ABBA’s music was center stage at Proctors in Schenectady on Thursday, April 11, as ABBA The Concert: A Tribute to ABBA, began their tour and kept the Swedish disco pop legacy alive. The show was riddled with outfit changes, energy and music to get the audience out of their seats, and the closest you can get to the real thing.
As the lights dimmed, the band walked out to crowd cheers. The setlist was filled with ABBA favorites including “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” and “Lay All Your Love On Me,” as this tribute band brought the excitement with them. Following each era of ABBA’s music were an outfit change including bright colors, sparkles and patterns. There was a mixture of dancing and singing throughout the evening, followed by acoustic songs that brought tears to the audience’s eyes.
To finish an extraordinary night of 70’s favorites, “Dancing Queen” got everyone out of their seats. As the band left the stage, the crowd danced their way to the exit, hearing the audience comment “They were so amazing,” and “I forgot it wasn’t ABBA.”
This was truly a night none will forget, with songs stuck in our heads for years to come.
On April 17, the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College will present “as if our hands could hold the weight of promise” in conjunction with the Elevator Music 48: Alone, only in flesh exhibition.
Artists MIZU, Theresa-Xuan Bui, Antonius-Tín Bui, and dancer Glenna Yu will turn the Tang elevator and atrium staircase into a living canvas of sound, movement, and spoken word poetry. They take the audience on an excursion, joining the diasporic artists on a migration embodying the hesitations, expectations, and contemplations of returning home.
Elevator Music 48: Alone, only in flesh is a collaborative meditation on the intersections of identity, belonging, and the spaces in-between. The artists invite viewers to commune with the unknown through Asian snacks, traditional Vietnamese áo dài clothing, and experimental cello. In this experience, they engage all five senses.
Additionally, Ivy K. Vương, Curatorial Assistant, is working with the artists to organize the performance. At 4:30pm, Skidmore College’s K-Pop II students will perform under Visiting Artist-in-Residence Chia-Ying Kao before the main event.
The Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College explores interdisciplinary learning, blending arts within history, economics, and biology. Designed by architect Antoine Predock, this award-winning building symbolizes the fusion of art and ideas. Open Tuesday-Sunday, noon-5pm, with extended Thursday hours until 9pm.
Save April 17 in your calendars to celebrate art, culture, and community at the Tang Teaching Museum. The performance is free for anyone to see and begins at 5pm. For show and artist details, click here.
Many know of Suzanne Vega for her infamous tunes such as “Luka” or “Tom’s Diner,” but they may not know that she’s been a New York native since she was two-and-a-half years old and that her brand new world tour just launched here in Albany.
The tour, titled “Old Songs, New Songs, and Other Songs,” is in celebration of a new album she teased throughout her live performance. No word on a title or release date as of yet, but she did perform new songs and announced on-stage that it should be out late this year, if not early next year.
The stage of The Egg itself was dressed simply, with no fluff. A stool, two guitars (one with quite the pedalboard), and some mics. Suzanne Vega walked out and was accompanied by Guitarist Gerry Leonard.
Wearing a black pantsuit and a welcoming smile, Suzanne Vega walked to the microphone and graciously accepted the applause the Albany crowd enthusiastically gave. Taking a small bow and putting on a black top hat, she started in by leaning into the ‘old’ with tunes like “Gypsy” and “Small Blue Thing” and weaving back and forth in time throughout her catalog, reminding us of her soft, soulful, yet powerful voice and one-of-a-kind musical storytelling.
In between songs, she takes moments to talk to the audience and the intimate setting of The Egg is perfect for it. She tells the stories behind some of her songs and gives more insight to who she wrote them for and why. imparting a personal touch into the show and sheds light on things in her life, especially a specific camp counselor with whom she worked alongside at another nearby camp many years ago. Before letting any story get stale, however, Suzanne gets to the music and delivers.
Gerry Leonard’s smooth and airy, guitar blended with Suzanne’s acoustic guitar and vocal accompaniment seamlessly as he turned his solo instrument into a soundscape by employing looping pedals to sustain melodies and rhythms. This was best exemplified by the final song of the set “Tom’s Diner” where a makeshift drum beat was created and looped while guitar plucks melodically assisted.
In addition to his glowing performance on Tuesday, Leonard also co-wrote Vega’s 2014 album Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles and has worked with other talented musicians such as David Bowie, Roger Waters, and Duncan Sheik.
