On January 28 & 30, the gifted Andrew Barth Feldman will be making a performance at the Midnight Theatre in Manhattan, performing Barth Mitzvah Boy: An Evening Of Original Music.
Special guests will join Feldman for these shows, including including Gaten Matarazzo (Stranger Things, Parade at New York City Center), Shereen Pimentel (West Side Story, Into the Woods at New York City Center), Alex Boniello (Dear Evan Hansen, Spring Awakening), Gian Perez (Sing Street), Heath Saunders (Great Comet, Company) and more.
Feldman is known for his roles in Dear Evan Hansen, Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical, and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.
Barth Mitzvah Boy: An Evening Of Original Music was directed by award winning Marc Tumminelli. Marc was awarded for the direction of Andrew Barth Feldman’s Park Map, as well as the club acts for multiple Broadway stars including: Erika Henningsen, Micaela Diamond and Farah Alvin. Additionally, Tumminelli is the founder and director of Broadway Workshop, NYC’s top training program for young actors.
To raise money for autism research, Feldman founded his own musical theater company, Zneefrock Productions. His performances have been glorified by many including The New York Times. After witnessing his role in, Dear Evan Hansen, on Broadway, the times claimed “Andrew Barth Feldman made me forget where I was, who I was, that I was anything other than part of the world onstage. Feldman’s previous cabaret show, Park Map, also won the BroadwayWorld Cabaret Award for Best Show. Next, he’ll be starring alongside Jennifer Lawrence in the movie No Hard Feelings.
During the production, you will find yourself astonished by the magical capabilities of the Midnight Theatre. There will be 270-degree projection-mapped visuals, D&B surround sound and more. Coming up, the dazzling 160-seat theater will also host podcast tapings with Impractical Jokersstars Q, Murr and Sal, Midnight Theatre Football Club, The Moth Storyslam Open-Mic, psychic channeling with Craig Mcmanus, comedy shows and more. Tickets for all events available here.
Midnight Theatre is a new, intimate performance venue in the heart of New York’s West Manhattan at 75 Manhattan West Plaza. As a guest expect to be met with unique experiences of magic, music, comedy, theater, and performance art by the ever-evolving, 160-seat theater. Inside the glamorous Midnight Theatre is an equally elegant and lively restaurant and bar, Hidden Leaf.
Prior to the shows, guests can dine at pan-Asian restaurant and lounge Hidden Leaf, created by chef/restaurateur Josh Cohen (Chez Ma Tante, Lilia, Saint Vitus). In addition to a kitchen helmed by Chef Chai Trivedi (Pranna, Tamarind, Buddakan, Eventi Hotel), guests can expect a romantic and playfully chic dining room that serves polished, table-sharing, pan-Asian cuisine. Aperitivo bar Midnight Cafe is also open. Here you’ll find a high-energy, fun experience, soundtracked to 70’s Italian disco.
You can find tickets for Barth Mitzvah Boy: An Evening Of Original Musichere.
“Barth Mitzvah Boy: An Evening Of Original Music” Guests:
Alex Boniello (Dear Evan Hansen, Spring Awakening) Zack Calderon (The Wilds on Amazon Prime) Amanda Rose Gross Paul Hogan Gaten Matarazzo (Stranger Things, Parade at New York City Center) Gian Perez (Sing Street) Shereen Pimentel (West Side Story, Into the Woods at New York City Center) Sam Primack (Dear Evan Hansen) Will Roland (Dear Evan Hansen, Be More Chill, Billions) Heath Saunders (Great Comet, Company) Sadie Seelert Samantha Williams (Dear Evan Hansen, Caroline or Change)
EMPAC, located at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, has unveiled their Spring 2023 season of performances. This series of events is a special opportunity to experience synthesizing productions that integrate artistic practices, and fuses both art and technology. Starting in January and running through May, artists in residence at EMPAC premiere shows that span dance, visual arts, performance-installations, multimedia concerts, new music, film, and hybrid theatrical productions.
