SARATOGA SPRINGS — As efforts to curtail the spread of COVID-19 force music venues across the nation to go dark, Saratoga’s Caffè Lena is maintaining a nightly concert schedule. 

There will be no audience in the popular venue’s 110 seats, but bands will take the stage to keep delivering music “at a time when it’s needed most,” Caffè Lena’s Board President Jim Mastrianni said, in a statement.

Using three broadcast cameras mounted in the performance space, the venue will use professional operators to livestream concerts on its YouTube channel. 

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“We’re really concerned about the loss of income for independent musicians who are unable to work now, and we also know that music helps everyone feel better at times like this,” Mastrianni said. “Based on people’s remarks, we know it’s a big pick-me-up to be part of an audience when people are feeling isolated and worried,” said Mastrianni.

“Music is our mission,” said the café’s Executive Director Sarah Craig. “We can’t be together in person for a few weeks, so we’re going to engage people right in their living rooms. It seems like lots of folks are eager to help our musical family stay strong during this challenging time.”

The goal is offering a broadcast every night at 8 p.m. for the duration of the shut-down. The performances can be accessed through www.caffelena.org.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Arts this week announced the recipients of our 2020 Community Arts Grants for organizations and individual artists in Fulton, Montgomery, and Saratoga Counties. Thirty-nine grants totaling $123,010 have been awarded to support community-based arts events taking place in 2020.

This year’s recipients and their funded projects offer their communities year-round opportunities to experience a wide array of free or low-cost artistic events highlighting talented local and regional artists. An estimated 24,000+ community members, 5,600+ youth, and 1,580+ artists will directly participate in these grant-funded events occurring throughout 2020.

With funding awarded from the New York State Council on the Arts, Saratoga Arts’ Community Arts Grants support artists, non-profit organizations, and government departments in Saratoga, Fulton, and Montgomery Counties, in partnership with qualifying organizations and artists, to present arts and cultural programs of high artistic merit in local communities.

Grants awarded specifically to Saratoga County include: Adirondack Center Stage, Inc. – Corinth, NY for 2020 Summer Theatre Workshop  $5,000; Ballston Area Community Center – Ballston Spa, NY for Village of Ballston Textile Mural  $4,500; Patrick Donovan – Saratoga Springs for A Whitman Sampler  $2,500; Galway Public Library – Galway for Color Your Summer: Draw; Write; Dance $2511; Homemade Theater – Saratoga Springs for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time  $5,000; Mary Kathryn Jablonski – Saratoga Springs for Compass: A Video/Poem  $2,500; MK Narasimha – Saratoga Springs for Indian Classical Dances  $2,500; Saratoga Automobile Museum – Saratoga Springs for Wheels, Women & Independence  $5,000; Saratoga Shakespeare, Inc. – Saratoga Springs for Much Ado About Nothin $5,000; Saratoga Springs Arts District – Saratoga Springs, NY for 8th Annual Beekman Street Fair  $5,000; Saratoga Springs Public Library – Saratoga Springs for Drum Circles for Seniors $750 and for West African Drum Circle: Movement & Rhythm for Adults with Special Needs  $750; Senior Citizens Center of Saratoga Springs – Saratoga Springs for Lunchtime Concerts  $4,537; Schuylerville Public Library – Schuylerville for Children’s Theater Camp  $2,625; The Creative Place, Inc. – Saratoga Springs for An Agatha Christie World Premiere: The Man in the Brown Suit  $2,500; Town of Ballston Community Library – Burnt Hills for Don’t Wait to Unmake a Bully, with filmmaker Michael Feurstein at Charlton Heights Elementary School  $2,240; Town of Malta Parks and Recreation – Malta for Malta Cultural Arts Festival $4,721; Village of Ballston Spa – Ballston Spa for Third Annual Birdhouse Competition & Festival  $5,000; Ulysses S. Grant Cottage Historic Site – Wilton for One Real American: The True Story of Ely Parker $500 and for Our Land: Stories & Songs from the Traditions of the Native Peoples of Saratoga Region $500 and for Photography/History with Clifford Oliver $500; Wilton Wildlife Preserve & Park – Wilton for Painting in Nature at the Wilton Preserve $1500 and for Blues for the Karner Blues $1,050. 

