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Blue Collar StartUp – Episode 39: Inspect & Protect – Morgan’s One-Man Operation

In this episode, our hosts Mike Nelson and Derek Foster interview Morgan Pellitteri, the man behind TechSmart Inspections! While he worked white collar and with other employees in the past, Morgan rededicated himself to a new calling – running an entire home inspection operation himself! What made him make the change? How has he achieved success? Listen to this episode and find out!

Listen to the episode HERE!

Major Winter Attractions and Special Events Coming to Lake George, NY Area

Photo provided.

LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. – This winter, Lake George, N.Y., will welcome a pair of magical celebrations to delight people of all ages:

In December, Lake George Winter’s Dream, a brand-new outdoor immersive multimedia experience, will unfold at the Fort William Henry historical fortress. Surrounding visitors in light, sound, original music, video projection and interactivity, the experience will recall the rich emotions, sensations and magic of the winter season. The attraction will unfold in the Fort’s outdoor courtyard and on its four bastions.

Next Door to Fort William Henry, at Festival Commons in Lake George, Winter Realms: The Wintertainment Destination will enchant visitors with ice skating, dazzling lights, larger-than-life motifs, a sculpture park, igloos, Santa’s Village, a Polar Ice Bar, and a variety of other winter attractions.

Winter Realms will open on Friday, Nov. 24, 2023, coinciding with Lake George’s Lite Up the Village Holiday kickoff event. Tickets for Winter Realms will go on sale Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023. Winter’s Dream will open in early December.  To join the waiting list for Winter’s Dream tickets, or receive updates, please visit LakeGeorgeWintersDream.com.

Winter’s Dream is created and produced by the award-winning multidisciplinary studio Moment Factory. Established in Montreal, Moment Factory is an international studio that has crafted more than 525 projects worldwide, including productions with Madonna, Billie Eilish, the Toronto Zoo, Sony, the Boston Museum of Science and the Lumina Night Walk series.

Winter Realms, created by the artists behind the famous Ice Castles, will debut a new, more weather-resistant winter experience. The unique blend of artistry and winter wonder will ensure unforgettable winter memories for visitors even when winter weather is scarce.

Photo provided.

“Lake George is first with family fun all summer and fall. Now, we hope it will be the leading place for new and memorable wintertime family entertainment, too,” said Warren County Winter Coalition Chairman Vincent Crocitto II.

Lake George Winter’s Dream and Winter Realms received financial support from Warren County as part of the public-private effort to foster year-round tourism and local employment. Both events are supported by Warren County Tourism/Visit the Lake George Area of the Adirondacks and the Warren County Winter Coalition.

Tickets for these events will be sold separately to allow visitors to select the most convenient entry times for their groups. For more information, please visit LakeGeorgeWintersDream.com and www.winterrealms.com

About the Warren County Winter Coalition: The Warren County Winter Coalition is a non-profit group of Lake George area business and community leaders working to expand wintertime employment opportunities for local people, generate new revenue for local businesses and sales and occupancy tax revenue for Warren County, and foster the development of year-round tourism in the region. Vincent Crocitto II is president of the Coalition.

Glens Falls Symphony Presents Lucinda y Las Flores de la Nochebuena to 1500 School Children in the Adirondack Park

Glens Falls Symphony will present a special performance of Lucinda y Las Flores de la Nochebuena by Evan Mack and Josh McGuire, American composers, librettists, pianists and friends. 

The opera stars of Seagle Festival, in Schroon Lake, NY along with our fully professional symphony musicians will present this coming of age, Christmas opera based on the Mexican folktale of the poinsettia.

Students from Queensbury, Lake George, Warrensburg, Ticonderoga, Crown Point, Keene Valley, homeschool associations, and more will be attending this school-day concert at the Warrensburg Middle School/ High School Auditorium on Friday, November 17 with three 48 min performances starting at 9:00am.  

