SARATOGA SPRINGS — Chicago announced they will stage a show at Saratoga Performing Arts Center Aug. 10. 

Last year saw the band release the 26-track live collection “Chicago At The John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. (9/16/1971),” covering all three studio albums from their 1969 debut to 1971.

Chicago have toured every year since the beginning, and 2025 marks the band’s 58th consecutive year of touring. 

Tickets: go to livenation.com.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Performing Arts Center has announced its 2025 New York City Ballet season will be staged July 9-12 as part of its 59th season in Saratoga. 

The residency will feature full-length story ballet Coppélia, which held its world premiere at SPAC in 1974; Jerome Robbins’ The Four Seasons, an audience favorite set to Verdi’s vibrant melodies; George Balanchine’s masterpiece Stravinsky Violin Concerto and Justin Peck’s newest work for NYCB, Mystic Familiar, which will have its world premiere as part of NYCB’s 2025 Winter Season. 

New York City Ballet will bring its roster of more than 90 dancers under the direction of Artistic Director Jonathan Stafford and Associate Artistic Director Wendy Whelan, accompanied by the New York City Ballet Orchestra, led by Music Director Andrew Litton. 

“As we approach our 60th anniversary, our historic partnership with New York City Ballet continues to be a remarkable source of pride and inspiration,” Elizabeth Sobol, president and CEO of Saratoga Performing Arts Center said in a statement. “Nowhere else in the world outside of New York City does the full company of dancers and musicians present a robust week of repertoire, every single year. SPAC is unique and incredibly fortunate to be able to bring these world-class artists to our community.”

Returning for the first time since 2019 is Coppélia, the delightful tale of a mad inventor and the life-like doll he creates. Coppélia is considered one of the greatest comic ballets of the 19th Century and has remained one of the best-loved classical works in the ballet repertory. The lavish production, featuring scenery and costumes by Rouben Ter-Artunian, additional costumes by Karinska, and lighting by Mark Stanley, is slated for four performances as part of the season. It will feature a large cast of children, including many from the Capital Region.

Highlighting the season are two performances dedicated to works by Jerome Robbins, George Balanchine and NYCB Resident Choreographer Justin Peck. The program opens with The Four Seasons by Robbins, an audience favorite set to Verdi’s vibrant score. Returning to SPAC for the first time since 2017 is Stravinsky Violin Concerto, one of Balanchine’s signature works featuring two of his most ingenious pas de deux. 

Closing the program is the SPAC premiere of Justin Peck’s Mystic Familiar, his 25th work for New York City Ballet. Mystic Familiar is set to an original score by composer, recording artist and performer Dan Deacon, who also provided the score for Peck’s heralded 2017 ballet The Times Are Racing. The set design will feature a backdrop by the Los Angeles-based visual artist Eamon Ore-Giron, whose work was featured in the 2024 Whitney Biennial. The costumes will be designed by fashion designer and co-founder of Opening Ceremony Humberto Leon, who has previously worked with Peck on costumes for The Times Are Racing and several other projects; with lighting design by frequent Peck collaborator Brandon Stirling Baker. 

In an effort to increase access to these performances, SPAC also announced that it has launched new promotional ticket offers exclusive to the New York City Ballet residency. As part of this initiative, a new “$40 under 40” ticket offer, inviting individuals up to 40 years old to enjoy $40 tickets inside the amphitheater. To make access to world-class performance more affordable for families, SPAC has introduced two special promotions including a new Family Four Pack, including four amphitheater seats for $99, and an expansion of its “Kids in Free” program. The program, which currently allows children 12 and under free access on the lawn with an accompanying adult and 50% off amphitheater tickets will extend to children ages 16 and under for New York City Ballet performances. Visit the Ways to Save page on spac.org for all offers, discounts and exclusions. 

Tickets will be available beginning at 10 a.m. on Jan. 30 for members (tiered by level) and at 10 a.m. on Feb. 7. for the general public. 

The New York City Ballet season in Saratoga will take place July 9-12. For tickets, and information about specific dates and performances, go to: spac.org. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Schick Art Gallery presents the Juried Skidmore Student Exhibition, a perennial favorite showcasing the imagination and skill of Skidmore College art students, with an opening reception from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 6, AND remaining on display through March 4.

Each year, students submit works in a range of materials –– including prints, photographs, graphic design, painting, drawing, animation, fibers, jewelry, and ceramics –– for consideration by a juror unaffiliated with the Skidmore Art Department. The final exhibition features a selection of works from over 250 submissions. 

The 2025 student exhibition juror is Wassaic Project Director of Artistic Programming Will Hutnick.  Hutnick received his master’s degree in fine art from Pratt Institute in 2011. His work has been featured in The New York Times, among other publications, and he has been an artist-in-residence at Yaddo. 