Since its first commission in 2006, the EMPAC curatorial program has supported the commissioning, production, and presentation of ambitious performances and artworks that span time-based visual art, music, theater, and dance. The program’s polyvocal curatorial approach resonates through each project, generating time-based artworks that are diverse in content, method, technology, and audience experience. Alongside the curatorial program, researchers at Rensselaer use the infrastructure of EMPAC to expand the discourse at the intersection of digital technology and the human condition through a broad range of research projects in science and engineering that include cognitive computing, immersive visual and auditory environments, and physical computing.
This spring season at EMPAC hosts some of our largest and most intimate projects to date, all of which stretch sensory exploration and technical research in the arts in new ways. As we continue to welcome audiences back to EMPAC, our curators and engineers are excited to connect the people of our region to this polyvocal program of expansive new works by our artists in residence, many of which have been in development for several years at the Center.
Vic Brooks, EMPAC Associate Director of Arts and Senior Curator of Time-based Visual Art.
EMPAC (The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center) grants artists the creative sovereignty to pursue collaborations with others working not only in the fields of visual and performing arts, but also in science, new media, and technology. T
he Spring 2023 season showcases programs by worldwide artists that binds disciplines, medium, and subject matter–sculptors working with composers, visual artists with sound artists, a music/documentary-theater hybrid with an 18-person live orchestra, and a large-scale dome installation currently being designed to host performances with integrations of immersive VR, projection, and spatial audio. With the assistance of new and evolving technology developed by EMPAC, artists explore political, social, and global issues. Alongside this search, artists are also attentive to how new art forms can open imaginative spaces for rethinking the future.
On January 11, Daina Ashbee,a Canadian choreographer, recognized and admired for her innovativeness will make the US Premiere of her first group show J’ai pleuré avec les chiens(Time, Creation, Destruction)at EMPAC in Troy, NY.. You can expect a transformative experience about the rebellious potential of the human body in performative spaces, which has already been staged in a handful of major cities outside the US. Two more performances follow at Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center in New York City (January 13 & 14).
January 23 brings the live performance Cuando las nubes eran las olas / When the clouds were the waves by two EMPAC artists in residence, the Venezuelan-Ecuadorian artist Ana Navasand Venezuelan composer Mirtru Escalona-Mijares. The production explores the afterlives of the Venezuelan modernist art movement during a time of political and economic turmoil for the country. They pay homage to Alexander Calder’s panels in the Aula Magna, the main auditorium in the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas, and the commonalities the Aula Magna shares with the EMPAC concert hall, where the show will be installed and performed.
At Empact, the first program, A Kind Of Ache by music curator Amadeus Julian Regucerawill be delivered on January 27. The production will be an hour-long performance by the contemporary, experimental chamber music duo The Living Earth Show. This duo is on a mission to emphasize the voices, perspectives, and bodies of non-white and queer artists that mainstream classical music traditionally exclude. Sarah Hennies, a composer and percussionist whose works explore queer and trans identity, composes the original score. Terry Berlier, who investigates queerness and ecologies in her art, designs a sculpture-turned-instrument that the duo and Hennies will perform on. This is the kick-off to The Living Earth Show’s multi-season residency with EMPAC, with another engagement slated for Fall 2023.
On February 25, the world premiere of Paper Pianosby Mary Kouyoumdjian, an Armenian-American composer and documentarian and Nigel Maister, a South African- American director and writer will be performed live on EMPAC. The production will be delivered by the acclaimed 18-person Alarm Will Soundorchestra with projections by Syrian visual artist Kevork Mourad. The evening-length music and documentary-theater hybrid explores the dislocation, longing, and optimism of refugees and the experiences of those who provide services to them.
Bora Yoon, a Korean-American electroacoustic composer, vocalist, and sound artist, and Joshue Ott,a creative technologist who designs custom softwares, apps, and interactive visual and audio experiences for concert halls, join forces to premiere their multimedia concert SPKR SPRKL, on March 18. Yoon and Ott use EMPAC’s Wave Field Synthesis Array to produce a visually and sonically stimulating composition based on a new imminent album by Yoon.
