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 — Dozens of members of the city Police Department took part in active shooter response training drills this week. The training classes were conducted at Saratoga Springs High School during the school winter break, from Feb. 17-21.

“Our entire department is involved. Everyone who’s not on vacation or gone for this week takes part in the training, said Saratoga Springs Police Sgt. Paul Veitch. “Probably we’ll have 55 or 60 go through.” 

City police conduct the training sessions at least twice a year, in a varying number of locations. This week’s sessions marked the first time in a few years the sessions were staged at the high school. 

“What we train here is for things that are school-specific. If we’re doing something say at SPAC, it would be more of a large crowd-mass casualty incident. This is more of a school active threat,” Veitch said. 

Twenty-four shootings had occurred on K-12 school properties domestically in 2018, and 25 in 2019 that resulted in firearm-related injuries or deaths, according to Education Week – a self-described independent news organization that provides comprehensive coverage on K-12 education news, analysis, and opinion. The organization notes five such shootings – three of which took place in Texas and two in California – thus far in 2020. 

Despite the high profile of school shootings in recent years, however, a study published in June 2018 by James Alan Fox and Emma E. Fridel, “The Three R’s of School Shootings: Risk, Readiness, and Response,” points to a more violent past than circumstances of the present-day. According to the report – which researched school shootings and mass shootings between 1992 and 2015 - schools are safer now than they were 20 years ago, and that shooting incidents involving students have been declining since the 1990s.

Local police started the trainings shortly after the Columbine High School incidents in 1999, Veitch said. The most recent training procedures involve having a rescue task force, which includes fire department medics, closer at hand. 

“Two or three years ago they would wait for us to go in first then they would come in later and help. It’s slowly evolved; now they want to come in with us as soon as they can to help as many people as they can,” Veitch said. 

This week’s training solely involved the city department, and the costs involved during the course of the training are all city costs, with no federal grant money provided, Veitch said. 

The weeklong school winter break – with no students present - provided an opportunity for the training to take place at the school.

“We do not train active shooter with students,” Veitch said. “The school is responsible for teaching them lock-downs and what happens in their internal procedures and policies. For us, we focus on what we’re doing, we don’t include need to include them because frankly the school does a good job on their own.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS — More than three million residents aged 65 and older currently live in New York, reflecting a boom of older adults during the past decade in nearly every corner of the state. 

Saratoga County – which has experienced a 55 percent spike over the past decade - depicts the largest county growth in the elder population statewide, dwarfing neighboring communities in Albany County (a 23 percent increase), Rensselaer County (a 32 percent increase), and Schenectady County, which experienced a 13 percent increase in its older adult population over the past decade, according to the Center for an Urban Future analysis of the U.S. Census from 2007-2017.

In specific numbers, the 65-plus age group in Saratoga County has increased by 14,300 from 2007 to 2017, from just over 26,000 to more than 40,000. The county’s under-65 population meanwhile has remained relatively flat during that same period. 

To meet current trends, the Saratoga Senior Center, located in Saratoga Springs, is making plans to build a new senior center to accommodate the explosive growth in senior population.

 “When I took over in 2010, we served 300 seniors a year, now we have more than 2,000 a year, and every day we have 125-150 seniors walk through our doors,” says Lois Celeste, the agency’s executive director.   

Founded as the Golden Age Club in 1955, the Center started with just 35 members. The group purchased their own building at 162 Circular St. in 1960. A larger and more modern facility named The Robert Gass Senior Center was erected in May 1979 at 5 Williams St. 

“We’re out of space and we need to build a larger facility to serve our existing population and for the influx of ‘boomers’ to come in the very near future,” Celeste says. “We looked at the current building to see if we could expand, but we can’t really go out, or up,” she says of the agency’s Williams Street location, which stands in a city-owned building. 

The agency is currently involved in siting a new venue in Saratoga Springs. Celeste isn’t prepared to specifically identify the site at this point as project details have yet to be finalized, but explains that the agency has plans for a new, larger building that could be announced “in the next couple of months,” with a targeted completion of the new center expected in 2021.

The announcement of a new building comes as the non-profit, non-residential community center celebrates its 65th anniversary. 

At the Center, adults age 50-and-over can join for $25 per year and participate in programs, trips and social activities tailored to adults and seniors. 

Earlier this month, the Center started opening its doors on Saturdays to accommodate the growing demand and changing needs of its seniors. The expanded activities – grant funding was provided by the Alfred Z. Solomon Charitable Trust – feature varied activities such as yoga, dance, billiards, computer skills training and arts workshops, and take place 9 a.m. – noon on Saturdays. 

The Saratoga Senior Center will also host a “Leap Of Kindness Day” from 10 a.m. – Noon on Saturday, Feb. 29. The event is free and open to the public. 

The Saratoga Senior Center is located at 5 Williams St., Saratoga Springs. For more information, call 518-584-1621, or go to: saratogaseniorcenter.org. 

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 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or call the Box Office at 518-580-5439.