Author: Saratoga TODAY

HUDSON FALLS — The Zorbas Trio, comprised of three siblings who write and perform original music as well as a multitude of cover music ranging from jazz, rock, alternative, and classical, will perform an afternoon concert at the Strand Theatre Saturday, Aug. 31.  

The trio includes pianist and composer John Zorbas, lead vocalist and bassist Demetra, and lead vocalist and guitarist Callista.  Show time is 2 p.m. at tickets are $10 general admission. 

On Sunday, Sept. 1, at 6:30 p.m., the Strand Theatre welcomes Rockin’ For Life’s Indie Bands Showcase, featuring performances by some of the region’s most talented indie bands including My Last Mile, Sons of Eden, The Hard Luck Souls, and Living In a Glass House. 

Partial proceeds from the event will benefit The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Tickets are $10 balcony, $15 floor.

Tickets are available at the Strand Box Office; cash or check only or online at Brown Paper Tickets. For more information and the ticketing link, go to www.mystrandtheatre.org. The Strand Theatre is located at 210 Main St, Hudson Falls. 

NEW YORK — Blending Punjabi, cumbia, and reggae elements together, Sikh activist and artist Sonny Singh releases his new album, “Sage Warrior,” on Sept. 6. 

The music video clip of “Jaano Jot,” song nine on the 12-song album, was captured inside the community kitchen of a gurdwara, a Sikh house of worship, and an institution created over 500 years ago as a direct challenge to caste hierarchies insidious in South Asian society. The clip may be found on YouTube.

The refrain of Jaano Jot, a Sikh devotional poem penned by Guru Nanak in the early 16th century, translates to: Know the light within all, ask not of caste / there are no hierarchies in the world beyond.

Valarie Kaur describes the advent of langar in her forthcoming book Sage Warrior:

“Eating together with people of all castes and creeds meant rejecting with your body and breath adherence to hierarchy. High caste people ate from the hands of low-¬ caste “untouchables,” and vice versa. They were training their bodies into a new way of being, undoing millennia of conditioning. They became new in the act: equal, and equally beloved…Langar was more than a rebellion: It was a practice for an alternative world of solidarity, dignity, and humility.”

Singh is a member of pioneering global band Red Baraat since 2008. Sage Warrior is his second solo album, and will be released alongside a book by the same name by activist and writer Valarie Kaur. They will tour nationally together September-October 2024.

SARATOGA SPRINGS —Anchored by a large stage and featuring rotating artwork, a new exhibition opening Sept. 10 at the Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College will provide an open platform for talks, panels, concerts, voter registration, debates, town meetings, class meetings, club events, and gatherings of all sorts. 

Titled “Establish, Insure, Provide, Promote: Election 2024,” a series of moveable display boards will serve as interactive educational hubs for contemporary issues, topics, maps, news, and updates. The exhibit runs Sept. 10 – Dec. 15. 

Upcoming exhibitions at the Tang Museum include: “The Forms of Things Unknown” (opening Oct. 19) featuring a re-envisioning of an early 20th-century Gilboa Forest diorama; “A Field of Bloom and Hum” (March 1, 2025)  presenting work by queer artists that assert their lives and stories in the world, and “Up to Us: Black Dimensions in Art, 1975–Tomorrow” (May 31, 2025) featuring Black Dimensions in Art, Inc. promoting of the art of the African diaspora through exhibitions, workshops, and other programs in the Capital Region and beyond.

The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, located at 815 N. Broadway, is open Tuesday–Sunday, noon–5 pm, with extended hours until 9 pm on Thursdays. For more information and current exhibitions, go to: https://tang.skidmore.edu. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Australian guitarist Daniel Champagne will perform Sept. 26 at Caffe Lena as part of an east coast swing through North America. 

Heralded by reviewers as “the finest guitar player of this generation,” and “a leading light in acoustic music,” Champagne grew up on the Far South Coast of New South Wales, Australia, picking up his instrument of choice as a 5-year-old following in the footsteps of a musical father. 

Champagne has independently released 7 studio albums, toured the globe, and shared stages with the likes of Tommy Emmanuel, INXS, John Butler, Lucinda Williams, Ani DiFranco, Judy Collins and Rodrigo y Gabriela. 

For more information and tickets, go to: caffelena.org.