Wednesday April 24, 2024 
Do you play a musical instrument?
The Averill Park Community Orchestra is starting rehearsals again this month and we are eagerly seeking new members. If you or someone you know plays an orchestral instrument and may be interested in joining, please contact Christina Desmond at 518-948-0565. We are especially trying to fill vacancies in the string French horn, bass clarinet, and string instrument sections, but are always willing to accept players of other woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments, we well. The APCO rehearses at Algonquin Middle School in Averill Park on Wednesday evenings from 7:00 – 8:30, and performs two concerts each year, one in December and one in June. Rehearsals for the fall season begin September 11th, and we will accept new members through early October (9/11, 9/18, 9/25, 10/2) in preparation for our December 14th performance.
Organ Dedication Concert
The Greenbush Reformed Church is excited to announce the dedicatory organ recital, featuring the new four manual, 106-stop instrument constructed by the Allen Organ Company, will be performed on Sunday, September 22, 2019 at 3:00. The program will feature choral offerings by the Choir of the church, and organ works by Alfred V. Fedak, Louis Vierne, Franklin Ashdown, and Angela Kraft Cross. The program is open to all. Admission is free. Light refreshments will be served afterward. The church is located at 688 Columbia Turnpike, East Greenbush, NY 12061. For more information, please contact Justan Foster, Music Director at Justan.foster@nulllive.com or 518-965-2389.
Call Now For Oakwood By Lantern Light: A Living History Tour
Back by popular demand! This tour goes deep into Oakwood after dark with the glow of lanterns and luminaries to light the way. Experienced guides will lead us on a 1.5 mile walk to select gravesites. We will encounter historic interpreters in period clothing who will share their amazing stories. Almost all are different from the ‘residents’ we met on last year’s tour, including General John Wool and his wife, engineer Thomas Knickerbocker, and Ann Cluett.
Saturday September 28th
We have 4 time slots with a limit of 25 people per slot: 5:45pm, 6:00, 6:15 (and 6:30 which is already sold out.)
$20.pp Must be Paid In Advance. Call 518-328-0090 to reserve. Please speak clearly. Leave your name, phone, how many people and desired time slot. Your reservation will not be honored until we receive your payment in full.
If you are paying by credit card, do NOT leave your card number in your voice message. Someone will call you back for those details. If paying by check, make it payable to the Friends of Oakwood and indicate the tour name in the memo. You can come to the office during regular office hours with your credit card or to drop off your check. Or you can mail checks to:
Oakwood Cemetery
50 – 101st Street
Troy, NY 12180
Spaces are filling fast. Call today if you want to see this popular tour.
Dress for outdoor walking and bring a flashlight.
Thank You for your support.
Sand Lake Center for the Arts announces the new CTP Plays for the 2019-2020 Season
Circle Theatre Players has chosen a great line up of plays for this new 2019-2020 season. Starting off with Church and State, written by Jason Odell Williams and directed by Patrick White, October 4 – 13, 2019. Followed by Laughter on the 23rd Floor, written by Neil Simon and directed by Melanie Douglas, December 6 -15, 2019. The mid-winter play is All My Sons written by Arthur Miller, directed by Barry Streifert, March 6 – 15 2020, and to finish off the season we present the comedy Leading Ladies written by Ken Ludwig and directed by Cheryl Charbonneau, June 5 – 14, 2020. SLCA is once again offering a CTP season pass that gives you a $2.00 discount off each of the 4 plays, upfront seating (first 4 rows) free drink and cookie, and no need to make and pay for reservations each time you attend a play all for the incredible price of $64.00 a season pass. To purchase a season pass go to www.slca-ctp.org or call the office at 518-674-2007. We look forward to seeing you this fall!
Call for Artists
The Valley Falls United Methodist Church is seeking artists to exhibit their work in the 4th Annual Fine Art Show on Saturday, November 9, 2019. Visit http://www.valleyfallsunitedmethodist.com, email the show committee at vfumfinearts@nullgmail.com, or contact Jocelyn Cole at 518-753-2035 for an application form, show rules, and information. Application deadline is October 19, 2019.
Doubt performed by Will Kempe Players on stage at Sand Lake Center for the Arts
Sand Lake Center for the Arts brings the Will Kempe Players back for three special performances of the play Doubt. Doubt is set in the fictional St. Nicholas Church School, in the Bronx, during the fall of 1964. It centers around Father Flynn, a beloved and progressive parish priest. The school’s principal, Sister Aloysius, a rigidly conservative nun vowed to the order of the Sisters of Charity, insists upon constant vigilance whom harbors deep mistrust toward her students, her fellow teachers, and society in general. Aloysius and Father Flynn are put into direct conflict when she learns from Sister James that the priest met one-to-one with Donald Muller, St. Nicholas’ first African-American student. Mysterious circumstances lead her to believe that sexual misconduct occurred and leaves Aloysius questioning her faith and herself. Winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, John Patrick Shanley’s parable leaves the audience in the same predicament as Sister Aloysius, filling us all with Doubt.