This years’ grant recipients will be acknowledged and celebrated at the annual Grant Awards Reception 6-8 p.m. on Thursday, March 19, at the Arts Center, 320 Broadway. The public is invited to attend the free event to learn more about funded projects taking place in their communities and to enjoy light fare, beverages and live music performance by past grant awardee Byron Nilsson. Saratoga Arts asks that anyone who would like to attend, please register in advance by calling 518-584-4132 or online at saratoga-arts.org.

On the third Tuesday of each month, Chuck Vosganian AKA Rochmon, leads a live multi-media presentation about a classic album from rock ‘n’ roll’s heyday. There are stories. There are songs. There are trivia contests, the exploration of lyrics, and a timeline of culture in an iconic time. After relocating the monthly sessions to Caffe Lena nearly three years ago, Rochman is slated to return to the place of his origins at the newly reopened and remodeled Universal Preservation Hall.

Where did you grow up and how did you get to Saratoga?

I grew up in East Moriches, Long Island, in the middle of nowhere. Potato-and-duck country. Later, I lived in Chicago for 15 years then in Queensbury for 27 years before moving to Saratoga. Being in Saratoga, I wanted to live in a community where I could go out my door and walk around downtown.    

When was the first Rochmon show?

September 2016. The first album was actually a movie: I played the Joe Cocker “Mad Dogs and Englishmen.” We had like nine people come. It was so much fun. So, I asked Teddy (Foster, of UPH) if I could do it again. I returned the next month with David Bowie’s “Young Americans.”

What other artists’ albums had you done at UPH?

We did Queen and Led Zeppelin, we did Deep Purple; the music was a little bit of harder rock over at UPH. We got folk-i-fied when we went to Caffe Lena, haha. But Lena’s did such a great job building an audience for me. I was there since April 2017 – and our audience – we had lines around the corner. Sarah Craig at Caffe Lena was great.

I have always been surrounded by smart women. Between Teddy Foster and Mary Beth McGarrahan at UPH,  Sarah at Caffe Lena, my wife Karen, and my daughter Alyssa, they’ve really helped bring the show forward. I couldn’t have done it without any of them.  

You’re assisted during the shows by your daughter?

My daughter Alyssa, who’s 28. She’s my youngest and grew up listening to this stuff. Now, doing this with my daughter is also a reach-back to my mom, who taught me how to deeply listen to music; to see the picture that the music was trying to paint. My parents were classically trained opera singers and performers. So when we listen to an album and I do the deep dig-in, it is part of that connection.

How many Rochmon Record Club presentations have you done to date?

Forty-seven. Forty-seven different albums. And every show evolves in an unexpected direction. Like Paul Simon’s “Graceland,” which we’re doing next week. (Ed. note: this presentation, along with all other shows at UPH have been postponed until April 12).  Sound and pictures of Paul Simon – throughout his career, and people who played on the album, interesting instruments, the lyrics. We’ll talk about each song individually, the album cover, sales, and I also play some deeper audio drops; for instance, there will be a demo version of “Homeless,” and it’s nothing like the (recorded) song goes.  

The entire album is played?

I ask people: When was the last time you listened to an entire album? Ten years ago? Fifteen years ago? Today, the way we consume music is different, so you might listen to a couple of songs, but not the whole record. And the whole record is the complete work of art. It’s the Mona Lisa.  And that’s how we connect around the album. We’re listening to the whole thing. I like to say we’re listening to the album again for the first time. And it gives us an opportunity to go back.   

Now that you’re coming back to UPH, what are some future listening parties you are planning?

Later this year we’ll have “Led Zeppelin IV,” Springsteen’s “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” “Chicago II,” Elvis Costello’s “My Aim Is True.” 

How do the stories work?

A lot of it is just relating the story of the band and talking about what I loved about the music. I explain what I hear and discuss the connections. What’s really interesting is how the listening has evolved. In the beginning it was what the album meant to me, but years later, the way you hear it today changes from how you heard it as a kid. And that’s an amazing journey.

– Interview by Thomas Dimopoulos

The Rochmon Record Club presentation of Paul Simon’s “Graceland,” at UPH, on Washington Street was slated to take place March 17. All shows at the venue have been postponed, through April 12. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Violinist and dancer Lindsey Stirling will hit the road this summer for a 36-city tour which includes her inaugural appearance at New York City’s iconic Radio City Music Hall, and her return to Saratoga Performing Arts Center on Friday, July 3. 

