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Thomas Dimopoulos

Thomas Dimopoulos

City Beat and Arts & Entertainment Editor
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SARATOGA SPRINGS — An aggregated list of free resources, opportunities, and financial relief options available to artists of all disciplines has been developed by and for freelance artists and those interested in supporting the independent artist community.

The resources – highlighted by Upstate Alliance for the Creative Economy, or ACE, is specifically designed to serve freelance artists, and those interested in supporting the independent artist community. Included are information for actors, designers, producers, technicians, stage managers, musicians, composers, choreographers, visual artists, filmmakers, craft artists, teaching artists, dancers, writers and playwrights, photographers,
and others.

The links include artists’ readiness alert and the challenges of business interruptions, lists of emergency funding opportunities for artists, national crowdfunding and collective action efforts related to new funds set up specifically to relieve artists in financial crisis as a result of COVID-19, online arts sharing platforms as well as best practices for online teaching, learning, and gathering.     

That link is at:covid19freelanceartistresource.wordpress.com. 

ACE is a regional group of stakeholders representing Capital Region arts organizations, private corporations, philanthropists, economic development, chambers of commerce, non-profit organizations, financial organizations, media, and educational institutions. The stakeholders recognize creative enterprises are of vital economic importance in terms of employment, community empowerment, economic competitiveness, enhanced quality of life, and skill building – all leading to the community’s increased well-being. 

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. 

"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.

Tango Fusion Dance Company who has been offering adult and kids partner dance classes since 2012, is offering their classes online via Facebook Live.  Company co-director Diane Lachtrupp Martinez states - " At this time, we cannot offer our regular group classes, but people still need to move and dance, so live online was the solution." Her husband dance/partner offered, "We weren't sure how it would go but we offered our classes this past Monday and Tuesday's online with Facebook and had a great response from our local students as well as former students in NYC. "  
Johnny and Diane will be offering classes next Monday the 23 and Tuesday the 24 starting at 6:30.  Monday's night's classes will include beginner Waltz, intermediate Swing, beginner Cha Cha and Advanced Hustle.  Tuesday's classes will include beginner Salsa, intermediate Salsa and Intermediate West Coast Swing. Each week's class reviews from the week before and then we add on.  The free classes will also be offered on Monday, March 30 and Tuesday, March 31.
No partner or experience necessary.  The classes are designed for people with an at home dance partner or to dance by yourself.  We welcome people to type in questions or comments while the class is going on. "This is new to us, " comments Diane, " and we welcome your suggestions to make it a fun learning experience."
How to log-on go to our Facebook page "Tango Fusion" and you can either watch videos from last Monday and Tuesday and/or join our live classes on Monday and Tuesday. Although the classes are free for the next two weeks, they do eventually plan to have people register online to take their dancing further.  However, Tango Fusion will continue indefinitely to offer one free class a week to introduce people to the wonderful world of dance.
Children's classes - We have had requests to offer some kid's classes as well so they are offering a kid/family class free for the next two Wednesdays - March 25 and April 1 at 11:15 a.m.  Families and kids may log onto the Tango Fusion Facebook page and join us for a warm -up, dance moves and a routine.
Questions - Please feel free to contact 518-932-6447.
Friday, 13 March 2020 12:27

Governor: New Rules in Effect Friday

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced the state will institute limits on mass gatherings, directing events with 500 or more individuals in attendance to be cancelled or postponed.

Events, gatherings, or places of business with less than 500 individuals in attendance will be required to cut capacity by 50 percent, with exceptions being made for spaces where individuals do not make sustained close contact, such as schools, hospitals, public buildings, mass transit, grocery stores and retail stores. These new regulations will go into effect 5 p.m. Friday, March 13.

- Nursing homes: only medically necessary visits will be allowed at nursing homes. This policy will also be effective Friday at 5 p.m. The state is asking nursing homes to set up skyping and other online communication capacity so families can tele-visit their loved ones. Additionally, the state will require health screenings for all nursing home workers each day when they enter a facility and require them to wear surgical masks to guard against any potential asymptomatic spread.

In order to increase testing capacity, the State is contracting with BioReference Laboratories to run an additional 5,000 tests per day on top of what the state is already doing. These additional 5,000 tests per day will come online next week. This additional testing capacity is on top of that of the 28 private labs the governor announced are partnering with the state in the coming days and weeks.

Additionally, the Governor announced the first public drive-through testing facility on the east coast will start testing people (today) in New Rochelle.

- For all schools in communities with the highest rates of positive cases, the state will be taking proactive steps to implement protocols that limit mass contact. The Governor announced SUNY Albany will cancel in person classes for the rest of the semester after a positive case was confirmed. 