Performances are September 20 and 21 at 8pm, September 22 at 2:30pm. Tickets $20.and are available at the door.
Jackson Emmer Benefit Concert for Capital City Rescue Mission
On Sunday, September 22, come enjoy the music of Jackson Emmer for a special concert to benefit the Capital City Rescue Mission.
Give some hope to the homeless by listening to great music. The show will feature the original work of Jackson Emmer, who has quietly built his reputation as a songwriter’s songwriter on the outskirts of country music. His work blends humor with heartache, and tradition with exploration. Recently, Emmer has drawn critical acclaim for his 2018, sophomore album, “Jukebox.” His music has been featured in Rolling Stone, PBS, the Cannes Film Festival, and over 150 radio stations worldwide.
Jackson and friends will perform September 22 at 6:30 p.m. at Brunswick Church, 42 White Church Lane, Troy, NY. The concert is free to the public and there will be donations taken for the Capital City Rescue Mission.
More information can be found at https://jacksonemmer.com/ or on his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jackson.emmer/
A Doll’s House, Part 2
By Lucas Hnath and directed by Joseph Fava. October 11, 12, 13 and 16 thru 20. Fridays & Saturdays at 8 pm, Wednesday & Thursday at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 2:30 pm. Schenectady Civic Players, 12 S. Church St., Schenectady. $20. 518-382-2081 or www.civicplayers.org.
Cohoes Music Hall Events
Masters of the Telecaster featuring GE Smith, Jim Weider and Duke Levine (9/21 at 8pm), Fat Chance: An Evening with Lisa Lampanelli (9/28 at 8pm), Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan (10/6 at 4pm), Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (10/9 at 7:30pm), Melvin Seals and JGB featuring John Kadlecik (10/10 at 8pm), Synergia Dance Project presents Dark Blue Sea (10/11 at 7pm), Marco Benevento (10/12 at 8pm), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (10/17 – 11/3) Visit www.thecohoesmusichall.org for more shows and info. 58 Remsen Street, Cohoes NY 12047.
Come Sing! Battenkill Chorale Invites New Singers For Winter Concert
The Battenkill Chorale is now accepting experienced choral singers for their winter concert. The program features Handel’s Coronation Anthems and Mozart’s Coronation Mass.
Rehearsals begin on September 19 and are held on Thursday evenings (7:30-9:45pm) at Hubbard Hall in Cambridge, NY. The concert will be performed on Sunday, January 19 at 3:00 pm at the Zankel Music Center at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY.
The Battenkill Chorale is an un-auditioned chorus with singers from six counties in New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont. It was founded twenty-five years ago by Janet McGhee and is recognized as one of the premier amateur choruses in the Capitol Region. McGhee retired last year and her legacy continues with the Chorale’s new Artistic Director, Noah Palmer.
Palmer, a conductor and pianist, is one of the Capital Region’s most in demand collaborators. In addition to being Artistic Director of the Battenkill Chorale he is Assistant Director and Accompanist for Albany Pro Musica and Assistant Conductor of the Broad Street Chorale and Orchestra in Kinderhook, NY. In 2019, he founded the Palmer Quartet, a piano quartet based in New York’s Hudson Valley. In April he debuted with the Battenkill Chorale as their guest conductor.
There is a $35 membership fee per concert program, plus the cost of music. To pre-register, call 518.677.3544 or email battenkillchorale402@nullgmail.com. For more information visit: battenkillchorale.org.
TONY Award winning play, Doubt, at the Sand Lake Center for the Arts, one weekend only.
Doubt: A Parable will be presented at the Sand Lake Center for the Arts, 2880 NY 43, Averill Park, for one weekend only, September 20 and 21 at 8:00 pm and September 22 at 2:30. Winner of the 2005 TONY Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Best Drama, the play by John Patrick Shanley examines the moral uncertainties of the human heart, through the structure and example of the Catholic faith.
In 1964, many changes were coming to the Catholic Church and society. A charismatic, progressive, forward-thinking priest, Father Flynn, takes an interest in a young, African American student at the local parochial school. Sister Aloysius, principal of St. Nicholas School, takes a cynical and suspicious view of Father Flynn’s interest in that young boy. She particularly dislikes Father Flynn for his open-minded, compassionate, and reformist character, as exemplified in his sermons concerning the nature of certainty and truth, in which he repeatedly uses the parables to teach his congregation. As Father Flynn states, “Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty.” The nature of moral certainty— and the actions and consequences that arise from that certainty—form the theme of the play.