Later in the season, Transtraterrestrial, a prequel and premiere of The Unarrival Experiments – Unconcealment Ceremonies(April 6), a long-term collaboration between EMPAC and queer/nonbinary/trans multidisciplinary artist Sage Ni’Ja Whitson, is installed in the EMPAC building. The installation features embodied performance, integrations of immersive VR, projection, and spatial audio in a custom-built 40’ x 15’ dome covered in painted organic matter. The performance dome structure was developed by Whitson through discourse with architects, engineers, and astrophysicists. In dialogue with Yorùbá Cosmology, astrophysics, and research on the “blackest black,” this iterative artwork is designed to magnify the dark, centering the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy through a black, queer, and trans embodied lens. For the fifth year, EMPAC is collaborating with graduate students from Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (CCS Bard) on a public exhibition. This year focuses on the black body in Detroit techno music, and is inspired by the work of scholar and music artist DeForrest Brown, Jr. The project engrossed recordings from the artist’s new album Techxodus, which operates as a musical successor to the ideas in his recent publication Assembling a Black Counter-Culture (2021). The world premiere of DeForrest Brown’s Speakers That Speak To Youat EMPAC (April 28) makes use of EMPAC’s extensive spatial audio capabilities and is curated by Katherine Adams, Liv Cunibert, Mary Fellios, Abel González Fernández, and Sidney Pettice.
On May 8, 2023, the Canadian bilingual, multidisciplinary live art ensemble and winner of an EMPAC open call with CINARS, Theatre Junction, will be at EMPAC for a residency and work-in-progress showing. The production will guide an audience through four distinct rooms that feature live video feeds and live actors. The work is being developed at EMPAC and will premiere in Montreal in the Fall of 2023.
EMPAC’s Spring 2023 season also includes public tours, screenings, and conversations with film director Ayo Akingbade, artist Armando Guadalupe Cortés, artist/DJ M. Elijah Sueuga, and EMPAC’s Senior Curator for Theater/Dance Ashley Ferro-Murray, among others; and events presented in collaboration with iEAR Presentsand the Sanctuary for Independent Media.
The free Music at Noon concert series is back, set to take place at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall on Jan. 10 with The Bluebillies.
The Bluebillies
Since 1988, on the second Tuesday of each month from October to May, the free Music at Noon concert series has presented exceptional musicians with diverse musical styles. On Jan. 10, the Bluebillies start off the concert series. The group performs its unique blend of country, bluegrass, and folk music with traditional style, sound, and spirit. Husband and wife team Mark and Melody Guarino have been singing together since 1984, with their mission being preserving the rich heritage of country music.
The Bluebillies produce a series of traveling Old-time Gospel Music Revues each season, host their own gospel music open mic each summer, and have released three records; Adirondack Angels in 2016, Gal From Ioway in 2014, and Train to Paradise in 2013. Also happening before the performance will be a workshop featuring Deb Cavanuagh introducing traditional American instruments from the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Students will sing along, dance, move and perform traditional American folk songs such as “I’ve Been Working on The Railroad,” “The Erie Canal, Froggie Went A’Courtin’,” and other favorites. The workshop will be from 10-11 a.m., with the performance starting right after.
Other Music at Noon performances coming up is Bleecker Consort on Feb. 14, Natalia Shevchuk on March 14, Akina Yura on April 11, and Findlay Cockrell on May 9. Tickets to these performances can be found here.
On January 28, The Hold Steady will be making a special appearance, performing for an event at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. The show is occurring exactly 20 years after the band’s first live performance, on the same site (then called North Six). Two Dark Birds will open at Music Hall, bringing the audience back to the January 2003 show where The Hold Steady opened for Two Dark Birds’ Steve Koester at North Six.
