SARATOGA SPRINGS — A new audio play providing a portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven at a time of personal crisis will celebrate its world premiere on Aug. 22.

SPAC is celebrating the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth with Beethoven 2020 and “Testament” – written by Damian Lanigan and co-produced with the Saratoga Performing Arts Center will have its World Premiere streaming on both SSC and SPACBeethoven.org from 8 p.m. Aug. 22 until 11:59 p.m. on Aug. 23.   

“Testament” is a portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven grappling with the loss of his hearing and emerging from his suffering to write one of the greatest symphonies of all time. 

Directed by Marcus Dean Fuller and featuring recordings by The Philadelphia Orchestra, “Testament” had originally been planned as a live performance at SPAC’s Spa Little Theater as part of the SSC’s 2020 summer season, but in response to COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings, the company pivoted to an audio presentation that Fuller describes as a “musically driven audiobook.” 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Arts offers free informational seminars to assist applicants in understanding the grant process. Seminars focus on specifics of the grant application, including writing the narrative, successfully completing the budget form, how to submit the application and support materials on Submittable, the online grants management system new for this year. The seminars also explore successful project examples, and review panel tips. 

Most informational grant seminars for the 2021 grant cycle will run as webinars through Zoom video conferencing, or choose to schedule a one-on-one grant info session via phone or Zoom call; contact Grants Coordinator Diane Swanson at dswanson@saratoga-arts.org, 518-240-4240 (temporary phone number) to arrange a session.

For all interested applicants, application schedule deadlines are: Letter of Intent Deadline: Sept. 25, 2020. Application Draft Review Deadline: Oct. 16, 2020.  Application Deadline: Nov. 6, 2020. 

Since 1991, Saratoga Arts has awarded just over $1,536,000 for community-enhancing and life-enriching arts programs.

Saratoga Arts’ Decentralization Grants provide funding for arts and cultural programming through three categories: Community Arts Grants, Individual Artist Grants and Arts Education Grants (for short term residencies that take place in the community or in schools). Saratoga Arts’ Decentralization Grants are made possible with funding by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York
State Legislature.

BOLTON LANDING — The Sembrich has launched “In Conversation with Philip Glass.” 

This 20/20: Virtual Visionaries Summer Festival event, the second in the Alfred Z. Solomon Innovator Series, explores the vast universe of Philip Glass’ unique and innovative style. The presentation features a rare, never-before-heard audio interview with Glass conducted by mezzo-soprano Theresa Treadway Lloyd. The interview was held in Germany just shortly after the premiere of Glass’ opera Akhnaten.

“We’re truly privileged to present this never-before-heard conversation between composer Philip Glass and mezzo-soprano Theresa Treadway Lloyd!” states The Sembrich’s Artistic Director Richard Wargo, in a statement. “Terry happened to uncover a cassette of the interview during a recent move and graciously shared the tape with us.”

The dialogue covers a wide array of topics, ranging from the composing process and sources of musical inspiration to spirituality in music and the subjects of dreams and the subconscious. Interview segments are complemented by selected works of Glass, including scenes from the opera Akhnaten.

The presentation, including this rare interview, can be found on The Sembrich’s website at TheSembrich.org/online. 

The Sembrich is located at 4800 Lake Shore Drive, Bolton Landing. For more information, visit www.TheSembrich.org or call 518-644-2431 or email: Office@TheSembrich.org

NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced it will reopen to visitors on August 29. The announcement came after state and city officials approved the reopening of museums and cultural institutions beginning Aug. 24. The Met will offer preview days for Members on Aug. 27 and 28. The Met Cloisters is scheduled to reopen on Saturday, Sept. 12.

 “After nearly six months, The Met’s reopening will be a historic moment for the Museum and the City,” said Daniel H. Weiss, President and CEO of The Met, in a statement. “Throughout the recent months of uncertainty, isolation and grief, we have longed for the day when we can safely welcome everyone back to The Met, where all can find comfort, inspiration, and a sense of community. To see visitors walk through the doors of the Museum once again will be a very powerful experience.” 