The Schick Art Gallery is located on the second floor of Saisselin Art Building, and is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday through Sunday.  

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Dave Matthews Band announced their 2025 Spring/Summer Tour, including a stop at Saratoga Performing Arts Center on July 18 and 19.

The tour kicks off April 27 at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest, plays regionally at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts on May 24, Boston Calling Festival May 25 and Amphitheater at Lakeview in Syracuse on May 27. 

This summer, Dave Matthews Band continues its long-term partnerships with The Nature Conservancy and REVERB. Since 2005, Dave Matthews Band and REVERB have partnered to make the band’s tours more sustainable and empower fans to take action for people and the planet at shows. 

Additionally, in conjunction with their return to Southern California, Dave Matthews Band has pledged $500,000 to support California wildfire relief efforts through their Bama Works nonprofit. 

An online ticket presale for members of the DMB Warehouse Fan Association began Jan. 28 (davematthewsband.com/warehouse). General onsale for tickets begins Friday, Feb. 21, at 10 a.m.

LAKE GEORGE — The Shepard Park Amphitheater project is progressing with a goal to complete design and engineering work by early spring 2025, enabling the Village of Lake George to bid the project out for a fall 2025 construction start, and a spring 2026 completion.

A fire destroyed the popular Shepard Park amphitheater last June. 

The transformative initiative aims to create a dynamic performance and community space, offering residents and visitors a premier venue for artistic performances, cultural events, and communal gatherings. 

Additionally, the project includes broader improvements to the Shepard Park area, such as a new playground and enhanced accessibility features to ensure the park is welcoming to all. 

Community input has been and continues to be a cornerstone of this project. 

A workshop will take place 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 30 at The Carriage House – Fort William Henry, 48 Canada St. – that will provide an overview of the progress to date, present the design, gather feedback and discuss next steps and project timelines. 

All are welcome to attend, and community members are encouraged to share their insights and ideas. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Area legend David Greenberger staged a performance at Universal Preservation Hall on Jan. 19, and he brought a quartet of musicians – collectively called The Huckleberries, along with him.  

Perhaps best known for his 32 years of publishing The Duplex Planet – a periodical borne out of his Greenberger’s conversations with nursing home residents, the conversations have spawned a plethora of recordings and performances of monologues and music.  

At UPH, attendees were treated to a 90-minute showcase during which Greenberger, wearing a black suit and blue suede shoes, spoke the snippets – word thoughts, conversations, and linguistic interactions of humans engaging with one another, many of them local to the Saratoga and Ballston Spa territories, and heard onstage for the first time. For the record, some of the monologues were based on conversations held specifically at the Senior Center, and Home of the Good Shepherd.   

Backed by music and told in first-person style, by each song’s end one could imagine the spirit of the soul who first spoke them drifting up the vintage theater’s balcony staircase and taking refuge among the long wooden church-like pews, listening in succession to the next story in line, and greeting one another in the haze of the veranda’s mist. 

The quartet of Huckleberries – Peter Davis, James Gascoyne, Chris Carey and Sam Zucchini – accompanied Greenberger in a variety of ways: keyboards, a drum kit, a stand-up bass with dual f-hole cutaways, electric guitar, electric bass, saxophone, and an assortment of string-and-strum noisemakers with odd shapes, among their arsenal.  

“You may be wondering why they’re called the Huckleberries,” Greenberger told the crowd, in between pieces that related the storytelling standing of one person named Gilbert, and another named Jitterbug Frank, “Well as a kid I loved Huckleberry Hound,” he said, recalling the animated TV series with the protagonist dog. “I was in the fan club and everything.” 

SARATOGA SPRINGS  — The band Styx, and Kevin Cronin – the voice and writer behind REO Speedwagon’s greatest hits, join forces for their “Brotherhood of Rock” tour, that will kick off May 28 in South Carolina and stage a show at Saratoga Performing Arts Center Aug.  12.  

Special guest Don Felder, a former lead guitarist for the Eagles, will also appear. 

Styx and Kevin Cronin (as part of REO Speedwagon) first toured together in 2000 and in 2001.  

Cronin can recall first seeing Styx singer Tommy Shaw performing with his seven-piece funk/rock band at the Rush Up club in Chicago during the the mid-‘70s REO hiatus, and subsequently bumping into him at O’Hare Airport a few weeks later.

“In no time I was back in REO Speedwagon and Tommy had become the newest member of Styx,” says Cronin, who began fronting REO Speedwagon in 1972. “REO and Styx dominated the Billboard charts in 1981 with “Hi Infidelity” and “Paradise Theatre,” but for reasons unknown we had never toured together. So, in the year 2000, Tommy and I decided to give it a shot…now, here we are 25 years later.”

For more information and tickets, go to: LiveNation.com.