The Hold Steady also commemorates the release of their ninth studio album, The Price of Progress. The album will be released March 31, 2023 and found on their Personal Jams record label. This album stands as their most sonically expansive record thus far, while also remaining unmistakably The Hold Steady showcasing narrative rock ‘n’ roll tales of ordinary people struggling and surviving in a modern world.
The following week, the band will travel to the mid-Atlantic for a weekend of shows, from February 2-4. You can see The Hold Steady playing classic venues in Baltimore (Ottobar) and Washington D.C. (Black Cat), before finishing in Philadelphia (Brooklyn Bowl).
The remainder of the year attributes the 2023 edition of The Weekender, the band’s semi-annual multi-night live event for fans in the United Kingdom and Europe, set to take place at London’s Electric Ballroom (March 10-11) and Colours Hoxton (March 12). This will be followed by visits to Portland, New York City (WFUV HighLine Bash), Boston, a two-night stand at Chicago, IL’s The Salt Shed set for June 30 and July 1, joined by special guests The Mountain Goats and Dillinger Four. An additional The Hold Steady show for Chicago at Empty Bottle on July 2 goes on sale this Friday. Tickets for all announced shows are on sale now. For complete details, visit theholdsteady.net.
THE HOLD STEADY – LIVE 2023
JANUARY
28 – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg (Official 20th Anniversary Show) #
FEBRUARY
2 – Baltimore, MD – Ottobar ^
3 – Washington, DC – Black Cat ^
4 – Philadelphia, PA – Brooklyn Bowl ^l
MARCH
10 – London, UK – Electric Ballroom *
11 – London, UK – Electric Ballroom *
12 – London, UK – Colours Hoxton * (SOLD OUT)
MAY
12 – New York, NY – WFUV Highline Bash
JUNE
30 – Chicago, IL – The Salt Shed †
JULY
1 – Chicago, IL – The Salt Shed † (SOLD OUT)
2 – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle
NOVEMBER
29-30 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl **
DECEMBER
1 – 2 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl **
# w/Special Guest Two Dark Birds
^ w/Special Guests Friendship
* The Weekender 2023
† w/ Special Guests The Mountain Goats and Dillinger Four
Radio Woodstock WDST has announced a special celebration with David Bowie’s former band members, airing on Saturday, January 7th.
The two-hour celebration will be hosted by drummer Zachary Alford and features an all-star lineup of musicians who have toured and collaborated with David Bowie over the years. Special guests include keyboardist Mike Garson, bassist and singer Gail Ann Dorsey, and guitarists Earl Slick, Reeves Gabrels and Gerry Leonard, during an unforgettable evening of Bowie’s music and the memories of his bandmates.
“Reliving these memories with my bandmates was priceless; I feel like David has never left.”
Zachary Alford
“Saturday Night Takeover” represents Radio Woodstock’s independent music voice, where for 40 years the station has championed new music and pioneered an original music line-up with a mix of new artists, legendary musicians, and special music programming.
WDST’s “David Bowie Saturday Night Takeover” will air on Saturday, January 7th, from 10 pm to Midnight on-air at 100.1. Listen online at RadioWoodstock.com or via the iHeartRADIO app. There will be a rebroadcast on Sunday, January 8th, from 5pm – 7pm. Listen to other “Saturday Night Takeover ”episodes on demand on RadioWoodstock.com
Locally owned and operated for over 4 decades, Radio Woodstock is one of the most influential rock music stations in the world and is unique for being both listener and advertiser-supported. Radio Woodstock curates music and informational programming, advertising campaigns, digital marketing solutions, experiential marketing programs, and virtual and live music experiences. Radio Woodstock’s curatorial programmers and DJs, who are recognized experts in their field, present the best emerging artists alongside the largest rock n’ roll library in the world.
Radio Woodstock’s live events division produces experiential live events, including concerts and festivals, and is most known for creating Mountain Jam and Taste of Country, which grew to become the largest music and camping festivals in the Northeast, together drawing over 100,000 attendees each year. Its live events division currently produces CannaStock, the first cannabis festival in the Hudson Valley, the Hudson Valley Rodeo, as well as concerts in both established indoor and unique outdoor venues.