Director Michael McDermott states, “ Though written 15 years ago, and based in 1964, the matters this play addresses continue to have impact today, it’s as timely as ever. It is the type of play that will leave the audience thinking and debating the outcome. A work of thoughtful theater that is both nuanced and intense, both a detective story and a study of moral uncertainty. I can’t stop thinking of these characters – and each of their individual choices– after watching these actors present them every night.” Doubt is performed by Will Kempe’s Players who visited SLCA with Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet this summer and Othello in 2018. Tickets are $20 and available at the door, open seating. RSVP at willkempesplayers.com.
Premier by local playwright Michael C. Mensching
Setting: An apartment building in New York City in 1985 before iPads, Cell Phones and Netflix. A blizzard hits NYC taking out all forms of wired communication. No TV, no radio, no telephone and no- *gasp* – cable that you just paid $15.95 for! Stranded by the blizzard and with little to do to amuse themselves, Frank and Marjorie Belenchine, a married couple, resort to eavesdropping on the couple downstairs through the register vent in the floor of their NYC walk-up apartment building. Hilarity, thieving and murder ensue in this madcap two-act comedic farce written by Michael C. Mensching and directed by Michael McDermott, as the action progresses and builds floor-to-floor in the overlapping flats of the apartment building. As each higher floor hears more and more of the jumbled conversations all types of antics breaks lose with typical 80’s icons toga parties, Bill Cosby, big hair and Bruce Jenner all having a part in making you laugh. The Register had a debut as a one-act play during the Playwright’s Showcase at Albany Civic Theater in 2018, this fully staged local premiere will be produced by Troy Civic Theater, October 4,5,6 and 10, 11, 12, 13 at the Arts Center of the Capital District under the direction and design of Michael McDermott. Performances Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30, Sunday at 2:00. Ticket information will be announced soon.
Capitol Opera Presents The Halloween Version Of Pergolesi’s “La Serva Padrona”
”The Marriage Of Frankenstein!!!” In Italian With Supertitles
October 5, 2019, 7:30 Pm
Bloomingrove Reformed Church, 706 Bloomingrove Drive, Rensselaer, Ny 12144
Dr. Uberto Frankenstein (mad scientist and aging bachelor) is no longer able to maintain control over
his creation (The Made) he calls Serpina. Even Uberto’s longtime assistant Vespone fears for his life in
her presence. When Serpina decides she will no longer allow the doctor to go outside, Uberto sends
Vespone to find him a wife to subordinate Serpina’s position as the only Lady of the Household.
Uberto is then HORRIFIED to learn the SHOCKING truth that Serpina has developed feeling of
affection for her creator!!! The situation escalates to a love-triangle of TERROR when the mysterious
and dangerous suitor Captain Sturm arrives at their doorstep. How can this EVIL and TWISTED tale
possibly have a happy ending? To find out, join us and kick off your Halloween season with Capitol
Opera.
Tickets can be purchased at the door or on http://www.capopera.com, through Ticketleap.
Dramatic Tours Recapture Harrowing Night at Cherry Hill
On the evenings of October 16, 17, 18, 19 and October 23, 24, 25, and 26, Historic Cherry Hill will present a dramatic tour reliving the infamous 1827 murder that occurred at the Cherry Hill mansion, one-time home of the Van Rensselaer family. The public is invited to step into the experiences of the Cherry Hill household on the evening of May 7, 1827, when a hired hand murdered a household member. The dramatic tour will investigate the scene of the crime and the differing perspectives of those who were there on that fateful evening. Actor James Keil will appear as Jesse Strang, bringing to life the murderer whose violent act was motivated by romantic attachment to his victim’s wife. The murder resulted in two sensational trials and Albany’s last public hanging.
The program will be offered at 5:30 and 7 pm on those evenings. Reservations are required. Admission is $15 for members and $20 for non-members. Tickets are available at eventbrite.com. Members of Historic Cherry Hill should contact shawna@nullhistoriccherryhill.org to receive the discounted rate. Historic Cherry Hill is a historic house museum in Albany, NY, and the five-generation home of the Van Rensselaer family from 1787-1963.