The Glens Falls Symphony takes great pride in the tradition of the children’s concert which shares music made on instruments with hundreds of years of history. Glens Falls is the smallest city in America to support a fully professional symphony, making this opportunity both unique, and important for the rural school districts it will be serving. “With an array of electronic devices and access to the internet, kids have so much at their fingertips” said Senator Betty Little.  “However, there is nothing like the sound of a live symphony.  The Glens Falls Symphony is phenomenal.  These students are in for a very special and memorable treat.”   

Executive Director Jennifer Brink says “Sharing the tremendous range of the orchestra sounds with young people who may never have heard these instruments before is a wondrous thing. We are delighted that after several years of planning, the children in our region can hear the talented musicians of the Glens Falls Symphony in a concert designed just for them. We hope to continue this program with new concerts each year so that the Glens Falls Symphony forms a critical piece of every local child’s cultural education. We feel we have a duty to share this great art with children, and to contribute to building the arts audiences of tomorrow.”

When asked about why he chose Lucinda for this program, Music Director Charles Peltz shares, everyone loves a unique Holiday gift and the Glens Falls Symphony is putting a bow on a special theatrical present for the children of our communities. Our colleague the eminently gifted composer Evan Mack has offered to co-produce with the Glens Falls Symphony his wildly successful children’s opera “Lucinda”.  We love his tuneful tale of old Mexico and the legend of the poinsettia.  The musicians of the orchestra are eager to make music- and magic! –  with Evan and the Seagle Colony as we bring to life this charming musical miniature.

Each character in Lucinda will be represented in brilliant fusion of the opera with a traditional children’s Mexican story regarding the birth of the poinsettia flowers! This could be the first and only opera that many Adirondack Park students experience. This beautiful opera educates children, touches their hearts and illuminates the understanding, and true meaning behind the power of gift giving. One objective of presenting live music by professional musicians in this way is to inspire more young people to take up band and orchestra instruments when the opportunity comes. 

The concert is supported by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts. The Charles R. Wood Foundation, and the JM MacDonald Foundation. 

The 2023-24 Glens Falls Symphony 40th Anniversary concert season is sponsored by Glens Falls National Bank. 

About Glens Falls Symphony 

Since Maestro Charles Peltz’ arrival in 2000, the fully professional Glens Falls Symphony has performed a dynamic repertoire, regularly including musical premieres and world-renowned guest artists while expanding musical offerings to include family concerts, summer pops programs and more. Cited as “one of the great orchestras of our country” by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Joseph Schwantner, the orchestra comprises professional musicians who come from all over the Northeast to perform.

About Seagle Festival 

Seagle Festival is the premiere opera and musical theater producing organization in the Adirondack Region of upstate New York, and the oldest and one of the most distinguished summer vocal training programs in the United States, founded in 1915 by renowned singer and voice teacher Oscar Seagle. Over our 100+ year history, Seagle Festival has transitioned from a successful family-run business to a well-established non-profit organization, run and staffed by leaders in the field of opera and musical theater performances and vocal training, and overseen by a committed and diverse board of directors.

The non-profit corporation Seagle Music Colony, Inc. doing business as Seagle Festival has deep roots in the town of Schroon Lake, New York but serves a much larger community of artists and staff that have participated or worked at Seagle Festival and now live and work across the country and around the world. The mission, vision and values of Seagle Festival include a commitment to the highest quality performances for our devoted audiences and top-notch vocal training for aspiring vocalists of all backgrounds and identities.