The Seneca Savings January JazzFest has been renamed to the Winter Jazzfest because the event will be moved to February this year to accommodate the longer NFL football schedule.
The January JazzFest has been a fixture in the Syracuse area midwinter music scene since 2011, held at Mohegan Manor, Baldwinsville’s multi-story music venue. The event provides a full day of jazz and related musical styles, with fine food and drinks served. The event is also the annual fundraiser for CNY Jazz Central, the region’s primary provider of jazz in public and in schools since 1996.
The name is now changing to the Winter JazzFest because the event will be held on Feb. 5 from 1-8 p.m. “We’re adjusting to the longer NFL football schedule, plain and simple,” according to Larry Luttinger, CNY Jazz founder and leader. “We’ve always held this event on Pro Bowl Sunday, and when the NFL playoffs expanded last year, we felt the negative effects. So here we are, same great day of music, now in February.”
This year’s lineup features the nine-piece horn group Brass Inc playing funk, blues, and contemporary hits on the second floor of the venue. Rising star Vanessa Vacanti and the Jazz Mafia will be on the main floor, and Rick Montalbano and Julie Falatico will be in the downstairs bistro. The event always concludes with a celebrity jazz session. A special jazz menu and full drink selection will be available throughout the day.
Brass Inc.
Speaking about the lineup, Luttinger says ““We’re going with a more fun dance party vibe this time around. Definitely come ready to party with your best dancing shoes on.” People will be able to pop in and out of the event with their wristbands to catch whoever they want to see that day. Proceeds from the festival will support the scholastic activities of the CNY Jazz “Educational Pipeline” of scholastic programs including the SummerJazz Workshop and CNY Jazz Youth Orchestra.
Tickets for the annual Winter JazzFest are on sale now for $25, with day of show tickets being $30.
The Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes will perform at the Rockwell Museum in Corning for the first time in three years with the 2022-23 Musicians’ Choice Chamber Series on Jan. 13 at 7:30 p.m.
The Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes offers a concert season of five full orchestra concerts, including a side-by-side Young People’s Orchestra and professional musician collaboration, the Musicians’ Choice Chamber Music Series, concerts by the Chorus of the Southern Finger Lakes, the youth ensembles, and educational outreach programs. The orchestra is guided by distinguished Music Director and Conductor Toshiyuki Shimada, helping to highlight the musical achievements of the youth in the area.
The concert at the Rockwell Museum in Corning, the only Smithsonian Affiliate in Upstate New York, will feature principal players Emily Dobmeier (clarinet) and Rosanna Moore (harp) presenting “From a British Point of View.” Both received doctoral degrees from the Eastman School of Music and have been playing together for over five years.
This concert features three works by living and recent British composers. The first piece is the melodic Victorian Kitchen Garden Suite by Paul Reade, which became popular in the 1980s when a BBC show aired by the same name. The second piece on the program is Arcadian Sketches, composed a decade later by John Marson. The final piece, Sonata for Clarinet and Harp by Andy Scott, written in 2002, is influenced by Eastern European folk rhythms and jazz harmony.
Other concerts on the Musicians’ Choice Chamber Series will be held at the Rockwell Museum in Corning on Feb. 3 and at North Presbyterian Church on March 31. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for the Jan. 13 show, and tickets are on sale now.
Happy New Year! Hopefully you are all rested up and ready to kick off January 2023 with a bang Rochester! January brings a big slowdown in touring acts around these parts, and in most parts of the country. But luckily for us, Rochester has a broad and deep pool of fantastic local talent to sate our live music appetites and this January they are coming out in full force to get us out of our warm abodes and out into the bars, clubs, theaters and anywhere else live music can be squeezed into.
Here are five+ must-see shows happening around town this month, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg, so make sure to get out there and support the local music scene and treat your cabin-fevered brain to some much needed aural relief.