Finally, the Governor confirmed 109 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 325 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 325 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:

  • Albany County: 1 (1 new)
  • Broome County: 1 (1 new)
  • Delaware County: 1 (1 new)
  • Dutchess County: 1 (1 new)
  • Herkimer County: 1 (1 new)
  • Monroe County: 1 (1 new)
  • Nassau County: 41 (13 new)
  • New York City: 95 (43 new)
  • Orange County: 1 (1 new)
  • Rockland County: 7 (1 new)
  • Saratoga County: 3 (1 new)
  • Suffolk County: 20 (14 new)
  • Ulster County: 4 (3 new)
  • Westchester County: 148 (27 new)

Additionally, any business that cannot accommodate rigorous cleaning standards should contact Empire State Development at (212) 803-3100 for a close order.

Read Gov. Cuomo's statement in its entirety HERE.

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.

SARATOGA SPRINGS – What once was an eyesore and is currently a vacant lot will soon boast a grass landscape with elderberry and perennials, a pair of picnic tables, Black Cherry and Japanese Dogwood, if Jason Letts gets his way.

The owner of the .31-acre site that stands opposite the Saratoga Springs Public Library has submitted to the city Planning Board a proposal for a pocket park on Putnam Street.

“We want to make it a place people can go to and have lunch or hangout, where they can walk straight out of the library and have a place to read,” Letts said.

The location had sited a commercial use concrete block building on-site the past several years. It was eventually revealed to be contaminated from its earlier use as a dry cleaning facility, as well as sustaining oil contamination from an offsite source.  That contamination determined the existing structure could not be salvaged for re-use and the building ultimately demolished.  

The land has been a focus for a variety of suggested uses, dating back several years. Proposals have ranged from a six-level robotic parking garage and banquet facility with 189 vehicle spaces and street-level retail in 2004, to a performance venue with a food service component in 2013. In late 2018, plans were on the table for the development of a six-story, 40-unit condominium complex called “Five-Three” – named for its location at 53 Putnam St. - to feature one-bedroom and two-bedroom units at a price range of $400,00 to $800,000, and a rooftop green space with a lounge area for residents. That mixed-use building proposal carried a price tag of approximately $30 million.

Currently, the 13,500 square foot site depicts a fenced-in lot marred by post-demolition sand and gravel. Ultimately, Letts says, he realized any large-scale development would require a long-term project, and decided a better current use for the lands would be something the entire community could use.

“We got into this – ‘we’ being my sons and my family – to find a way to make this site useable as soon as possible. The idea of having to wait however-many-years to finally get a building, and to have it just sit there wasn’t appealing to us,” Letts says. “Right now, we’re looking to get the site into a useable position, something that looks nice. An aesthetic transformation.”

The proposed pocket park - titled the Rory & Blake Park – is named after Letts’ sons. “Although it is an expense, this is an opportunity to get more involved in the community where we live. And especially because we use the library so much, we decided we had to do something about it - so we hope this is something everybody will be able to enjoy.”

Letts said there are partnerships being formed with local places like Caffe Lena in the hope of staging organized activities in the park. A general timeline points to implementation by late summer. 

“It’s been a long road with the DEC clean-up, which will be taking place this year,” Letts said.

The lot is currently regulated by DEC as a Brownfield Site. A Brownfield site is a property where a contaminant is present at levels exceeding the soil cleanup objectives, or other health-based or environmental standards. The goal of the Brownfield Cleanup Program is to encourage private-sector cleanups of brownfields and to promote their redevelopment.

The location may in the future site a housing or mixed-use complex, but that prospect appears to be several years away. 

“Getting the resources together for a building (in the future) is going to take some time and will be long-term. We’re not so sure it will be condos - in fact that’s probably the least possible thing at this point given things like the market. But, whether it will be straightforward apartments, or some sort of affordable housing - that’s more what we’re looking at for that space,” Letts said. “That’ll be some time away. We just didn’t want to have it sit as it is.” 

Thursday, 12 March 2020 12:48

Neighbors: Chuck Vosganian AKA Rochmon

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. 

Thursday, 05 March 2020 15:00

Curtains Up: UPH Unveils 700 Seat Theater

Universal Preservation Hall, a new 700-seat theater-in-the-round performance space, just prior to the first-night opening of the doors, on Feb. 29, 2020. Photos by SuperSource Media, LLC.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — “How do you like us now!”

Teddy Foster beamed beneath the sparkle of stage lights Saturday night, unveiling the grand room to the eyes of several hundred theater goers. 

“I’ve been waiting to say that a long time,” said the newly named director of Universal Preservation Hall, which stands on Washington Street, one block west of Broadway. “A really, really long time.” 

Foster joined the board at UPH in 2006, became its president three years later and has stewarded the grand old church building from the brink of obliteration to its present-day promise as a thriving performance and community center in downtown Saratoga Springs.

It was built in 1871 and served as a Methodist church for its first 100 years, as well as playing a role in the city’s civic life by providing a venue for visiting statesmen including Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, William Jennings Bryan and Frederick Douglass. But by the 1960s, it had fallen on hard times. Downtown Saratoga was in decline and the Methodist congregation relocated to a new building outside of town. The church sat empty for several years. A local Baptist congregation bought it for $18,000 in 1976 but hadn’t the means to preserve and restore the aging structure.