The Met’s Fifth Avenue building will be open five days a week, Thursday through Monday. On Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays, it will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Museum will offer later hours on Thursdays and Fridays and be open from noon to 7 p.m. 

The Met has developed comprehensive safety procedures for its staff and visitors, following guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), New York State, and New York City. Measures include limiting the number of visitors to 25 percent of the Museum’s maximum capacity and requiring timed entrance registration. 

For more information, go to: metmuseum.org.

After 30 years in the music business — writing, recording, touring, and performing as a collaborator, bandmate, and sometimes sideman — Christopher Peifer has released his first full-length solo record. 

Peifer spent his formative years in the Capital Region in the 1990s playing with local artists like Sandy McKnight, Stephen Clair, John Powhida, the Staziaks, and Nick Bisanz. “One of my favorite bands, The Figgs, from Saratoga, have kept it going for 30 years, whereas in 30 years I’ve played in 30 bands,” he says.

Recorded over the past year and musically inspired by everyone from Elvis Costello to The Replacements, The Figgs to Roy Orbison and Hüsker Dü, the album “Suicide Mission” is “art and love in the time of coronavirus,” Peifer says. 

The title symbolizes the pursuit of a life in rock n roll, especially at a certain age, and likens it to a kind of suicide mission, or a kamikaze flight.  For more information about the album and downloads, go to: chrispei.bandcamp.com.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Jewish Community Arts, with Temple Sinai and the Jewish Federation of Northeastern NY, presents an online panel discussion on American Son, an adaptation of a Broadway play of the same name, 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 16. Participants should view the film ahead of time before logging in to the discussion.

Written by Christopher Demos-Brown and directed by Kenny Leon, while not based on one specific real-life story, American Son explores the truth of the real issues that exist among law enforcement. Kendra Ellis-Connor and her husband, Scott Connor, learn that their biracial 18-year-old son, Jamal, a student about to enter West Point, was not actually arrested, but was shot by a police officer who had pulled over the teen and his friends after the officer had witnessed the driver – not Jamal – buying drugs. The boys exited the car without the officer’s instructions to do so, and he fired.

“This film forces us to ask questions, examine societal norms, and dig deeper into stereotypes,” says SJCA Coordinator Phyllis Wang. “During the course of this film, there are times viewers are able to see themselves and their perspective, and have a moment when they say, ‘Wow, I didn’t know that I was doing that.’”

You must register in advance at:  Zoom Meeting:  us02web.zoom.us/j/85060070196?pwd=NlEvcEpxaHhyUnRZdlNzbnA4dGNiZz09. Meeting ID: 850 6007 0196. Dial by your location +1 929 205 6099 US (New York). 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Nacre Dance Group is seeking choreographers for the 6th annual “So, You Think You Can Choreograph?” performance on Nov. 7 at the Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga Springs. 

This program of Nacre Dance Group is designed to highlight emerging choreographers in modern and contemporary choreography from both local and surrounding areas. Unlike “So, You Think You Can Choreograph” performances of the past, choreographers will be tasked with creating choreography “in the round” to accentuate the unique performance space of UPH. 

Through an initial application process, selected choreographers present their work before a live studio audience.  The audience will vote on their favorite piece of choreography and provide written feedback to the choreographers. The winning contestant will be commissioned to set a piece of original choreography on dancers and have it performed in the Capital Region in the spring of 2021. All choreographers will receive an honorarium to present their work.

On-line applications are available on the website at www.nacredance.org/sytycc Deadline for submissions is Sept. 1. For additional information, please contact Artistic Director, Beth Fecteau at Beth@nacredance.com or by calling 518-817-3833.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The National Museum of Dance hosts The Ageless Dancer Ballet Barre class for older adults, offered by Mary Anne Fantauzzi, beginning Aug. 17. 