We’re recommending two different shows on the same night, but if you play your cards right you could do both. Herb Smith plays trumpet for the Rochester Philharmonic but with the Freedom Trio he expands his sound palette with plenty of effects and literally the freedom to explore the outer boundaries of jazz and beyond. With Peter Chwazik on a massive 9-string bass and Joe Parker flying free on drums, the possibilities are endless and the results are a joy to hear and be a part of.
One of Rochester’s many recent breakout bands, Mikaela Davis kicks off a three show residency at our favorite honky tonk, Abilene Bar and Lounge, that will warm January and creep into early February. Each night will feature two sets and as yet unannounced themes. We wouldn’t recommend missing any of these Thursday night throw downs but really, you absolutely have to get yourself to at least one. A favorite of Bob Weir’s and ours alike, this harpist and her band Southern Star are as can’t miss as they come, and Rochester gets three intimate opportunities to groove down with them in a cozy and intimate bar.
Shows January 19, 26 and February 2 will start at 8pm and tickets are $15/$20 dos.
Certainly you can get out to all of these awesome individual local shows, but there won’t be any better option for celebrating the local music scene than the annual (until Covid stopped it for 2 years) Homegrown Festival thrown by Lovin’ Cup. This year’s show will feature performances by Teagan and the Tweeds, A Girl Named Genny, The Mighty High & Dry, The Moho Collective, Friday In America, and The John Payton Project. That’s a full day of some of the best music you’ll here in Rochester, plus there’ll be tons of local food, beers and crafts to enjoy as well.
Fresh faced instrumental progressive rock quartet Vertices is putting on a festival of their own at Flour City Station. They’ll play a full set of their heavily improvised high energy jams and are a new band that you’ll want to keep a close eye in 2023. Painted Birds will also perform and everything will be stitched together with DJ sets from DDH PVH. There will be catered food, live painting, and art vendors making this another cant-miss celebration of the local art scene.
Everything gets going at 8pm and tickets are $10/$15 dos.
The Park Theater in Glens Falls has announced upcoming events for the month of January including comedy, jazz groups, and bands.
The Park Theater was the first movie theater in Glens Falls upon its opening in 1911. In 1937 the theater was converted into a printing plant for the Glens Falls Post, and it was changed back to a performing arts center in 1984. After renovations in 2014, it reopened as a theater in 2018. During the month of January, the Park Theater has a little bit of everything happening.
On Jan. 14, the theater presents Hiroya Tsukamoto, back by popular demand. He is an award-winning innovative guitarist, composer, and storyteller, who recently won second place in the International Finger Style Guitar Championship. His instrumental abilities are both groundbreaking and breathtaking. The show opens at 7:30 p.m. with music at 8 p.m., and tickets are $15 now, and $20 the day of.
Experience some of the best jazz music in the Capital Region with “Third Thursday Jazz” featuring The Matt Niedbalski Trio featuring organist, Will Gorman, and guitarist, Eric Zolan on Jan. 19. Tickets are $10 and the show starts at 7:30 p.m.
The Park Theater Foundation presents ‘Live & Local’ featuring Reese Fulmer & The Carriage House Band on Jan. 26. Dubbed “one of the Capitol Region’s best singer/songwriters” by David Van, Fulmer is an engaging performer, performing his own music. The Carriage House Band returns with a fluid lineup of some of the most versatile musicians in the Capital Region. Early bird tickets are $15, and the day of the show is $20, with the show starting at 7:30 p.m.
Reese Fulmer & The Carriage House Band
Lastly, on Jan. 27, The Park Theater Foundation presents ‘Comedy After Dark’ featuring highly-acclaimed NYC-based comedian, Caitlin Cook. She combines witty one-liners and mixes them with musical comedy to create her shows, bringing her to stages like the Comedy Cellar, the Stand, Comedy Works, ACME, and more. Tickets are $22 for the early bird special and $25 the day of the show, starting at 8 p.m.
For more information about upcoming events and to purchase tickets, go here.