Suzanne Vegas world tour will continue on to the Kupferberg Center for the Arts in Flushing, NY on September 27 and at Old Dutch Church in Kingston, NY on October 4.
Legendary rockers Deep Purple have announced the “1 More Time” tour alongside fellow rock legends, YES this summer. The tour sees stops at SPAC, Jones Beach Amphitheater, and Bethel Woods Center for the Arts.
Deep Purple Live in 1971
The tour kicks off on August 14 in Hollywood, Florida and wraps up September 8 in Scranton, PA. The tour makes its way to New York State for three shows September 1, 4, and 6. Deep Purple and YES plan to rock cities all across the US with their highly influential and explosive discographies. The groups have lineups of unforgettable hits that are sure to get the audience rocking.
Legendary Ian Gillan fronts the band with vocals that have defined generations. He is accompanied by the masterful bassist Roger Glover, the powerhouse drummer Ian Paice, the maestro on keyboards Don Airey, and the sensational guitarist Simon McBride. Deep Purple guarantees a musical journey like no other.
Yes
Deep Purple, Yes 2024 Tour
Aug 14 – Hollywood, FL – Hard Rock Live Aug 15 – Tampa, FL – Seminole Hard Rock Event Center Aug 17 – The Woodlands, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion Aug 19 – Fort Worth, TX – Dickies Arena Aug 21 – Cincinnati, OH – PNC Pavilion at Riverbend Music Center Aug 22 – Sterling Heights, MI – Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill Aug 23 – Tinley Park, IL – Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre Aug 25 – Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage Aug 27 – Montreal, QC – Bell Center Aug 28 – Gilford, NH – BankNH Pavilion Aug 30 – Camden, NJ – Freedom Mortgage Pavilion Aug 31 – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center Sep 01 – Wantagh, NY – Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater Sep 03 – Bridgeport, CT – Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater Sep 04 – Saratoga Springs, NY – Broadview Stage at SPAC Sep 06 – Bethel, NY – Bethel Woods Center For the Arts Sep 07 – Bristow, VA – Jiffy Lube Live Sep 08 – Scranton, PA – The Pavilion at Montage Mountain
To learn more about Deep Purple and Yes’ upcoming tour, and to purchase tickets, click here.
Caroga Arts Collective announced the lineup for the Caroga Lake Music Festival (CLMF)’s 2024 summer season – bringing in more than 150 artists from around the world to Caroga for 40 events spanning genres from funk, rock, pop to jazz, americana, classical, and even comedy.
Notable artists include Cory Wong, Sawyer Fredericks, Eddie Barbash, Alex Moffat, Henhouse Prowlers, and rising superstar Eddie Benjamin. In addition, over 100 Resident Artists from 24 states and five countries will reside across six weeks and perform major orchestral pieces like Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Copland’s Appalachian Spring, as well as prominent solo and chamber works.
Presented by Caroga Arts Collective, the Caroga Lake Music Festival is a multi-genre music festival presenting a series of world-class performances in the Southern Adirondacks. Since the festival’s founding in 2012, CMLF has grown from a one-week chamber music festival to an internationally recognized festival showcasing a multitude of genres from May to September. The mainstay is a five-week summer residency featuring renowned soloists, chamber musicians, and orchestral professionals in collaboration with international touring guest artists.
Located on the shore of West Caroga Lake, Sherman’s Park is the home base for the Caroga Lake Music Festival. Known as a venue for iconic big bands in the 1920s and 1930s, Sherman’s provides the perfect up-close setting for an engaging and memorable concert-going experience. Caroga Lake Music Festival regularly attracts thousands of audience members from locally and afar to its concerts, helping spur tourism and economic growth for the town. Caroga Arts is proud to welcome concertgoers of all ages to ride the George and Ruth Abdella Carousel before every 2024 CLMF concert at Sherman’s Park.
Each summer, it’s a joy to bring artists, audiences and communities together for concerts, events and memories along the lake. It’s hard to believe we started this 13 seasons ago when we were only teenagers and now those same artists are going on to win the Grammys, playing in Carnegie Hall and touring across the world. CLMF resides at the core of Caroga Arts mission to reimagine the Adirondack Experience through the power of the arts. By showcasing a diverse group of artists ranging across genres, generations, and geographies, we are confident this year’s lineup features something for everyone.
