SARATOGA SPRINGS —Original songs and holiday favorites will be featured in the festive and fabulous atmosphere of Saratoga Arts showcasing the talents of Cassandra Kubinski, Ria Curley with Chuck Lamb, and Marcus Ruggiero.
The event takes place 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 20 in the Dee Sarno Theater of the Saratoga Arts building, on Broadway in Saratoga Springs.
VIP (with early entry), and general admission tickets are available. Go to: saratoga-arts.org.
SARATOGA SPRINGS —Congregation Shaara Tfille, The Jewish Community Center of Saratoga has announced the 2023 Winter Jewish Film Festival Dec. 17 – 31 featuring 19 films that may be able to stream directly into homes.
The selected films include documentaries and notable international feature movies, which have been showcased in major Jewish film festivals around the country. The films include noted international releases such as: Haute Couture (France), Lost Transport (Germany), Our (Almost Completely True) Story (USA), My Father’s Secrets (France), First to Stand: The Cases and Causes of Irwin Cotler (Canada), Israel Swings for Gold (USA), and many more.
Pre-registration is required to access the films and the registration fee is $18, which provides access to all the films. Payments are payable on-line at the synagogue’s website: saratogasynagogue.org. (Use the PayPal donation link; select ‘other’; note “film festival”); in person at the synagogue office at 84 Weibel Ave., Saratoga Springs.
For additional information about registration and the film festival, contact Barbara Opitz at: barbaraopitz47@gmail.com or call 518-428-2703 or the synagogue’s office at 518- 584-2370.
SARATOGA SPRINGS —A Saratoga holiday speakeasy music event, presented by iTheatre Saratoga, will be staged at 8 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 22 & Saturday, Dec. 23 at the Music Hall – 474 Broadway.
iTheatre promises a unique evening of classic “far out” songs along with some holiday favorites performed by a top-notch group of musicians and dynamic vocalists.
Tickets to A Cosmic Christmas are available online at: itheatresaratoga.ticketspice.com/cosmic-christmas-a-holiday-speakeasy-music-event
CLIFTON PARK — Saratoga Jewish Community Arts brings Songs of Light and Hope: A Chanukah Concert and Sing-along to Congregation Beth Shalom in Clifton Park, 688 Clifton Park Center Road.
Rabbi Jonathan Kligler, on guitar, will be joined by Rabbi Zoe Zak on accordion and keyboard, and Robert Bard on stand-up bass, for a joyous evening of song to celebrate the Festival of Lights at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 9.
Rabbi Kligler has been playing his guitar and leading people in song since his camp counselor days. He recently retired after 34 years serving as the spiritual leader of Kehillat Lev Shalem – the Woodstock Jewish Congregation, in Woodstock, New York.
Bassist Robert Bard began his career playing music on the streets and in the clubs of New York City. He graduated from Columbia University in 1981 and studied at Mannes School of Music. He worked for 15 years as a composer and music director for CBS-TV, where he was nominated for eight Emmy Awards.
Rabbi Zoe B. Zak has served as the spiritual leader of Temple Israel of Catskill since 2012. She came to the rabbinate after an accomplished musical career and has brought her musical gifts to her congregation.
Registration is required at sjca.sjcf@gmail.com A $10 donation is requested.
SARATOGA SPRINGS —Spring Street Gallery welcomes Anne Diggory to share a collection of works called Near and Far.
The exhibit includes recent Adirondack paintings and hybrid works along with paintings of Southern France. In a celebration of seeing and painting, Diggory focuses on the magical and sometimes confusing juxtapositions of clarity and mystery in spaces that include the near and the far.
“Sometimes in hybrid pieces I introduce fragments of photography midway in the painting process, have the digital collage printed and then continue painting on the printed surface,” said Diggory. “The fragments extend the range of approaches to detail and introduce a level of dialogue about frozen moments and the transformation of information.”
An Artist Talk takes place 7 p.m. on Dec. 15, when Diggory will speak about how the approaches to detail, color and composition affect the expressive impact of the exhibition’s individual pieces. The exhibition will be on view through Feb. 10 with a Closing Reception and Discussion slated for Jan. 28, 2024, at 2 p.m.
Diggory has worked out of her studio in Saratoga Springs for 45 years. She is known for her combination of accurate detail with expressive painting and strong abstract structure – an outgrowth of education at Yale and Indiana University and many years of exploring and painting the natural world. Her work has been seen in over 35 solo exhibitions and 75 group exhibitions.
A portion of the sales of this exhibition will benefit the Saratoga Immigration Coalition Scholarship Fund. For more information, visit springstreetgallerysaratoga.org. Spring Street Gallery is located at 110 Spring St., Saratoga Springs. Tel: 518-290-0660.
SARATOGA SPRINGS —Sammy Hagar is bringing his 28-date “The Best Of All Worlds” 2024 tour to Saratoga Performing Arts Center, where he will be joined by bandmates Michael Anthony (bass, backing vocals), Jason Bonham (drums) and Joe Satriani (guitar).
The July 22 concert includes opening act Loverboy.
“It’s crazy to think that it’ll be 20 years since Mikey and I played these songs with Van Halen on the 04’ Best of Both Worlds Tour,” Hagar said, announcing the tour. “With Joe on board, we can take a deeper dive into those years. We’re going to touch on some hits from my entire career but seeing fans old and new really embrace the new collection set off something in Mikey and I. We were at my Birthday Bash in Cabo for my 76th and looked at each other and high fived, like ‘let’s do it.’ We pulled out a couple of them and it was an instant lovefest with the fans from our first riffs.”
