is a folk, indie, country, and electronic music artist. His work offers a gothic, often celestial take on American roots music.
Photo credits: American Classical Orchestra with Guadalupe Peraza performing The Chaconne Project, Nov. 2020 at Harlem Parish, courtesy of ACO.
The production features a Chamber ensemble of Orchestra members and Mexican mezzo-soprano Guadalupe Perazain a lively program of Baroque repertoire featuring the chaconne, a musical genre that began as bawdy 16th-century dances in Spanish culture. The chamber concert was initially scheduled for February 3, but was postponed due to the Omicron variant.
American Classical Orchestra was founded in 1984 as the Orchestra of the Old Fairfield Academy. Later on, renamed the American Classical Orchestra in 1999. After some time, Founder Thomas Crawford established its new and permanent home in New York City in 2005. Because they only preform music from the 17th, 18th, and 19th century, their mission is to present the music as the composers might have heard it in their time. By using certain instruments and techniques, the American Classical Orchestra is “supremely skilled musicians” (Theater Scene) have won critical praise for its recordings, educational programs, and concerts.
Thomas Crawford, is highly skilled in historically accurate performance styles in Baroque, Classical, and Early Romantic music. Throughout his life he has founded two Connecticut orchestras: the Fairfield Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Old Fairfield Academy. A passionate activist determined to bring the beauty of period music to a wider audience, Mr. Crawford’s educational activities with the Orchestra received a Learning in the Arts for Children and Youth award from the National Endowment for the Arts, recognizing the ACO’s dynamic music outreach to New York City schoolchildren. A Pennsylvania native, he holds degrees in organ performance and composition from the Eastman School of Music and Columbia University.
Photo credits: American Classical Orchestra with Guadalupe Peraza performing The Chaconne Project, Nov. 2020 at Harlem Parish, courtesy of ACO.
The show, Revisit:The Chaconne Project, was filmed at Harlem Parish. The use of harmonies create 10 vibrant examples of chaconne, a genre of music categorized by its repeating bass line. The director, Thomas Crawford, leads the audience through an aroma of musical instruments compromised through strings, voice and percussion. Revisit will showcase Guadalupe Peraza, who appeared as featured soloist with the New York Virtuoso Singers and at the majestic Teatro de la Ciudad Esperanza Iris in Mexico City.
Tickets, priced at $35 and $55, are available at aconyc.org or by calling American Classical Orchestra at (212) 362-2727. Ticket holders will need to follow the venue’s guidelines and show proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 in order to enter the building. The show will begin on Wednesday, June 22 at 7 pm, Harlem Parish, 258 W 118th St.
Broome County‘s only professional symphony orchestra, The Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra has announced its 2022-2023 Concert Season which will run from September 2022 through May 2023. Under the direction of Maestro Daniel Hege, the season includes four Classical and four Pops concerts.
The Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra will kick off the 2022-2023 Season with “American Journey,” a concert exploring classical music of the Americas. he show will start on Saturday, September 24 at 7:30pm at the Broome County Forum Theatre. Additionally, the show will include Seven O’Clock Shout, a 2020 tribute to healthcare workers by contemporary composer Valerie Coleman, and more.
The symphony continues Saturday, October 22 at 7:30pm with the performance of “Walking Distance.” This unique performance features songs from beloved Binghamton-based Twilight Zone episode. Thus, the show will take place at the Helen Foley Theatre at Binghamton High School.
The next show “Green Places” takes place on Saturday, November 12 at 7:30pm at the Broome County Forum Theatre. This show features one of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s airy Novelettes, contemporary composer Gary Schocker’s lighthearted Green Places. Additionally, featuring flute soloist Karen Bogardus, and more.
The Philharmonic’s holiday concert, “Winter Wonderland,” will be held on Saturday, December 10 at 3pm at the Broome County Forum Theatre. This show includes music from holiday hits including The Polar Express, Home Alone, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. The program will also feature a visit from Santa, a holiday singalong, and the classic British animated film, The Snowman.
Lastly, the Philharmonic will conclude its 67th Season with “May the Fourth Be With You.” The show will take place on Thursday, May 4 at 7:30pm at the Anderson Center for the Performing Arts. This is an exciting program to celebrate the Star Wars saga with John Williams’ legendary symphonic music.
Ticket Information
Lastly, subscriptions are on sale now. Subscribers can save 10-15% on tickets, while also avoiding ticketing fees, receiving concierge service, and qualifying for special subscriber benefits. For more information, contact the Binghamton Philharmonic box office at 607-723-3931 or visit the link here.
Opera Saratoga’s Artistic and General Director Lawrence Edelson has announced that he will step down from Opera Saratoga after the 2022 Summer Season. A member of the company since 2014, Edleson will be taking his talents to The University of Houston as Professor of Practice and Artistic Director of The Moores Opera Center.
