July 8-26: Combining a packed schedule of performances, competitions and open master classes, a positively grueling training regimen for a small group of well-vetted aspirants and, one imagines, a few pretty high-end cocktail parties, PianoSummer at SUNY-New Paltz returns for another season of celebrating the continued vitality of the 88 keys and the centuries’ worth of brilliant music written for them.

On Thursdays in July and August, Bard opens the fabulous Spiegeltent to the curatorially adventurous Catskill Jazz factory. It is a lineup of shows not to missed. The Catskill Jazz Factory has been an especially stellar and opulent example of a jazz incubator and advocacy organization dedicated to nurturing young talent, sustaining jazz’s great careers and advancing jazz appreciation worldwide.

Saturday, July 6: To call Kingston “instrumental” in the national launch of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles band Lucius would be a bit of an embellishment of the kind we should leave to realtors, gentry-baiting developers and their pocket scribes. But one thing is for certain: The second of their two shows at BSP – in February of 2013, months after their O+ debut – happened to coincide with the exact instant of their national liftoff. I am still scarred by the afterburners.

Saturday, July 6: The Stonewall Riots in Manhattan, which sparked a national groundswell of activism for LGBTQ rights, are among the history-making events of 1969 whose 50th anniversaries are being remembered this year. The 260+-member New York City Gay Men’s Chorus has put together a commemorative program and it’s coming to an arts venue near you – namely, the Lumberyard in Catskill.

Saturday, July 6: This edgy, experimental event brings together five poetry-based bands in the astounding environment of the Widow Jane Mine for a concert benefiting the Century House, curated by Chris Funkhouser, host of WGXC’s Poet Ray’d Yo.

With a court settlement in their favor, a new sponsor in Oppenheimer & Co. and some leads on replacement venues (Vernon Downs racetrack), word from the organizers seemed upbeat; according to a recent article in Billboard by Dave Brooks, however, the signals are still decidedly mixed, and time is short.

Saturday, June 29 and Sunday, June 30: This summer, the longest-running chamber music series in America will feature a number of the world’s great string quartet ensembles: the Escher, the Harlem, the Jasper, the Jupiter, the Pacifica, the Amernet and, on Sunday, June 30, the Shanghai Quartet.