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.
Fringe festivals, celebrating art whose nature falls far outside the mainstream, typically happen in large cities. The Village of Phoenicia would not seem a likely candidate, though it arguably lies at the outermost exurban fringe of the New York metropolitan area. Still, the Shandaken Theatrical Society has taken on the challenge of hosting its own such festival at the Phoenicia Playhouse for two weekends, July 5 through 7 and 12 through 14.
What does “home” really mean, at the core? What good is it to nurture a sense of place in a place that no longer makes it possible for us to feel welcome?
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.
The latest plan calls for a smaller-sized festival to take place outside Syracuse, but nothing is for sure.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold was lauded as a genius by the likes of Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss, had already established a strong reputation in Europe as a composer and pianist before fleeing the rise of Nazism to work in Hollywood. He is credited as the first to bring lush orchestral scores to the silver screen. John Williams credits Korngold’s score for King’s Row as his major influence for the Star Wars scores.
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.
Saturday, June 29: The first in a summer series of family-friendly movies shown on a big screen in Poughkeepsie’s Upper Landing Park, with the span of the Walkway over the Hudson as backdrop. Food trucks will be parked onsite, and there will be live music provided by Crash and Byrne (7 p.m.) and family activities before the show.
Imagine the joy of stumbling upon a tango-obsessed saxophone quartet or an actual harpist shredding while on a hike in the woods.