Stephen King Dollar Baby Film Festival is one highlight of Fall 2019 Cultural Events Schedule at Hudson Valley Community College
The Dollar Baby Film Festival will be a rare opportunity to view four short films inspired by the work of the legendary author Stephen King, including a Capital Region premier of local author and filmmaker Bryan Higby’s “Here There Be Tygers.” The festival will be Friday, Nov. 22 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Bulmer Telecommunications Center on the Troy campus and is open free to the public.
“Here There Be Tygers,” (2019, 11 min.) is a liberating tale from the viewpoint of a child who sees tigers in the school restroom. The evening also will feature Jay Holben’s renowned “Paranoid” (2000, 8 min.), a favorite of King himself; Rodney Altman’s “Unmeny’s Last Case,” (2006, 18 min.), about a 1930s private detective whose life bizarrely and swiftly falls apart, and Shawn S. Lealos’s “I Know What You Need” (2005, 33 min.), in which a young woman has strong suspicions about the true identity of her roommate’s “too good to be true” new boyfriend. A Q&A with Higby will follow the films.
The Dollar Baby concept was born in 1977 as King’s growing popularity fueled his desire to help novice filmmakers seeking permission to make films of his work. Under the program, fledgling filmmakers pay just $1 for the opportunity to create a film based on one of the horror master’s short works. The caveat: Dollar Baby films cannot be released to the pubic or on the internet, thus festival viewing usually is the only way to see them. It’s difficult to determine exactly how many Dollar Babies have been made, but King has described the films as “usually interesting and sometimes quite brilliant.”
The Dollar Baby Film Festival is presented by the college’s Cultural Affairs Program. The fall 2019 schedule also will include the following performances:
Hot Club of Saratoga
Thursday, Sept. 19 from noon to 1 p.m. / Bulmer Telecommunications Center Auditorium
Hot Club of Saratoga, upstate New York’s premier gypsy swing band, performs in the spirit and style originated by Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli (The Quintet of the Hot Club of France), most prominent in the 1930s yet still vibrant and gaining in popularity today. Since forming in 2013, Hot Club of Saratoga has brought its irresistible music to myriad venues and festivals, keeping alive the tradition of a long line of gypsy jazz artists. Core musicians Chuck Kish, rhythm guitar; Tucker Callander, violin; and Jonathan Greene, clarinet; often are joined by others in the club’s “collective.” Adding solo guitar, string bass, and sax allows the group to explore the
full range of this musical style from sweet, soulful ballads through hard-driving swing and fiery, upbeat tempos that make it impossible to sit still.
Shiri Zorn and George Muscatello
Thursday, Oct. 3 from noon to 1 p.m. / Bulmer Telecommunications Center Auditorium
The nearly 10-year-old collaboration of international vocalist Shiri Zorn and guitarist George Muscatello never fails to amaze and delight audiences. The two “turn standard jazz repertoire on its head.” Great American Songbook classics take on Middle Eastern influences and unusual time signatures, while Latin tunes and sambas are improvised with new harmonies. Zorn discovered her singing talent as a young child in Israel and later trained at the famed Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London before arriving in the United States in 2007. Well known for his extraordinary guitar playing and improvisation skills, Muscatello has been a mainstay on the local jazz scene for 25 years. An adjunct lecturer at Skidmore College, he also hosts master classes bringing world-renowned jazz musicians to the Saratoga Springs campus.
Lost Radio Rounders: Demon Rum! Songs of Temperance and Prohibition Thursday, Oct. 10 from noon to 1 p.m. / Bulmer Telecommunications Center Auditorium
Take something away, you only make it more attractive. Songs of temperance and prohibition come from both sides of the bar, with some trying to quell the flow of demon rum and others hurrying to drink it up. Typically, Lost Radio Rounders finds the history, the humor and the pathos in the great American battle over the bottle. The band members are Tom Lindsay – vocals, 6-, 12-string and baritone guitar, strumstick, 6-string banjo and piano, and Michael Eck – vocals, mandolin, guitar and tenor guitar, dobro, ukulele and banjo. Outside the duo, Lindsay is a photographer and educator, and Eck is an arts publicist, critic and writer. Local audiences are both educated and entertained by their themed, radio days-inspired programs such as Blue Collar Blues, Campfire Songs & Sing-A-Longs, and The Gospel Trail.
Piscataway Nation Singers & Dancers Thursday, Nov. 7 from noon to 1 p.m. / Bulmer Telecommunications Center Auditorium Celebrate Native American Heritage Month and learn more about American Indian history, culture and traditions. Mark Tayac and the Piscataway Nation Singers & Dancers carry on the long standing traditions and culture of their indigenous ancestors. The troupe travels from the Tayac Territory in Port Tobacco, MD with its colorful, educational and entertaining pow wow-style program of American Indian dance, drum and song. The Piscataway Nation Singers & Dancers also appear frequently on the History and Discovery channels, and perform regularly at the Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC and at major Native American festivals throughout the United States. Successors of the Algonquin peoples, members of the Piscataway Nation were the first Native Americans to encounter Captain John Smith along the Potomac River in 1608.