About Evan Mack

Believing that opera should be theater grounded in climatic expression that delivers larger-than-life stories and music that harnesses the full athletic thrill of singing, Evan Mack has devoted much of his compositional life to opera and song.  His first major operatic composition, where he served as both composer and librettist, was Angel of the Amazon.  “Angel” premiered in May of 2011 by Encompass New Opera Theatre at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York City and was subsequently released on CD worldwide by Albany Records.  Two years later, Fresno State Opera Theater premiered The Secret of Luca. This was the first of several collaborations with librettist Joshua McGuire.  In August 2016, their American grand opera Roscoe premiered at Seagle Music Colony to rave reviews.  Roscoe received its orchestral world premiere with the Albany Symphony starring Metropolitan Opera star Deborah Voigt.  In between the two large scale projects, Mack & McGuire found time to write the first ever opera for Twitter #IsOperaDead – an opera in 5 acts lasting one minute and forty seconds.

Their Christmas opera for children, Lucinda y las Flores de la Nochebuena is quickly becoming a holiday standard with yearly productions by San Francisco Opera, Opera in the Heights and Fresno State Opera, who commissioned the opera.  The one-act opera The Ghosts of Gatsby premiered by Samford Opera in Birmingham, AL in 2019 and won the National Opera Association’s Argento Chamber Opera Competition. Mack & McGuire’s latest, Yeltsin in Texas! premiered in 2020 by TCU and Opera in the Heights. It’s now in development to become a musical comedy!

Evan Mack has proven as deft at song writing as he is in opera.  His song A Little More Perfect is a setting of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s final paragraph of the Marriage Equality Decision by the Supreme Court in 2015.  Premiering at Seagle Music Colony in 2015, it has quickly become a favorite of many baritones including Michael Mayes, Daniel Okulich and Michael Miller to name a few.  The song had its professional premiere at the Glimmerglass Festival in 2016 and the orchestral premiere at the Fort Worth Opera Festival in 2017.  His new cycle If Only Lenny Were Here, which celebrates the life of Leonard Bernstein had its world premiere with the Schenectady Symphony in October of 2018. 

Evan was named “2018 Professional of the Year” by Musical America, was a composing fellow at the John Duffy Composers Institute and a resident artist at Yaddo.  He is currently published with Hal Leonard, Alfred, and Amazon.  Evan is a Teaching Professor at Skidmore College. He lives in Ticonderoga, NY with his wife, Kristin and two sons, Carter and Henry.

About Joshua McGuire 

Joshua has written librettos for The Secret of Luca, (based on the novel by Ignazio Silone) and Roscoe (based on the novel by Pulitzer Prize winner William Kennedy) with music by Evan Mack. In October 2016, Roscoe received a full performance by the Albany Symphony featuring soprano Deborah Voigt in the lead role of Veronica. His collaboration with Mack also produced Lucinda y Las Flores de la Nochebuena, a children’s opera commissioned by the Fresno State Opera Theatre. Since premiering in 2016, the opera has played for over 25,000 children, including annual performances by the San Francisco Opera Guild. Mack & McGuire’s one-act opera The Ghosts of Gatsby, based on the life of Zelda Fitzgerald, won the the National Opera Association’s 2019 Dominick Argento Prize for contemporary opera, with subsequent productions by Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory and Opera Las Vegas, among others. 

Yeltsin in Texas! — a comedy about the fall of the U.S.S.R. commissioned and premiered by Opera in the Heights and Texas Christian University in February 2020 — is currently being expanded and developed into a full-length musical theatre piece with The Blueprint Project. McGuire is currently developing A Nearer Mother with Evan Mack (based on the life of AIDS activist Ruth Coker Burks), as well as a multimedia opera entitled Siddhartha (after the novel by Hermann Hesse) with composer Murray Hidary.

In 2015, McGuire was commissioned to write a libretto for Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative, and the resulting one-act opera, Alexandra, with music by David Clay Mettens, was premiered at the Kennedy Center. He is also the author of The Secret of Music: a look at the listening life, a book of essays on music and mindfulness. McGuire is the recipient of fellowships from Yaddo, Opera America, and the the American Center for New Works Development.  