The class was previously offered via Zoom to over 100 participants in spring and will return for two more Zoom sessions 2-3 p.m. on Mondays from galleries within the National Museum of Dance.

The Ageless Dancer Ballet Barre class teaches classical ballet technique designed for participants ages 50-plus. The class will use a chair or ballet barre for support. Participants will remain standing throughout the class to promote core stabilization and balance. Ballet slippers or split sole sneakers and fitness attire are recommended.

Session 1: Aug. 17 – Oct. 5 (no class Sept. 7 or 28), six classes via Zoom. Cost: $30 for six classes.

Session 2: Oct. 19 – Nov.  30 (no class Nov. 23, six classes via Zoom. Cost: $30 for six classes.

Payment can be made via PayPal at www.nationalmuseumofdance.org/calendar, or by mailing a check to the National Museum of Dance at 99 South Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866.

For questions and to register, please contact Mary Anne Fantauzzi at tours@dancemuseum.org. 

SCHUYLERVILLE — Saratoga Clay Arts Center’s Schacht Gallery presents Lip Service, a national juried exhibition of 115 drinking vessels by 71 artists. 

The exhibition opens on Saturday, Aug. 22, and runs through Sept. 26. The reception will be held outdoors, and individuals will be let into the gallery in small groups. Masks required to enter. 

A cup is one of the most intimate objects that we interact with on a daily basis. When we sit with our tea, coffee or beverage of choice, we are in communion with a drinking vessel through its touch to our lips and its feel in our hands. When we drink with a handmade object, we are also connecting with the maker of the object, one pair of hands to another. 

Selected through a jurying process by nationally renowned Massachusetts-based potter Mary Barringer, this exhibition features over 100 drinking vessels by artists from across the country– cups, mugs, teabowls, yunomi, shot cups, bourbon cups, wine goblets, espresso mugs, tumblers and more. The exhibition showcases a diverse array of objects that invite use and handling, and are made for different hands, different aesthetics and different liquids.

Barringer will also be presenting a hybrid hands-on in-person and virtual workshop “Making, Fast & Slow” Aug. 22-23 in conjunction with the exhibition. 

Founded in 2010 by clay artist and educator Jill Kovachick, Saratoga Clay Arts Center is a ceramic art center located at 167 Hayes Road, Schuylerville. Details for the exhibition and workshop can be found online at www.saratogaclayarts.org.

SARATOGA SPRINGS – Consider the sonic arsenal in the Talking Heads songbook – “Once In A Lifetime” and “Burning Down The House,” to “Life During War Time,” among them. Now for good measure add the Tom Tom Club’s iconic “Genius of Love,” and consider these likely would have never been created were it not for David Miller, Professor Emeritus at Skidmore College.  No party, no disco, no foolin’ around.

“When I was in high school in Pittsburgh, the person who really changed my life and my whole reason for being you could say, was a guy named David Miller,” Chris Frantz recalled on a rainy Wednesday afternoon.

“He lives somewhere not far from Saratoga. He taught for many years at Skidmore after the school I went to, which was called Shady Side Academy – which at the time was a boys school. He taught my studio art class then later got a job teaching painting at Skidmore College. He was there well over 20 years,” says Frantz, who has just published his autobiography “Remain In Love: Talking Heads: Tom Tom Club: Tina.”

The book documents Frantz childhood years, his perceptions from his seat behind the drumkit with the bands Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club, and his longtime marriage to the band’s bassist, Tina Weymouth. A handful of pages detailing Frantz’ academy school years are filled with a fondness for Miller’s inspiration. “It’s no exaggeration to say this man changed my life. He was and still is a very humble, friendly, and unpretentious person. Mr. Miller opened my eyes to the idea that anyone can be an artist. Under (his) talented influence, I became an artist. It was as if a switch flipped in my brain. I still remember the day I had this epiphany. I was seventeen years old,” Frantz says.  “I went to visit with him and to talk about those days. He’s a great painter and he’s still alive and well and living in your area.”