Lawrence Edelson
The Moores Opera Center is considered one of the most prestigious programs for opera training in the country. The institution regularly brings home National Opera Association awards. Lawrence Edelson will also continue in his role as Artistic and General Director of American Lyric Theater in New York City. Here, he mentors emerging opera composers and oversees the development of new works.
As expected, Opera Saratoga is sad to see Edelson go. That being said, the company wishes him the best of luck in his future endeavors. Edelson’s final remarks are as follows:
When I first came to Saratoga Springs as a guest director in 2013, I fell in love with this community and when I had the opportunity to join Opera Saratoga as Artistic and General Director the following year, I knew that I was about to embark on a very exciting journey. I truly could not have imagined how rewarding my time at Opera Saratoga would be. I have had some of the most meaningful experiences of my life during my time with the company, and I am deeply grateful to the artists, our entire staff, and our committed and generous supporters who make it possible for Opera Saratoga to contribute so vibrantly to the region year-round.
André Raphel will be the guest conductor at HVP’s Themes & Variations concerto. Raphel is a world-renowned conductor, having held positions at a number of different orchestras. He was Assistant Conductor to Kurt Masur at the New York Philharmonic for two years and Assistant Conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra for six years. Raphel has also appeared in orchestras all around the world, and has a huge dedication to his craft.
Also appearing in Themes & Variations is sololist Lara St. John. She has been described as “something of a phenomenon” by The Strad and a “high-powered soloist” by the New York Times. She has performed as a soloist worldwide, and owns her label Ancalagon, which she founded in 1999. Her Mozart recording with The Knights won a Juno Award in 2011.
The Juneteenth celebration in Kingston, NY, features The Resistance Revival Chorus. The chorus is a collective of more than 60 womxn, and non-binary singers. They sing songs of resistance, and uplift and center womxn’s voices. Members include touring musicians, film and television actors, Broadway performers, solo recording artists, gospel singers, political activists, and more all with diverse backgrounds and identities.
Tickets to each of these performances are available here.
The Lake George Arts Project has just announced its 2022 summer concert series. The shows start at 7pm on Wednesday Nights in July and August at Shepard Park. Additionally, there will be a bonus fireworks concert on Thursday, August 25th at no cost. You will not want to miss out on an evening of great music, so grab your family and friends and take them to Lake George.
This beloved summer concert series is back to bring the best bands to Shepard Park for concerts July through August. The Lake George Arts Project looked far and wide to bring amazing acts to Shepard Park for their 2022 Summer Concert Series. This year’s lineup features acts from Nashville, New Jersey, Boston, Philadelphia, and fan favorites from the Capital Region at this year’s show.
Shepard Park Lake George
The 2022 Line-Up
Wednesday, July 6: Annie and the Hedonists
A band with a great lead singer and tight harmonies, covering an eclectic mix of acoustic blues, vintage jazz and swing, and folk roots Americana. “Annie struts right to the heart of each sassy, nostalgic song and gives us a piece of her mind in a voice that sits comfortably alongside the greats of the American jazz tradition.”
The Red Haired Strangers are “just plain pleasing, but anything but plain…The content hits all factions of the country songwriting party: original words set to driving melodies complete with evocative images of wandering, trains, sin and love lost.”
“If bands were paid by the number of notes they played, soulfulness, conviction, confidence or black leather the McKrells would have bagged most of the money Thursday. Kevin McKrell owned the stage and crowd as usual and sang “It’s Not Me” as the country-est song of the night. They were a delicious bonus and surprise.”
Leon Botstein conducts the American Symphony Orchestra.
On June 5, ASO will host American Masters, a symphonic concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center featuring the world premiere of Roberto Sierra’s newly commissioned Concerto for Electric Violin, performed by acclaimed electric violinist Tracy Silverman. The program will also offer works by three Pulitzer Prize-winning composers: Melinda Wagner, Richard Wernick, and Shulamit Ran.
The ASO is offering free admission to this performance as a gift to New York music lovers. Tickets are free but required, available at americansymphony.org beginning on May 5. Processing fees will apply. Ticket holders will need to comply with the venue’s health and safety requirements, which can be found here.
From May 16 to June 9, the ASO offers free chamber music performances at Manhattan’s Bryant Park and at Brooklyn Bridge Park. These five performances will include music ranging from French impressionist composers and Italian works to Afro-Cuban Batá drumming. Featured artists include ASO percussionist and composer Javier Diaz, award-winning multi-instrumentalist Alexa Tarantino, trombonist Dion Tucker, and Grammy-nominated oboist Toyin Spellman-Diaz.