McGuire currently teaches at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. He studied at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he pursued Master’s work in both guitar and orchestral conducting, holding assistantships in both areas. As an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University, he took the Bachelor of Music summa cum laude as well as High Honors in English Literature for his thesis on musical structures in the work of James Joyce. He currently resides in Nashville with his wife, pianist and conductor Jennifer McGuire, their son Thomas, and a basset hound.

Contact the symphony to reserve your seats for your school, organization, association, church group etc. Good seats still available. Transportation funding available by request. 

CONCERT PROGRAM:

Lucinda y Las Flores de la Nochebuena by Evan Mack and Josh McGuire
9:00am / 10:30am / 12:15pm Friday November 17, 2023 
Opera Singers Conducted by Richard Kagey, Seagle festival 
Orchestra Conducted by Charles Peltz
Warrensburg Middle/High School Auditorium

Visit the Symphony website at www.theglensfallssymphony.org
Call the Symphony office at 518-793-1348
Mailing address: Glens Falls Symphony, PO Box 2036, Glens Falls NY 12801
Office Location: Upstairs in the LARAC Building, 7 Lapham Place, Glens Falls NY 12801

Blue Collar StartUp – Episode 38: Heartbreak, Heroes, and the HVCC Community

In this episode, our hosts Mike Nelson and Derek Foster interview four students at the Blue Collar College – Tim, Jonathan, Jawid and Edon! Their incredible stories showcase the strength of the Blue Collar spirit – between preserving heritage, community values, working hard to chase those dreams, and even acts of genuine heroism, the future for the next generation of Blue Collar workers is looking bright!

Listen to the episode HERE!

A Spectacular Fall Tradition – The 2023 Saratoga  Showcase of Homes Kicks off this Weekend! 

The area’s premiere new home tour, the 2023 Saratoga Showcase of Homes opens its doors this weekend! Tickets are available at all Adirondack Trust branches, Saratoga  National Bank on South Broadway in Saratoga Springs, Glens Falls National Bank in Glens  Falls, Curtis Lumber in Ballston Spa & Queensbury and Roohan Realty in Saratoga Springs.  Showcase tickets are always conveniently available at any showcase home during tour hours  of 10:00AM – 4:00PM or can be purchased ONLINE at www.saratogashowcaseofhomes.com

Once again this year, each showcase ticket holder will receive a FREE commemorative  shoe/tote bag at the first home visited, while supplies last! 

The 2023 Saratoga Showcase of Homes is being proudly presented over two weekends this  year on October 7-8 and October 14-15. Tickets are only $25, which allows you to visit all of  these beautiful new homes over four days. This year’s edition has 9 locations from 7 of our  area’s finest builders. NEW this year is a showcase location in Lake George and Lake  Luzerne!  

Participating award-winning builders – Belmonte Builders, DeGraff-Bloom Custom Builders,  DSG Construction & Remodeling, Kodiak Construction, R & M Homes, Whitbeck  Construction and Witt Construction. To view an interactive mobile map with locations,  directions and much more, please visit our website. 

This year’s showcase will also be featuring a student “Minds Under Construction” exhibition on Saturday, October 8th from 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM at the DeGraff-Bloom  showcase home #3. Area students from the 10 – 12 grades will be building vertical gardens  and students from the 2 – 5 grades will be participating in the popular toolbox build activity. It’s all part of spotlighting work in the trades by the Northeast Construction Trades  Workforce Coalition. In addition, a new 8’ x 24’ Tiny House built by BOCES students will  be on display at the same location.  

Now celebrating its 27th year, this annual community event has contributed nearly  $1.5 MILLION dollars to our local charities. Proceeds from the Showcase of Homes will  benefit Rebuilding Together Saratoga County (www.rtsaratoga.org) and Habitat for  Humanity of Northern Saratoga, Warren and Washington Counties  (www.glensfallshabitat.org). For more details on the 2023 Saratoga Showcase of Homes event,  please visit www.saratogashowcaseofhomes.com. Check us out on FACEBOOK and follow  all the updates on this year’s event! 

