WATER MUSIC NY FACT SHEET
ABOUT THE PROJECT
- Water Music NY is a musical experience two centuries in the making, and a cross-regional celebration of the bicentennial of New York’s Erie Canal.
- Emerging composers have immersed themselves into canal communities and created new compositions in partnership with local arts groups and the Albany Symphony.
- Through a seven-day musical journey, award-winning artists and composers of the Albany Symphony will perform and collaborate with local arts groups to premiere these one-of-kind pieces along the canal.
- Erie Canal bicentennial falls on the tricentennial of the premiere of George Frideric Handel’s Water Music on River Themes, which inspired the projects title.
- Pieces from Handel’s Water Music will be performed at each concert along with the premiere composition and classic Americana music.
- It is Water Music NY vision to call attention to the revitalization along New York’s waterway communities, increase tourism, and leverage the power of the arts across New York State and beyond.
- Developed in close collaboration with the New York State Canal Corporation, Water Music NY is a celebration of New York’s rich history and its vibrant communities.
- Water Music NY is supported by a Market NY grant from Empire State Development’s Division of Tourism.
BENEFIT TO NEW YORK STATE AND CANAL COMMUNITIES
- Water Music NY is putting Erie Canal communities in the spotlight by highlighting their unique cultural significance, history and charm.
- Water Music NY is reinvigorating NY waterways as the Erie Canal did two hundred years ago.
CONVERGENCE OF ART, HISTORY AND COMMUNITY
- Water Music NY is collaborating with each canal community to highlight their unique offerings, history, culture and story.
- Community events before each concert will highlight that town with local New York food, beverage and activities.
TIMELINE
Events preceding each concert will begin at 5:00 p.m.
Sunday, July 2, 2017 at 8:00 pm: Albany, NY
Corning Preserve/Jennings Landing Amphitheatre
Composer Daniel Schlosberg (Yale University)
Collaborating Arts Partner: Empire State Youth Orchestra’s Jazz Ensemble and Skidmore College Storytellers’ Institute
Monday, July 3, 2017 at 8:00 pm: Schenectady, NY
Mabee Farm Historic Site
Composer: Annika Socolofsky (Princeton University)
Collaborating Arts Partner: Capital Repertory Theatre
Tuesday, July 4, 2017 at 8:00 pm: Amsterdam, NY
Riverlink Park
Composer: Angelica Negrón (The City College of New York)
Collaborating Arts Partner: The MVCKids, The MVC Youth Chorale, and the River Valley Ringers
Wednesday, July 5, 2017 at 8:00 pm: Little Falls, NY
Rotary Park – Barge Performance
Composer: Benjamin Wallace (Yale University)
Collaborating Arts Partner: Mohawk Valley Choral Society
Thursday, July 6, 2017 at 8:00 pm: Baldwinsville, NY
Paper Mill Island Amphitheatre
Composer: Ryan Chase (Colgate University)
Collaborating Arts Partner: Syracuse Pops Chorus
Friday, July 7, 2017 at 8:00 pm: Brockport, NY
Welcome Center – Barge Performance
Composer: Loren Loiacono (Cornell University)
Collaborating Arts Partner: Golden Eagle String Band
Additional performances by choreographers/dancers Eddie Murphy & Mariah Mahoney
Saturday, July 8, 2017 at 8:00 pm: Lockport, NY
Historic “Flight of Five Locks – Barge Performance
Composer: David Mallamud, Composer
Composer Bios and Partner Organizations
David Alan Miller, Director Albany Symphony
Grammy®-winning Music Director, David Alan Miller, has established a reputation as one of the leading American conductors of his generation. Music Director of the Albany Symphony since 1992, Mr. Miller has proven himself a creative and compelling orchestra builder. Through exploration of unusual repertoire, educational programming, community outreach and recording initiatives, he has reaffirmed the Albany Symphony’s reputation as the nation’s leading champion of American symphonic music and one of its most innovative orchestras.A native of Los Angeles, Mr. Miller holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley and a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from the Juilliard School. From 1988 until 1992, he was Associate Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. From 1982 to 1988, he was Music Director of the New York Youth Symphony, earning considerable acclaim for his work with that ensemble.
Sunday, July 2, 2017 at 8:00 pm: Albany, NY
Corning Preserve/Jennings Landing Amphitheatre
Composer Daniel Schlosberg (Yale University)
Collaborating Arts Partner: Empire State Youth Orchestra’s Jazz Ensemble and Skidmore College Storytellers’ Institute
Theatricality remains integral to Daniel Schlosberg’s work.Most recently, Daniel collaborated with playwright Kate Tarker and director Dustin Wills in creating Awful Event! Or the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln as Interpreted by the Unseen Internal Organs of His Wife, which premiered at Ars Nova’s ANT Fest in June 2016.
Daniel is a 2014 recipient of the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and has been awarded two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards.
The Empire State Youth Jazz Ensemble formed in 1986,is ESYO's premiere Jazz Ensemble and has worked with guest artists such as “Blue” Lou Marini and Allen Vizzutti, and Grammy-award winning pianist/ composer Bill Cunliffe.
Founded in 2014, the annual Storytellers’ Institute sponsored by the John B. Moore Documentary Studies Collaborative (MDOCS) is a five-week residency hosted at Skidmore College. For the month of June, the Institute welcomes its Fellows to work on independent projects and engage in an annual theme.
Monday, July 3, 2017 at 8:00 pm: Schenectady, NY
Mabee Farm Historic Site
Composer: Annika Socolofsky (Princeton University)
Collaborating Arts Partner: Capital Repertory Theatre
Annika Socolofsky (1990, Edinburgh) is a composer, avant-folk vocalist, and fiddler. Her music stems from the timbral nuance and inwards resonance of the human voice, and is communicated through mediums ranging from orchestral works to unaccompanied folk ballads.
