American Music Festival returns to Collar City
This weekend Troy will be alive with the sound of music as diverse and as varied as classical, folk, percussion jazz, classical guitar, string quartets and the soothing sound of George Gershwin on piano.
It all happens because this is the week the Albany Symphony Orchestra offers the annual American Music Festival - which will features 15 concert and events taking place at various venues throughout Troy. It continues through Sunday.
David Alan Miller, the Music Director and conductor of the ASO calls the festival “an exciting culmination of the symphony’s season and commitment to living composers.”
He might have added that it is also the end of his 25th anniversary season leading the ASO. It’s been a tenure that established Miller and the ASO as a leader in the trend to make American music one of the more popular movements in classical music.
He laughs when it is suggested that contemporary music is a hard sell to audiences. “That was in the 70s and 80s, when the trend was towards the discordant, which was off-putting,” he says. He explains the change by saying, ”Today contemporary music is appealing, tuneful and pop-inspired. It is enormously popular with audiences. It’s a very friendly sound.” The long-time champion of “new music” paused, laughed and kindof joked, saying, “Sometimes I think it might be too friendly.”
This week’s festival certainly will be both friendly and accessible. There are what might be called three main events featuring the symphony. They are Friday evening’s Dogs of Desire concert, Saturday evening’s full symphony concert and Sunday afternoon chamber concert previewing the ASO tour that stops at towns along the Erie canal. The first two will be held at various spaces inside EMPAC on the RPI campus, with the Sunday concert at Russell Sage College’s Bush Memorial Hall.
Miller expresses delight with those performances and says the concerts will show the full range of the Albany Symphony. However, he is quick to make the point that those three events are the tip of the festivals very big iceberg.
Indeed, he uses Saturday to illustrate the depth and diversity of the music offered throughout the festival. The day begins at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on 3rd Street with a 9:30 a.m. performance of Argus String Quartet. At noon the festival shifts to RPIs EMPAC’s theater for “This Land Sings: A Tribute to Woody Guthrie,” an original work by Michael Daugherty. At 3 p.m. the music moves to the studio theater at EMPAC where the Sandbox Percussion performs until 4.
After a dinner break the American Music Festival Concert featuring the full symphony orchestra, performs at 7:30 p.m. in EMPAC’s concert hall. There’s more. A post-concert recital by classical guitarist Andrew Mckenna Lee, performs at the EMPAC theater from 9:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.
If Saturday seems grueling, Sunday might be better suited for you. It begins with a guided walk along the Hudson River at Troy’s Riverfront Park. At 1 p.m. pianist Findlay Cockrell performs popular tunes of American composers like Gershwin, Scott Joplin and others at the Troy Music Hall and at 3 p.m. the ASO offers a preview of their WaterMusicNY Erie Canal concert series at Bush Memorial Hall at Sage.
That’s a whole lot of good music.
For complete schedule and tickets go to albanysymphony.com or call (518) 465-4755,