“I gave them assignments where they would take risks,” says Miller, from his home a few minutes south of Saratoga Springs. “I’d show them slides and recommend artists they should research, and then they would get involved in finding new directions for their own skills. Not to imitate, but to be inspired by. That’s how I taught.”

Drawing, painting and collage lessons aside, Miller had coincidentally also known Frantz’ father. “When I was in the Army Reserves, his father was a colonel and I was a lieutenant,” Miller says. As Frantz entered his junior year, he began thinking of college applications. Miller suggested he should go to a good art school.

“This made complete sense to me,” Frantz says, “but when I told my parents, they spoke to Mr. Miller and begged him, ‘Please don’t suggest to Chris that he should go to art school. How will he ever support himself?’”

“Chris’ father said to me, please don’t talk Chris into going to art school. How is he going to make a living?” Miller recalls with a chuckle.  Miller was persuasive, however, and recommended Frantz apply to the Rhode Island School of Design, which he described as the Harvard of art schools. Miller’s reputation at the Rhode Island School of Design was stellar, having previously sent the college a handful of students.

“My parents suddenly thought, ‘Oh, the Harvard of art schools? Well, that sounds interesting,’” Frantz says. Frantz was accepted and relocated to RISD. It was on campus that he met David Byrne. They started playing music. At the school, Frantz also met Tina Weymouth, who would become the band’s bass player, as well as Frantz’ relationship partner for life.

One day, Byrne came to the painting studio that Frantz and Weymouth – now a couple – were sharing. He said he had been writing a song in a style somewhat like Alice Cooper and hoped the pair could help him with it.

Byrne’s verse began: “I can’t seem to face up to the facts/ I’m tense and nervous and I can’t relax…” Weymouth, who spoke French, added the song’s bridge, and Frantz added even more verses. “Continuing with the psychotic theme as we were brainstorming, I shouted, ‘We are vain and we are blind!’ and Tina said, ‘Yeah, yeah, and I hate people when they’re not polite.’ David wrote it all down in his little spiral notebook,” Frantz says. “It was our first songwriting experience together and it was proof enough for me that we should do more of this in the future.”  

Following graduation, all three moved to New York City where Talking Heads began their career at CBGB, opening for The Ramones.

“Chris’ dad later said something positive about Chris going to art school,” Miller says with a laugh.  As Talking Heads blazed their path through the New York underground, Miller relocated to Saratoga Springs, after answering a call from a friend who was teaching at Skidmore College, informing of an opening in the art department. 

“I said, where is Skidmore? He said: Saratoga Springs, N.Y. I said: I never heard of it, where’s that? He said: it’s by Albany,” Miller recalls.  Miller taught at Skidmore for 35 years – from 1975 to 2010, retiring after 35 years. His son Darren played quarterback at Saratoga Springs High School, and has since gone on to a prestigious law career with the state.

As an artist, Miller has shown his work at numerous galleries including locally at Saratoga Arts Center. A large retrospective of his career work was staged at the Tang Museum.  

In the mid-1980s, Miller and his son Darren attended a Talking Heads show at SPAC.

“I remember we were sitting near the stage and the band were on break, or they hadn’t started yet. Chris came out and waved for the two of us to come up. So, Darren and I went up on the side of the stage behind the curtain, and we watched the show from back here. It was a very interesting experience.  

 “Chris came up and visited us here at the house about two or three years ago and insisted on taking us out to lunch. Anytime he wants he’s welcomed to come back,” Miller says.

Frantz and Weymouth eventually moved out of New York City and settled into the Northeast countryside.

“I have heard from a lot of people who live in New York,” Frantz says, the couple’s two beagles – Poppy and Kiki – joyfully announcing the arrival of a UPS delivery truck coming up the driveway. ”Those who can afford to move are really considering moving out to the countryside – so, look out Saratoga: here they come!”

“Remain In Love: Talking Heads: Tom Tom Club: Tina,” by Chris Frantz, published by St. Martin’s Press. $29.99 hardcover, with photographs.