The full Cultural Events Calendar is available at www.hvcc.edu/culture. Please call 518-629-8071 or email d.gardner@nullhvcc.edu for more information
The Teaching Gallery at Hudson Valley Community College Opens Fall 2019 Semester with Exhibition of Sculpture and Installation by Peter Dudek and Susan Meyer
The Teaching Gallery at Hudson Valley Community College announces Collage City, an exhibition of sculpture and installation by New York-based artists Peter Dudek and Susan Meyer. Following an opening reception with the artists from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19, the exhibit will be on view through Oct. 26 in The Teaching Gallery, located on the ground floor of the Administration Building on the Troy campus.
Artist talks will be on Thursday, Sept. 19 with Dudek and Wednesday, Oct. 16 with Meyer. Both talks are from 3 to 4 p.m. in the Bulmer Telecommunications Center Auditorium. All events, including the reception, are free and open to the public.
Both Susan Meyer and Peter Dudek explore the dream and fragmentary remains of utopian societies in their work. The exhibit title references the 1984 book in which architects and frequent co-authors Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter critique post-WWII urban design, rejecting the concept of “total planning” in favor of a “collage city” made up of an assortment of smaller, neighborhood utopias. Likewise, Dudek and Meyer use modernist and utopian concepts of architecture and community organization as a basis to explore contemporary culture and the built environment.
Dudek will exhibit selections from several bodies of work, as well as other “sculptural experiments.” In his recent White-Out pieces, Dudek paints on photographs of his installations and studio views in an almost “anti-collage” manner that, according to the artist, “edits out details in search of other resolutions and ambiguity [where] elements and distances become uncertain… echoing the indefinite nature of art-making and the predicament of forever being in search mode when in the studio.” Suspended from the gallery ceiling, Dudek’s Clouds contain bits and pieces of architectural forms and materials that he thinks of as “thought clouds, dreaming of life in a cumulus idyll.” Some of the clouds contain “building fragments, violently thrown above by tornadoes” and bring to mind “a floating salvage yard.”
Meyer’s work explores her ongoing interest in Drop City, a late 1960s Colorado commune. Its members built geodesic dome houses from reclaimed objects such as cut up car hoods, and earned a 1967 R. Buckminster Fuller “Dymaxion Award.” (In Fuller’s early career, the architect developed and promoted ways to build practical and efficient housing.) In her complex sculptures, Meyer combines intricate hand-built structures with digitally rendered images that pay homage to the geodesic domes of Fuller and Drop City. In both their construction and broad use of found materials and images, her pieces exemplify the “cut and combine” aesthetic of Drop City, as well as the creative freedom that life on the commune embodied. Like many other communities of its kind, Drop City was abandoned by the early 1970s, but its dream of communal survival and self-governance resonates to this day.
Peter Dudek holds a MA degree from Hunter College and a BFA degree from the School for Visual Arts, both in New York City. He is the Director of Cultural Programming for Bascom Lodge in Adams, MA, and teaches sculpture at Hunter College and the School of Visual Arts. Recent exhibitions include I Forgot, BravinLee Programs, NYC; Polymorphous, Cluster Gallery, Brooklyn; Space, Light and Disorder, Markel Fine Arts, NYC, and Object’hood, Lesley Heller Workspace, NYC. He lives in Yonkers and Windsor, MA.
Susan Meyer, associate professor in the Center for Art and Design at the College of Saint Rose, holds a MFA degree from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Boston, MA, and a BS degree from Skidmore College. Recent exhibits include Earthly Delights, The Re Institute, Millerton, NY; Ear to the Ground, Ely Center of Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT; Contemporary Sculpture: Off the Wall, Floor and Ceiling, Site: Brooklyn Gallery, Brooklyn, and the Mohawk Hudson Regional Invitational, Albany Center Gallery. She lives in Hudson.
Exhibitions in The Teaching Gallery are installed and assisted by students enrolled in Gallery Management courses and supported by the Department of Fine Arts, Theatre Arts and Digital Media, the Cultural Affairs Program and the Hudson Valley Community College Foundation. Associate Professor Tara Fracalossi is gallery director.
Hours in The Teaching Gallery Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday: 1 to 7 p.m. Saturday: noon to 4 p.m. Sunday and Monday: closed Directions and more information: www.hvcc.edu/teachinggallery