ALBANY — The UAlbany Performing Arts Center kicks off its 2023-24 season of guest performances on Sunday, Sept. 24, at 2p.m. with “Rising Tide: The Crossroads Project,” a multi-disciplinary live performance fusing original music with art, imagery and science to address global sustainability. 

The 75-minute program is free and will take place at the UAlbany Performing Arts Center on the uptown University at Albany campus located at 1400 Washington Ave. The performance will be followed by a panel discussion featuring the performers and UAlbany experts.

Rising Tide confronts a planet under siege and a future in peril with the hope of inspiring audiences to change course.  The program features an original score by composer Laura Kaminsky, live musical performance by the Fry Street Quartet, lecture by physicist/climate educator Robert Davies and imagery by painter Rebecca Allen and environmental photographer Garth Lenz. 

Admission to the performance is free. No reservations or tickets are required.  For further information, contact the UAlbany Performing Arts Center’s main office at 518-442-3995 or pac@albany.edu. 

ALBANY — The University at Albany Department of Music and Theatre has announced its performances for the 2023-24 season. Offering concerts by guest artists, faculty and students, the Music Program will present 23 performances. The Theatre Program will mount three full productions offering five to six performances of each show plus its annual festival of new plays.  

All performances by the Department of Music and Theatre take place at the UAlbany Performing Arts Center on the main University at Albany campus at 1400 Washington Ave. 

The season begins with Viva Mexico on Tuesday, Sept. 19, at 7 p.m. Pianist Max Lifchitz celebrates the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month performing a recital featuring music by Mexican composers, and on Thursday, Oct. 12 the ending of Hispanic Heritage Month by performing a recital featuring dance-inspired music from the Americas, titled: Tangos & More.   

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams: Wednesday, Oct. 18 through Sunday, Oct. 22. This poetic drama, about the choices in the life of a young artist, made the yet-unknown playwright an overnight sensation. It’s an American classic: envisioned for our world today and our unique theatre in the round.

UAlbany Symphony Orchestra & Concert Band – Sunday, Oct. 22. Two of the University’s large ensembles present a shared program.

The Choral Hour – Saturday, Oct. 28. The UAlbany Chamber Singers and Community Chorale perform separately and combined in a program of music from a wide array of styles and culture.

For the complete schedule of the Department’s performances November and beyond, go to: www.albany.edu/pac/department-music-and-theatre-performances.  All tickets purchases must be made on-line at www.albany.edu/pac.

SARATOGA SPRINGS —Saratoga Performing Arts Center announces its innovative CulinaryArts@SPAC initiative will continue with two events slated for this fall at The Pines at SPAC. 

Kicking off the series on Oct. 13 from 6-9 p.m. is The Joy of Oysters, featuring cocktails and culinary delights including oysters prepared in a variety of ways and conversation with The Joy of Oysters author Nils Bernstein and WAMC Northeast Public Radio’s Joe Donahue. There will also be live oyster shucking on site by Chef Megan Diehl of Pop-up Oyster Bar Company. 

Nov. 4 from 5-8:30 p.m., will feature The Mushroom Experience, spotlighting the beauty of fungi through a mushroom forward multi-course dinner, mushroom-infused cocktails, and thematic visual art and music experiences, in partnership with Collar City Mushrooms.

 “Our latest CulinaryArts@SPAC series will fuse expert-led conversation, responsibly sourced food and drink, and a completely unique experience for our community to explore both the ‘joy’ of oysters and the many fascinating and delicious facets of fungi,” Elizabeth Sobol, President and CEO of SPAC said in a statement. “Our hope is that these events will introduce new communities to SPAC’s ethos of connecting deeply to art, culture, nature and one another.” 

Tickets to attend The Joy of Oysters are $95 and include drinks and tastings along with admission to the conversation. Tickets to attend The Mushroom Experience are $125 and include the multi-course supper, drinks and gratuity. Visit spac.org for details. 

CAMBRIDGE — Hubbard Hall has announced it has struck a new national partnership with The Drama League of New York for directing residencies at the Hubbard Hall Center for the Arts and Education in Cambridge.

During week-long residencies, artists will come to the campus to develop their directing craft, using the Hubbard Hall campus, as well as various sites around the village of Cambridge to create new work that will be available to view for free by the community at the end of each residency.

“We are thrilled to partner with The Drama League on the Beatrice Terry Directing Residency and the Next Stage Residency to bring some of the best and brightest early career directors to our campus every summer,” Hubbard Hall Executive & Artistic Director David Andrew Snider said in a statement. “This collaboration will allow us to further support artists and the field at large, while bringing great art and artists to our rural community.”

Applications are now open  for the artist development programs collectively called The Directors Project, which feature significant expansions for the 2024 class, including a first-ever international fellowship for emerging directors with the Rose Theatre in London, UK; Obie Award-winning Keen Company to produce DirectorFest, offering historic Off-Broadway debuts for the Drama League’s Stage Directing Fellows; new partnerships with Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Hubbard Hall Center for the Arts and Education; and the establishment of The Drama League Film Fund to assist stage directors looking to expand their work into film and television.

For more information about Hubbard Hall and its programs, go to: hubbardhall.org. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Spa Little Theater season kicks off Oct. 8 with Pilobolus and continues through next May – when Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Artistic Directors Wu Han and David Finckel return to conclude the 2023-24 programming schedule, Saratoga Performing Arts Center announced this week. 