Kyle Barrett Price, Founder, Executive and Artistic Director of the Caroga Arts Collective.
Performing at the 2024 CLMF for the first time this year are ‘80s rock band Generation Radio(featuring former members of Chicago, Rascal Flatts, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), Americana/country group The Mallett Brothers Band, and jazz vocalist Shayna Steele. Other highlights will include: “Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue at 100,” performed by Caroga Arts Ensemble and conducted by Grammy winner David Alan Miller, with Kevin Cole on piano; The return of the free Kids Carousel Concert series including a performance of Louie the Loon, back by popular demand; The Queen’s Cartoonists and collaborations with Running Wild Media and Utica Dance; and Multi-instrumentalist and musical prodigy Eddie Benjamin, who toured with superstar Justin Bieber, collaborates with Caroga Arts Ensemble.
In the Fall of 2023, Caroga Arts launched the String Project & Arts Collaborative Education (SPACE) program in Wheelerville and Johnstown schools. This groundbreaking initiative aims to deliver accessible music lessons and mentorship opportunities to students in schools where the offerings are not otherwise provided in their music programs. This summer marks another milestone for Caroga Arts as they introduce the SPACE Summer Camp, previously recognized as the CLMF Lessons & Ensemble Program. The camp is designed to continue the momentum of providing individual and small group lessons throughout the summer, offering students the opportunity to learn from the esteemed Resident Artists.
We are thrilled to provide returning and new engaging workshops for all ages and levels through the SPACE Summer Camp. Each summer, our education programs have proven to be a rewarding experience for all involved — the Resident Artist instructors, our community of music students, and all attendees of our annual showcase. As we expand arts education offerings to support our youngest students to our senior amateur musicians, the summer program remains a beloved tradition that allows us to build on our year-round resources and provide opportunities for musicians of all ages to hone their musical talents.
Stephanie Price-Wong, Caroga Arts’ Director of Education and Community Engagement.
We are thrilled to provide returning and new engaging workshops for all ages and levels through the SPACE Summer Camp. Each summer, our education programs have proven to be a rewarding experience for all involved — the Resident Artist instructors, our community of music students, and all attendees of our annual showcase. As we expand arts education offerings to support our youngest students to our senior amateur musicians, the summer program remains a beloved tradition that allows us to build on our year-round resources and provide opportunities for musicians of all ages to hone their musical talents.
Discounted Season Passes are now available for purchase and tickets for individual performances will go on sale April 26, 2024. All Caroga Arts presented events are free for children and students aged 17 and below, excluding fundraising events. To learn more about Caroga Arts and reserve tickets, please visit here.
2024 CLMF Schedule
Sat, May 25 @ 11 a.m. – Kids Carousel Concert: Reptiles & Friends Via Aquarium
Sat, May 25 @ 7 p.m. – The Man in Black: A Tribute to Johnny Cash
Fri. Jul 5 @ 7:30 p.m. – CLMF Resident Artists: Symphonic Sparks! A Fourth of July Concert & Fireworks
Sat. July 6 @ 5 p.m. – Red, White, Blues & Bluegrass: The Mallett Brothers Band; Quinn Sullivan; Geoff Saunders & The Nashville Bluegrass Buddies
Wed. July 17 @ 7 p.m. – CLMF Resident Artists: Carousel Music Box: An immersive experience with Caroga Arts & Utica Dance
Fri. Jul 19 @ 7 p.m. – CLMF on Tour: Caroga Chapel: Caroga Arts Ensemble performs the Holberg Suite
Sat. Jul 20 @ 5 p.m. – Caroga Arts Gala: A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Cara Samantha & The Highline Band
Sun. Jul 21 @ 3 p.m. – CLMF on Tour: Sacandaga Valley Arts Network
Wed. Jul 24 @ 7 p.m. – The Queen’s Cartoonists: Music from cartoons and animation, Live and synchronized to the big screen!
Grammy-Winning Artists BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet will celebrate a half century of cajun music as they bring the bayou to Saratoga Springs’ Universal Preservation Hall on Thursday, April 18.
BeauSoleil is known to bring audiences to their feet, being born from the rich Acadian ancestry of members, created and driven by bandleader Michael Doucet’s spellbinding fiddle playing and soulful vocals, offering inspiring two-stepping, waltzing, and standing ovations wherever they go.
BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet can be credited with taking Cajun music from its regional roots in Louisiana to popularity worldwide. Their most recent album, and the 25th in their 45-year career, was titled From Bamako to Carencro, alluding to the cultural and migratory connection between Bamako, in Mali, West Africa, and Louisiana (symbolized in name by the Lafayette, LA suburb of Carencro), a connection that draws a sonic bloodline back to BeauSoleil’s roots.
Since becoming the first Cajun band to win a Grammy with L’amour Ou La Folie (their Traditional Folk Album–1998) and then a second Grammy in 2010, “Live at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival,” BeauSoleil has garnered many accolades, including 12 Grammy nominations.
Universal Preservation Hall hosts the multiple Grammy Award-winning group’s 50th anniversary tour 7:30 p.m. in the Great Hall Thursday, April 18 as part of the Passport Series-Music Haven at Proctors Collaborative.
Local Saratoga-based southern restaurant Hatties will serve free jambalaya samples alongside the bar in UPH’s lobby directly before the show for ticket holders.
Tickets are available through the Box Office at Proctors in-person, via phone at (518) 346-6204 Monday-Saturday 10 a.m.-6 p.m. or online visit atuph.org.
On June 29, Phish frontman Trey Anastasio will perform with The Boston Pops at Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts. The performance will feature Anastasio performing solo work and orchestral compositions, amid the atmosphere of the Berkshire Mountains.
Part of the Popular Artist Series, Anastasio will perform with the Boston Pops – conducted by Edwin Outwater – at the Koussevitzky Music Shed, in Lenox, MA on Saturday, June 29, at 7pm.
Anastasio had been set to perform with the Boston Pops in 2020, but the event was one of the many live music performances canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Performing along with a string section, a Rescue Squad or a philharmonic, Anastasio has taken his orchestration talents to a wider audience, melding compositions for rock and guitar along with an orchestra. Since 2000, Anastasio has performed with string groups, and the Tanglewood show is his second of this summer, having announced a July date with the National Symphony Orchestra in Vienna, VA.
photo by Conor McMahon
Tickets for Trey Anastasio and the Boston Pops at Tanglewood will go on sale Wednesday, April 17 at 10am at Trey.com.
The performing arts centers at The Egg and the University at Albany, which jointly present Dance in Albany, are proud to present Savion Glover on Saturday, April 13, 2024, at 8 pm at The Egg.
Glover has visited the region for performances and speaking engagements on many occasions, most recently as part of the Dance in Albany series in April 2023. “PaRT.TU The LaST HooFeR STaNDiNG” is the second installment of Glover’s Cinema Stage CoLLeqSHuNz which continues to explore the boundaries between mental health and self-expression. According to Glover, the show creates an environment where the highest form of sensitivity is necessary to welcome complete comprehension.
Born in 1973, the tap dancer, choreographer, and actor has graced the stage since childhood. Before he was a teenager, Savion Glover made his mark in the leading role of the Broadway musical The Tap Dance Kid, starring alongside Hattie Winston, Samuel E. Wright, Martine Allard, Jackie Lowe, Barbara Montgomery, Alfonso Ribeiro, the recently deceased Hinton Battle, who won a Tony Award for his performance, and the late Alan Weeks, a long-time Capital Region resident who ran the Student Theatre Outreach Program (STOP) at The Egg for many years.
Glover developed his own dancing style, “free style hard core.” The Tony Award winner eventually worked with dancing greats Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis, Jr. Among his credits are starring roles in major motion pictures like Jelly’s Last Jam, for which he made history as the youngest-ever recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant. As a choreographer, his work has helped maintain tap dancing as an art form in the modern dance world. His starring role in the musical Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk, which he also choreographed, debuted on Broadway in 1996. The musical chronicles events in African-American history and brought him another Tony for Best Choreographer.
Savion Glover was made known to the younger generation with recurring appearances on Sesame Street. He also holds the credit as the live captured dancing motion behind Mumble the Penguin in Happy Feet, the film on which he also served as co-choreographer.
Tickets are $36 and are available at The Egg Box Office on the Concourse Level of the Empire State Plaza in Albany, by phone at 518-473-1845 and online. After Glover’s show, there is one performance remaining in the Dance in Albany series. The Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company will take the stage at The Egg on Saturday, May 18 at 8 p.m.
Texas singer songwriter Ruthie Foster brought her incredible cross-genre versatility to a standing-room-only house at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs on Thursday, April 4.