In 2000, the city condemned the building. Local preservationists organized a nonprofit group and reached out to the Baptist congregation to help save the structure. Donations paid for an initial wave of renovation work beginning in 2003. The building was stabilized but the restoration effort ground to a halt with the economic collapse of 2008-09.

The venue had housed a smattering of events in recent years – from fashion shows to First Night celebrations, and concerts by Colin Hay and John Sebastian. Max Weinberg – drummer of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, brought his 15-piece big band to UPH in 2010, and Brooklyn-based band Cuddle Magic performed a memorable mixed-media show at the hall with pianist Phyllis Chen and novelist and short story writer Rick Moody in 2014. Because the renovations were only partly completed, however, the maximum occupancy of the hall was severely restricted.

 “I was smart enough to realize I needed either a plan to move forward or an exit plan,” Foster said, speaking about the future of UPH in 2015. “You’re remembered not for how you start something but how you leave it. I didn’t want to be remembered as the woman who let down Universal Preservation Hall. So, we got busy.”

In the summer of 2015, following three years of discussions, an operating alliance was created with Proctors, the historic theater in downtown Schenectady that has served as a performing arts destination in that city since the 1970s.

A $13.5 million renovation project followed. The original stained glass windows and the building’s pews have been restored. New seating descends from the rear balcony and, on the other end of the 7,000 square-foot room, ascend into the apse. Movable platforms allow the space to open up, depending on the requirements of any given performance. There is a new glass atrium entryway and elevator, and a state-of-the-art sound system. The architecture maintains its Gothic accents and re-opened to the public on Feb. 29, Leap Day.     

“When we saw it was possible to open on this day, we leapt,” quipped Proctors CEO Philip Morris on opening night. The Proctors Collaborative includes Proctors in Schenectady, Albany’s Capital Repertory Theatre and now UPH in Saratoga Springs. 

The 700-seat theatre-in-the-round set-up is not alien to longtime regional theater goers, sharing the performer-audience intimacy of the former Starlite Music Theater - which began its life as the Colonie Musical Theater in 1958, before taking the more familiar Colonie Coliseum name in the early 1970s. 

It seems fitting Rosanne Cash was selected as the debut performer in the re-christening of the grand hall. The eldest daughter of Johnny Cash was 9 years old when the Man In Black performed at the 5,000-seat Convention Hall on Broadway on a November night in 1964 in support of his then-new album “I Walk The Line.” One year later, Saratoga Springs’ largest indoor venue went up in flames. The emergence of UPH marks the return of a mid-sized, year-round venue to the downtown district. According to a statement issued in 2018, UPH will serve an estimated 65,000 visitors per year, with a $3.5 million annual economic impact as a year-round venue space. 

As for parking, UPH is located within a few hundred feet from the four-level parking garage on Woodlawn Avenue. The structure, built in 2012, holds about 450 vehicles. The garage will provide easy access to a planned glassed-in entryway to the east of the hall’s current entrance.

Upcoming concerts at UPH include:  An Evening with Chris Botti 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 6. $79.50 - $179.50; Capital Region Thomas Edison Music Hall of Fame Ceremony 6 p.m. Monday, March 9, $50; Howard Jones Acoustic Trio 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 14, $29.50 - $69.50; Irish Hooley with the Screaming Orphans 7:30 p.m. Sunday, March 15, $25.

Rochmon Record Club which began its monthly gathering under the guidance of music savant Chuck Vosganian, AKA “Rochmon,” will mark its return to UPH at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 17, when the offering will feature a presentation of Paul Simon’s “Graceland.” Tickets are $25.

Tickets for all shows are available by phone at 518-881-4500, online at universalpreservationhall.org or at the Box Office at 25 Washington St. 

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.

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Blotter

  • New York State Police The New York State Police announced that it issued 5,576 tickets during this year’s St. Patrick’s Day enforcement initiative. The campaign began on Friday, March 15, and continued until Sunday, March 17. During the campaign, funded by the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee, State Police utilized sobriety checkpoints, additional DWI patrols, and underage drinking and sales to minors detail. State Police also ticketed distracted drivers who use handheld electronic devices. State Troopers arrested 132 people for DWI and investigated 199 crashes, which resulted in 25 people being injured and no fatalities. As part of the enforcement, Troopers also…

Property Transactions

  • BALLSTON Heather DiCaprio sold property at 473 Garrett Rd to Justine Levine for $288,000 Sharon Willman sold property at 99 Jenkins Rd to Charles Lemley for $165,000 CORINTH George Montena sold property at 422 Oak St to Stephen James for $142,250 Mark Makler sold property at 313 Oak St to Sabrina Sinagra for $195,000 GREENFIELD Landlord Services of Upstate New York sold property at 1935 NYS Rt 9N to Cochise Properties LLC for $210,000 MALTA  Linda LaBarge sold property at 35 Snowberry Rd to Qu Haozheng for $270,000 Dennis Mitchell sold property at 60 Village Circle North to BGRS Relocation…
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