In between, a robust slate of global, jazz, classical, and pop offerings will be staged.  

“While we have continued to expand our programing outside of the summer months in recent years, being able to inhabit the Spa little Theater year-round has opened up new possibilities for our year-round line-up of programming. Our 2023-24 season is a diverse and rich mix of incredible artistry offering everything from jazz to global to classical music along with full modern dance productions,” SPAC President and CEO Elizabeth Sobol said in a statement. 

Tickets for the 2023-24 Spa Little Theater season, as well as discounted multi-ticket packages are available at: spac.org. 

The programming kicks off with Pilobolus on Sunday, Oct. 8, at 2 and 7 p.m. Pilobolus’s new Re: Creation Tour reminds us that play and creativity are fundamental to the human experience and that stories are alive and breathing and can teach, comfort, and connect us to ourselves and each other. Building on the success of their critically acclaimed Big Five-OH! Anniversary tour, Pilobolus moves confidently into the next half century of creation and performance. Alongside groundbreaking new pieces, the company breathes new life into beloved works from the past to create an experience both timely and timeless. Tickets cost $35-$75. 

Avi Avital & Hanzhi Wang – Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023, 7 p.m. Mandolinist Avi Avital will make his SPAC debut alongside star accordionist Hanzhi Wang, in a truly unique program that will showcase each artist’s incredible virtuosity. Tickets cost $30-$55. 

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, American Panorama – Saturday, Oct. 28, 7 p.m. Led by CMS Artistic Directors David Finckel and Wu Han, this program will feature a roster of 13 musicians in a special performance of Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring along with works by Dvořák and American Composers Arthur Foote and Harry Burleigh. Tickets cost $35-$65. 

Säje – Saturday, Nov. 11, 7 p.m. Vocal supergroup, säje, is the brainchild of vocalist/composers Sara Gazarek, Amanda Taylor, Johnaye Kendrick, and Erin Bentlage. Traversing a vast array of compelling original material, beloved jazz standards, and contemporary re-imaginings of artists such as The Bad Plus, YEBBA, and Björk, the all-female collective has demonstrated their devotion to thoughtful, sophisticated original compositions and heartfelt covers. Tickets are all general admission and cost $33. 

Kings Return, We 4 Kings – Saturday, Dec. 2, 7 p.m. Kings Return is back by popular demand following their SPAC debut last spring. The unique, harmonizing group turned internet sensation captures the essence of an old-school a cappella quartet with sounds inspired by gospel and R&B. Tickets cost $25-$55.

Time for Three, Home for the Holidays – Saturday, Dec. 9, 7 p.m. Defying convention and boundaries, Time For Three stands at the busy intersection of Americana, modern pop, and classical music. In addition to their arrangements of Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Led Zeppelin and others, the trio featuring Charles Yang (violin, vocals), Nicolas “Nick” Kendall (violin, vocals), and Ranaan Meyer (double bass, vocals), will present special arrangements of holiday favorites including The Christmas Song, Edelweiss, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, and a special Hanukah MashUP. Tickets cost $35-$65.

Kat Edmonson, Holiday Swingin’! – Sunday, Dec. 17, 4 p.m. Kat Edmonson and her band will perform Yuletide favorites along with Kat’s originals for a magical holiday evening celebration. Tickets cost $25-$55.

Coming in 2024: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Instrumental Array – Saturday, March 9; BalletX – Saturday and Sunday, March 16-17; TISRA: Zakir Hussain with Debopriya Chatterjee and Sabir Kahn – Saturday, March 23; Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Wu Han, David Finckel and Chad Hoopes – Saturday, May 11.  

Visit spac.org for additional details.  

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Home Made Theater will host open registration for students ages 8-18 years old for the Home Made Theater Youth Conservatory production of The SpongeBob Musical: Youth Edition. 

This program gives students an exciting, creative, and supportive environment in which to experience the thrill and exhilaration of performing live theater. All students who register for the program will be cast in the production.

The SpongeBob Musical is based on the Nickelodeon animated series created by Stephen Hillenburg. The musical production was conceived by Tina Landau. The SpongeBob Musical: Youth Edition is a one-hour version of the hit musical, specially tailored for young actors. 

The Youth Conservatory team is led by director Laurie Larson. Her previous directing credits at Home Made Theater include over 25 Youth Conservatory productions, most recently being last Spring’s Mean Girls, Jr. Ms. Larson is a retired theater and choral teacher at Ballston Spa High School. The choreographer for the program is Olivia Larson, and the production stage manager is Susan Turner, both of whom have been involved with the Home Made Theater Youth Conservatory for a number
of years.

Rehearsals for The SpongeBob Musical: Youth Edition will begin Sept. 22 and performances will be Dec. 8 – 10 at the Saratoga Music Hall, on the third floor of the Saratoga Springs City Hall.

For complete details and/or to register, visit Home Made Theater’s website, www.homemadetheater.org.

GLENS FALLS — Multi-platinum selling hard rock band Godsmack has announced additional North American tour dates in continued support of their eighth studio album, “Lighting Up The Sky.”

The band will kick off their headlining fall tour, produced by Live Nation and FPC Live, on Sept. 3 in Baton Rouge, and stages in Glens Falls, at Cool Insuring Arena on Oct. 24. 

For ticket information, go to: godsmack.com.