Combining a long set of her own songs of contemporary blues, Americana, gospel and country blues, including “Singing The Blues,” “Brand New Day,” and “4am” with her truly unique arrangements of covers like Pete Seeger’s “If I Had A Hammer,” June Carter Cash’s “Ring Of Fire” and Patty Griffin’s “When It Don’t Come Easy,” interspersed with crowd-pleasing stage banter that ranged from where the ideas for some of her songs came from, to family stories, she delivered a truly energetic show to a highly appreciative crowd in an intimate setting.
With her brilliant flatpicking and fingerpicking on a hollow body electric guitar, which she introduced as “Pearl”, she delivered her well-crafted original songs in a solo performance that matched the legendary intimacy of the room at Caffe Lena, giving the audience a clear understanding of what lies behind her multiple Grammy nominations, Blues Foundation’s Koko Taylor Award, and induction into the Texas Blues Hall of Fame.
The show marked the start of a six-month tour for Ruthie Foster, covering the US and parts of Canada, immediately followed with an April 5 show at The Folkus Project in Syracuse, with other shows in the region in Massachusetts and New Jersey. The tour is followed by a multi-day blues cruise out of Florida.
Ruthie referred to herself at one point as a country girl who grew up on a farm in Texas where she learned how to drive a car at eight years of age in the fields by sitting on phonebooks on the seat of her dad’s pickup truck, moving it slowly at his direction as farmhands loaded hay bales onto the back of the truck. She then segued into her beautifully fingerpicked rendition of Mississippi John Hurt’s “Richland Woman’s Blues” that brought her audience in for chorus sing-alongs.
Throughout the show, Ruthie’s energy fed the crowd and, in turn, was fueled by her audience’s response, both by her playing and singing as well as her eye contact and facial expressions. At the end of her single long set when she said she had only time for one more, she acceded to the the audience request of “Phenomenal Woman” saying “Okay, but that’ll be the encore,” and gave a stellar and moving performance that brought the crowd to its feet where they stayed and cheered until she returned for an a cappella gospel type tune with her appreciative audience joining in on.
There is something very special about a talented solo performance of well-crafted songs delivered to an audience in an intimate venue setting and this was just such an experience.
Playhouse Stage Company announced the opening of a brand new production of the celebrated musical Spring Awakening, playing at Cohoes Music Hall through April 28, with 7:30 p.m. evening performances on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. matinee performances on Saturdays and Sundays.
Playhouse Stage has produced free outdoor summer musicals at Albany’s Park Playhouse since 1989 and has been presenting musicals year-round at the historic Cohoes Music Hall since 2016. Spring Awakening is a rock musical based on a 19th-century German play of the same name and explores the challenges of adolescence and coming of age in a repressive world. The production plays April 12-28, 2024.
The winner of eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Spring Awakening features a book and lyrics by Steven Sater, and a rock-infused score by Duncan Sheik. About its original 2006 Broadway production The New York Observer wrote, “Once in a generation, if we’re lucky, an unexpected new musical comes along and changes everything. That is the thrilling achievement of Spring Awakening.” With electrifying music that Entertainment Weekly called “the most gorgeous Broadway score ofthe decade,” and a fearless approach to important, often taboo topics, including suicide, sexual assault, and child abuse, Spring Awakening grips audiences with an intense emotional journey.
We are excited to give our very talented teen students a chance to work on such a relevant, challenging, and exciting piece of theatre. Many themes and topics explored in Spring Awakening are often referred to as adult subject matter, but these are things that teenagers deal with daily, and it is important to shine a light on them. We are extremely proud of both our students and our creative team for handling the mature subject matter in such a professional manner, and rising to the occasion to tell this vital story so effectively.
Playhouse Stage Producing Artistic Director Owen Smith
The production is directed by Playhouse Stage Managing Director, Chuck Kraus, with choreography and musical staging by Director of Education Ashley Simone Kirchner, and musical direction by Brandon Jones. The trio has helmed the Playhouse’s advanced teen productions since 2016. Rounding out the Creative Team as Intimacy Director is Yvonne Perry in her first Playhouse Stage Company collaboration. The youth roles in the production are performed by advanced teen students from the Playhouse Stage Academy theatre training program, alongside local professional performers Ellen Cribbs and Nick.
Tickets for Spring Awakening are on sale through The Cohoes Music Hall Box Office, by phone at 518-434- 0776, or online.