Stirling’s self-titled debut album was released in 2012 and followed by “Shatter Me” two years later.  “Brace Enough,” her third album, was issued in 2016 – a year which also saw the publication of her memoir “The Only Pirate at the Party.” An album of Christmas songs followed. Exhibiting a variety of talents, Stirling recently lent her likeness to a new comic book series called “Sparrow,” has competed on the TV shows “America’s Got Talent” and “Dancing with the Stars,” and counts more than 10 million subscribers on YouTube. 

In 2018, she appeared at SPAC while on a co-headlining tour with Evanescence. “When I started writing my own music, I took a page out of their book,” she told this journalist in 2018. “I was doing dubstep and I thought: OK, how can I make this really edgy electronic music meld with my classical background? And so, a huge inspiration to me was Evanescence.” 

Stirling’s memoir, which was published in 2016, has been largely hailed as an inspirational journey demonstrating her persistence, her humor, and as an inspirational tale, openly talking about her own struggles with anorexia – a life-threatening disorder due to the effects of weight loss and starvation on the body and brain.

She had played classical music since the age of six, making the leap to a more contemporary style as she matured.   

“I thrive on creativity and so I think I had just gotten bored. So that’s why I strayed from classical. I thought to myself: I’m not going to quit, I just need to re-find my passion, play the kind of music that excites me, the kind of music that I love,” Stirling said, during the interview in 2018. “That’s why I started playing in rock bands and adding classical elements – not taking away from classical, but just adding my own vision to dubstep and pop and rock. It made it come alive for me.”

Touring in support of her album “Artemis,” Stirling’s Saratoga show will include special guests Kiesza, and Mako. Ticket price range for the pavilion only show are $29.50 – $129.50 and are available at  www.LiveNation.com and Ticketmaster. 

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.

SCHENECTADY — Proctors Collaborative leadership on Feb. 24 unveiled a series of shows that will be staged at Proctors, and at Capital Repertory Theatre (theREP) during the 2020-2021 season.   

Highlighting the list of touring Broadway productions coming to Proctors is the Schenectady premiere of Mean Girls (Feb.  2-7, 2021), as well as the celebrated Lincoln Center Theater production of the classic My Fair Lady (Nov. 10-15), Aaron Sorkin’s critically acclaimed adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird (Dec.  29, 2020 – Jan.  3, 2021), contemporary Broadway hit The Prom (March 30 – April 4, 2021) and the dazzling production of Pretty Woman: The Musical, Dec. 2-6. 

Rounding out the subscription series, and continuing the trend of productions choosing to tech and launch tours in the Capital Region, are Hadestown (Oct.  13-18) and a new production of Elton John and Tim Rice’s award-winning Aida, March 16–21, 2021.      

This upcoming season will feature the first full year of programming hosted in theREP’s new state-of-the-art facility at 251 North Pearl St. in Albany. The series kicks off in September with a behind-the-curtain look at Albany’s Democratic political machine in The True, Sept. 25 – Oct.  18. Subscribers will enjoy an eclectic slate of shows, including a production of The Wizard of Oz featuring actor-musicians, the world premiere of 2017 ‘NEXT ACT! New Play Summit’ winner The Way North, the powerful story of the Tuskegee Airmen in Fly, and the continuation of the summer musical tradition with the toe-tapping hit, Jersey Boys. 

In addition to the shows featured on both venues’ subscription series, subscribers will have priority access to this year’s exclusive title – the highly anticipated Capital Region return of Disney’s The Lion King, April 15 – May 2, 2021. Subscriptions also include a cross-venue ticket, allowing patrons to visit their sister venue for a performance of their choice. 

Subscriptions for the 2020–2021 Key Private Bank Broadway Series at Proctors and the 2020–2021 Season at Capital Repertory Theatre are on sale at the Box Office at Proctors, 432 State St., Schenectady, and by phone at 518-346-6204. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Melodic punk from Albany, syn-trash from Troy, cow-punk from Akron, art-rock from New York City. The Super Dark Collective – which has been operating at Desperate Annie’s on Caroline Street since the closing of its former staging ground at One Caroline Bistro in 2018, continues to present some of the most unique sounds in the Spa City on Monday and Thursday nights. The shows are free, start time is 9:30 p.m., and a full lineup of artists may be found at: superdarkcollective.com. 

This week’s shows feature: Ceiba, Alkemi, and Thanks on Super Dark Monday Feb. 24, and Motorbike, Belle-Skinner, and Grayling on Super Dark Thursday Feb. 27. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — D. W. Gregory’s “Radium Girls” and Clare Barron’s “Dance Nation” highlight Skidmore Theater’s 2020 Spring Season. 