Annika is a recipient of a 2014 Fromm Foundation Commission and a BMI Student Composer Award. She is a Mark Nelson Doctoral Fellow in composition at Princeton University.
Capital Repertory Theatre has a rich, local history of excellent entertainment and strong community relationships. Established in 1981, it came into existence through the dedication and perseverance of a group of Albany business, community and civic leaders. Donated labor, materials and expertise transformed the Grand Cash Market, an abandoned supermarket at 111 North Pearl Street, into what was to become the home of Albany's first professional resident theatre.
Tuesday, July 4, 2017 at 8:00 pm: Amsterdam, NY
Riverlink Park
Composer: Angelica Negrón (The City College of New York)
Collaborating Arts Partner: The MVCKids, The MVC Youth Chorale, and the River Valley Ringers
Puerto Rican-born composer and multi-instrumentalist AngélicaNegrón writes music for accordions, robotic instruments, toys and electronics as well as chamber ensembles and orchestras. Her music has been described as “wistfully idiosyncratic and contemplative” (WQXR/Q2) and “mesmerizing and affecting” (Feast of Music) while The New York Times noted her “capacity to surprise” and her “quirky approach to scoring”.
Mohawk Valley Chorus, in one form or another, has been entertaining audiences around the Amsterdam area since 1935, when Mohasco, then known as the Mohawk Carpet Mills and headquartered in Amsterdam, formed a men’s Glee Club. John A. Gillies was the first director. Six years later, the company added a Ladies Choral Club, directed by Reginald Harris. The two groups combined in 1948.
Sponsored by the Mohawk Valley Chorus, MVC Kids is a community choral group for children, ages 6-12. Directed by Theresa Jackson, MVC Kids host annual concerts in Amsterdam, NY. In addition, The Mohawk Valley Chorus also sponsors the MVC Youth Chorale, a 15-voice choir for high school students living in Amsterdam, NY and surrounding counties.
Wednesday, July 5, 2017 at 8:00 pm: Little Falls, NY
Rotary Park – Barge Performance
Composer: Benjamin Wallace (Yale University)
Collaborating Arts Partner: Mohawk Valley Choral Society
Described as "Brilliant, humorous, and rhythmically complex," (Tacoma Symphony Blog) Ben Wallace is a composer, percussionist, and keyboard player hailing from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Ben's music spans a wide range of styles from chamber and orchestral, to disco and samba, and occasionally into the video game remix world.
Mohawk Valley Choral Societywas founded in 1982 and has been bringing exciting classical and light classical vocal music to the Central New York area for over thirty years. Its original goal was and continues to be: to bring skillfully performed choral music to the Western Mohawk Valley audiences as well as to provide area professional and amateur singers with an opportunity to perform major choral works with orchestra.
Thursday, July 6, 2017 at 8:00 pm: Baldwinsville, NY
Paper Mill Island Amphitheatre
Composer: Ryan Chase (Colgate University)
Collaborating Arts Partner: Syracuse Pops Chorus
Balancing the extremes of the familiar and the experimental, music by Ryan Chase (b. 1987) has been described as "the stuff of memory" (The Herald-Times) and hailed by the New York Times as a "whirlwind of deftly explored contrasts of mood, from bombastic to introverted." Though sonically diverse, his body of work is unified by a fascination with virtuosity and an affirmation of melody.
The Syracuse Pops Chorus consists of about 100 skilled volunteers who sing for the joy of it. Founded in 2004, the Syracuse Pops Chorusregularly performs with the Symphoria Orchestra and with other arts organizations in Central New York.
Friday, July 7, 2017 at 8:00 pm: Brockport, NY
Welcome Center – Barge Performance
Composer: Loren Loiacono (Cornell University)
Collaborating Arts Partner: Golden Eagle String Band
Additional performances by choreographers/dancers Eddie Murphy & Mariah Mahoney
Lauded by the New York Times as plush, elusive and alluring, and vivid and colorful by the Albany Times-Union, the music of Loren Loiacono (b. 1989) has been heard at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Minneapolis's Orchestra Hall and on WQXR and WSHU.
She has received awards including ASCAP's Morton Gould Award, Minnesota Orchestra Composers Institute, and the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, among others.
The Golden Eagle String Band has been performing in the Northeastern U.S. since 1978. The band has recorded for Smithsonian/Folkways, toured under a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and received a gold medal from the Smithsonian Institute as Folkways recording artists.
Saturday, July 8, 2017 at 8:00 pm: Lockport, NY
Historic “Flight of Five Locks – Barge Performance
Composer: David Mallamud, Composer
Award-winning composer David Mallamud writes music that transports his listeners to a dazzling Parisian music hall, a species-altering glam metal firestorm, a fantastical beach of Sneetches, or the hidden recesses of Nijinsky’s psyche. Recently Mallamud was thrilled to work with Mike Mills (of R.E.M. fame), arranging and composing additional music for his Concerto for Rock Band and Violin, written for violinist Robert McDuffie, who premiered it with Mills and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in June 2016. Mallamud’s other recent and current credits include music for a stage adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s The Sneetches, in collaboration with playwright Philip Dawkins for the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis; Flight School The Musical (now playing in NYC, touring China this summer); performances by the Albany, Harrisburg, and New World Symphonies; and projects with Emmy-nominated lyricist Alisa Hauser, playwright Joshua H. Cohen, and Librettist Nathan Christensen
For more information on Water Music NY, please visit .
Media Contact:
Deirdre Hargrave, Gramercy Communications
518-326-6400