For more information and tickets, go to: linvenation.com.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Hootie & the Blowfish return to the road in 2024, as the foursome sets out on the Summer Camp with Trucks Tour produced by Live Nation featuring special guests Collective Soul and Edwin McCain.
The group comprised of Mark Bryan, Dean Felber, Darius Rucker and Jim “Soni” Sonefeld will visit 43 cities across the U.S. and Canada. This marks the first full tour since 2019 for the band.
The tour kicks off May 30 in Dallas and runs through Sept. 28 in West Palm Beach. The bands will stage a show at Saratoga Performing Arts Center on June 15. Tickets: livenation.com.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — They call themselves a happy accident that could only have happened in this century.
The six singers of ACCENT first performed live at an international choral festival in Umeå, Sweden in 2014. While the self-described “jazz vocal nerds” became fans of one other’s elaborate multi-tracked jazz vocal videos on YouTube – in 2011 they began collaborating on new vocal arrangements and videos over the Internet – their first live performance came only a few days after meeting one another in person.
Musically, they clicked and since that first in-person meeting, they have released five albums, amassed millions of views on YouTube, and performed live in concert halls, jazz clubs and festivals in the U.S., Europe, Canada, Mexico, the Middle East and Asia.
ACCENT is: Jean-Baptiste (“JB”) Craipeau (France), tenor 1; Simon Åkesson (Sweden), tenor 2; Danny Fong (Canada), tenor 3; Andrew Kesler (Canada), tenor 4; James Rose (United Kingdom), baritone; and Evan Sanders (USA), bass.
They will stage a show in Saratoga Springs at Caffe Lena on Sunday, Dec. 10. For more information, and tickets, go to: caffelena.org.
ALBANY — WMHT Public Media (WMHT), a multichannel public communications organization serving Eastern New York and Western New England, today announced a partnership with the Albany Public Library (APL) to present sneak previews of a national documentary series, a collaboration designed to advance education and spur community conversations regarding timely and topical issues impacting our region and nation.
Hosted at APL’s Pine Hills Branch at 517 Western Ave. in Albany, each of five short screenings will feature documentary projects included in the new season of Indie Lens Pop-Up, a long-running series that is part of INDEPENDENT LENS, PBS’s award-winning documentary anthology series.
A range of topics will be explored, from the Muslim American experience, climate gentrification, and race and gender equity in mainstream media, to personal perspectives on what it means to live with Parkinson’s disease, and how the Deaf and hard of hearing community redefine listening.
Free and open to the public, each screening will be accompanied by a moderated discussion featuring panelists engaged by WMHT in partnership with student organizations at area colleges, who will also help to plan the programs. In addition, APL is preparing book displays and recommended reading and viewing lists from their holdings to provide further insight on the topics.
The Indie Lens Pop-Up series of screenings begins Wednesday, Dec. 6 at 6 p.m. with “A Town Called Victoria,” by Li Lu and Anthony Pedone. Synopsis: When the local mosque is burned to the ground in an apparent hate crime, the town of Victoria, Texas, must overcome its age-old political, racial, and economic divides to find a collective way forward.
The series continues 6 p.m., Jan.3 with Razing Liberty Square, by Katja Esson and Ann Bennett. Liberty City, Miami, is home to one of the oldest segregated public housing projects in the United States. Now with rising sea levels, the neighborhood’s higher ground has become something else: real estate gold. Feb. 7: Breaking the News, by Heather Courtney, Princess Hairston, Chelsea Hernandez, and Diane M Quon. March 13: Matter of Mind: My Parkinson’s, by Anna Moot-Levin and Laura Green. April 24: The Tuba Thieves, by Alison O’Daniel.
APL’s Pine Hills Branch is an accessible building and there are several handicapped spaces in the parking lot. It can also be reached by bus (via Routes 10, 11, 114, 138, and 763). Films include closed captioning. This year’s Indie Lens Pop-Up series will feature both in-person and virtual events in more than 40 cities across the U.S. Each film will make its television debut on INDEPENDENT LENS, and will be available to stream on the PBS App.
SARATOGA SPRINGS —The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College this week stages the final events held in conjunction with the exhibition Forms of Awakening: Selections from the Jack Shear Collection of Himalayan Art.
Forms of Awakening presents traditional Tibetan objects from the Jack Shear Collection alongside work by contemporary artists of Tibetan heritage. The exhibition is on view through Dec. 10.
Saturday, Dec. 2, 4:30 p.m. – Gade’s Ice Buddha and Curators’ Tour. This special presentation features an ephemeral artwork by the Tibetan artist Gade and a Curators’ Tour of Forms of Awakening, led by Rachel Seligman, Assistant Director for Curatorial Affairs and Malloy Curator at the Tang; Ben Bogin, Associate Professor of Asian Studies at Skidmore College; and Ariana Maki, Associate Director of the Tibet Center and Bhutan Initiative at the University of Virginia.
Saturday, Dec. 2, 6 p.m. – Continuum: Solo Performances by Techung and YESH. Reflecting the pairing of traditional and contemporary visual art in Forms of Awakening, Continuum features solo performances of traditional Tibetan music by Techung and contemporary Tibetan music by YESH. Students will lead a public tour of the exhibition at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 7.
All events are free and open to the public. For more information, call the Tang Visitors Services Desk at 518-580-8080 or email tang@skidmore.edu. For the latest information, please visit https://tang.skidmore.edu.