“Radium Girls,” directed by Rebecca Marzalek-Kelly. Performances: Feb. 28 – March 5 at 8 p.m. (Sunday Matinee at 2 p.m.) at the Main Stage Theater, Janet Kinghorn Bernhard Theater on the Skidmore College Campus.

Synopsis: In 1926, radium was a miracle cure, Madame Curie an international celebrity, and luminous watches the latest rage—until the girls who painted them began to fall ill with a mysterious disease. Inspired by a true story, Radium Girls traces the efforts of Grace Fryer, a dial painter, as she fights for her day in court. Her chief adversary is her former employer, Arthur Roeder, an idealistic man who cannot bring himself to believe that the same element that shrinks tumors could have anything to do with the terrifying rash of illnesses among his employees. As the case goes on, however, Grace finds herself battling not just with the U.S. Radium Corporation, but with her own family and friends, who fear that her campaign for justice will backfire. Skidmore Theater alum and recent Drama League Fellow Rebecca Marzalek-Kelly guest directs this production using her trademark elements of movement and magic.

“Dance Nation,” directed by Audrey Erickson. Performances: April 10 -11 and 13-18 at 8 p.m. at Black Box Theater, Janet Kinghorn Bernhard Theater on the Skidmore College Campus.

Synopsis: Somewhere in America, an army of pre-teen competitive dancers plots to take over the world. And if their new routine is good enough, they’ll claw their way to the top at the Boogie Down Grand Prix in Tampa Bay. But in Obie Award winning playwright Clare Barron’s raucous pageant of ambition and ferocity, these young dancers have more than choreography on their minds, because every plié and jeté is a step toward finding themselves, and a fight to unleash their power. Directed by Audrey Erickson ’20 and featuring an all-student production team, this Pulitzer Prize finalist play, will celebrate its visceral and humorous take on youth, desire, competition, and sexual awakening.

Tickets: $12 general admission and $8 for students and senior citizens. Seating is limited. To get tickets, visit: theater.skidmore.edu, email the box office at boxoffice@skidmore.edu, or call the Box Office at 518-580-5439. 

Rod Stewart’s back. The pop singer returns to SPAC July 29. He last performed at the venue in July 2017, with Cyndi Lauper.
This time around, he will be accompanied by Cheap Trick at a majority of summer concerts – although that won’t be the case at Saratoga.
An opening band is anticipated to be named in the near future. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — To date, promoter Live Nation has announced the following shows to stage at Saratoga Performing Arts Center this year. Additional shows and/or support artists for these previously announced shows are expected. For a comprehensive list of performances at SPAC not presented by Live Nation – which includes NYCB, and Saratoga Jazz Festival, among others, go to: spac.org.

June 6: The Lumineers – III: The World Tour
June 7: Celtic Woman
June 13: Zac Brown Band: Roar with the Lions Tour 
June 24: KIDZ BOP Live 2020 Tour
June 30: Steely Dan with Special Guest Steve Winwood
July 2: Tedeschi Trucks Band – Wheels Of Soul 2020
July 8: Alanis Morissette w/special guest Garbage and also appearing Liz Phair
July 10, 11: Dave Matthews Band
July 12: Countryfest 2020 with Brantley Gilbert & More
July 21: Chicago with Rick Springfield
July 22: Nickelback: All The Right Reasons Tour
July 24: Matchbox Twenty 2020
July 25: The Black Crowes Present: Shake Your Money Maker
July 26: The Doobie Brothers: 50th Anniversary Tour
July 29: Rod Stewart

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Aug. 1: Journey with Pretenders
Aug. 3: Dead & Company
Aug. 4: Disturbed: The Sickness 20th Anniversary Tour with Staind & Bad Wolves
Aug. 9: Foreigner: Juke Box Hero Tour 2020
Aug. 11: Incubus with 311. 
Aug. 18: Sammy Hagar & The Circle and Whitesnake with special guest Night Ranger.
Aug. 23: Goo Goo Dolls: The Miracle Pill Summer Tour.
Aug. 31: Daryl Hall & John Oates.
Sept. 6: Maroon 5. 
Sept. 6:  Meghan Trainor.
Sept. 11: Backstreet Boys: DNA World Tour.
Sept. 12: The Australian Pink Floyd Show: All That You Feel World Tour 2020.