Beat This: From Bernstein to Kerouac, Legendary Composer Returns to Saratoga Stage March 8
SARATOGA SPRINGS — David Amram has played the French horn in the legendary jazz bands of Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie and Lionel Hampton. He created and performed in the first ever Jazz/Poetry readings in late 1950s New York with his friend Jack Kerouac, and worked with Allen Ginsberg in the film “Pull My Daisy.” He has composed the scores for “Splendor In The Grass,” “The Manchurian Candidate” – the original film – and served as the Composer and Music Director for the Lincoln Center Theatre. When he was named the first Composer In Residence for the New York Philharmonic, it was Leonard Bernstein who made the appointment.
On March 8, Amram will be featured in a panel discussion about the Beat Generation, as well as a concert during which he will read selections of “Beat” poetry and present historic photography of the legendary faces and places of the mid-20th century movement which changed the face of America.
Locals may recall Amram’s recent appearance at SPAC with Willie Nelson at Farm Aid, or his emotionally stirring performance at the Lake George Jazz Festival in September 2001, when in the immediate days following 9/11, Amram brought together the T.S. Monk Sextet and Glens Falls Symphony Orchestra for a musical collaboration in Shepard Park that marked, for many, the first public event they attended in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The collaborations of his storied career have included the likes of Arthur Miller and Johnny Depp, Hunter S. Thompson and Bob Dylan.
The events take place Sunday, March 8 at Zankel Music Center at Skidmore College, and are as follows:
Sunday, March 8 • 3 p.m. A pre-concert panel discussion on the “Beat” generation with David Amram and Joan K. Anderson, choreographer and co-director of the School of the Arts at the National Museum of Dance, moderated by Charles Peltz. Admission to the panel discussion event is included with concert tickets.
Sunday, March 8 • 4 p.m. The Glens Falls Symphony’s 2020 Alfred Z. Solomon Colloquium Concert “Dance! Beats!”
The concert features tango music of legendary Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla; David Diamond’s Rounds for Orchestra; Bela Bartok’s vibrant Rumanian Dances with a special performance by ballet dancers from the School of the Arts at the National Museum of Dance, choreographed by Joan K. Anderson, co-director of the School of the Arts.
Plus: Greenwich Village Portraits by David Amram – composer of the “Beat” generation – performed by world-renowned saxophonist Ken Radnofsky.
Amram will read selections of “Beat” poetry and present historic photography of the legendary faces and places of the “Beat” generation.
Tickets: $30 Adults | $10 Students. Available online at www.theglensfallssymphony.org, call the Symphony office at 518-793-1348 or stop by the office upstairs in the LARAC Gallery building: 7 Lapham Place in Glens Falls. Office hours are Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.