About Saratoga Builders Association 

The Saratoga Builders Association, Inc. (SBA) is a specialized professional trade association  representing an industry basic to the wellbeing and economy of the people of Saratoga  County. Its membership includes residential and commercial builders, developers,  remodelers, building material suppliers, sub-contractors, financial institutions, architects,  engineers, realtors, attorneys and other industry professionals. SBA is committed to the  continued growth, prosperity and quality of life in Saratoga County. For more information, please visit their website at www.saratogabuilders.org or contact Barry Potoker, Executive Director at 518.366.0946 or bpotoker@saratogabuilders.org.

The Hyde Collection Celebrates Four New Fall Exhibitions Capping Off a Year-Long 60th Anniversary Celebration

Photo provided.

LENS FALLS, NY – The Hyde Collection is pleased to present four new fall exhibitions. Opening Saturday, October 7, and on view through December 31, 2023, are the final exhibitions of the 60th-anniversary season: Edgar Degas, The Private Impressionist; Degas at The Hyde: A Master of Form; Illustrations: Honoré Daumier, Winslow Homer, and Anthony Saris, and Ron Jude: 12 Hz. The exhibitions are open to the public Thursday through Sunday from 10 am⁠-5pm.   

The Hyde Collection Introduces The Met: Live in HD

Dead Man Walking. Photo provided.

Glens Falls, NY—For the first time, The Hyde Collection is pleased to introduce the 2023-2024 season  of The Met: Live in HD, featuring nine live performance broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera House  in New York directly to The Hyde. The series, which is offered on select Saturdays beginning on October  21, 2023, and concluding on May 11, 2024, is presented in the comfort of The Hyde’s state-of-the-art  auditorium, with pre-screening programming offered in partnership with The Sembrich. The Hyde is the  regional provider of The Met: Live in HD.  

The Met: Live in HD joins the best British Theatre and Great Art from around the world to round out the  On Screen @ The Hyde experiences. Beginning October 13, 2023, The Hyde Collection remains the  exclusive Capital Region area venue for National Theatre Live, a thrilling film series of great plays and  Great Art on Screen. Whether you show up for serious drama, romcoms, sold-out theatre hits, or award winning documentaries, these unmissable experiences are filmed live from Britain’s most exciting stages  or captured from destinations worldwide. You’ll always have the best seat in the house at The Hyde  Collection.  

Commented Katelyn Foley, Curator of Education and Engagement at The Hyde Collection, “We are so excited to offer the 2023-2024 season of The Met: Live in HD. The award-winning series of live, high definition cinema simulcasts features the full live performance. Met artists serve as hosts for the Live in  HD series, providing backstage interviews, introducing exciting behind-the-scenes features and  conducting live interviews with stars, crew and production teams from The Metropolitan Opera House in  New York City. We have been working on this new offering for several years and are so pleased to bring  this new cultural opportunity to our region.”  

“We are honored to bring The Met: Live in HD, National Theatre Live and Great Art on Screen to our  members, community, and region,” acknowledged John Lefner, The Hyde Collection CEO. “We are  beyond excited to offer The Met: Live in HD to our 2023-2024 season. This new experience will take  place in our beautiful state-of-the-art high-definition 144-seat Helen Froehlich Auditorium. Offering  exceptional cultural experiences is central to our mission as a world-class art museum.” 

The Met: Live in HD events are made richer by a partnership with The Sembrich, a unique museum in  Bolton Landing that preserves the life & legacy of soprano Marcella Sembrich (1858-1935), one of The  Met’s first operatic stars. The Sembrich will provide an exclusive 15-minute preview program prior to  each of the 2023-24 season operas. These discussions will be on-site at the Hyde Collection and will  feature The Sembrich staff and special guests, including performing artists and professionals from the  music world. 

“We take pride at The Sembrich in Marcella Sembrich’s long association with the Metropolitan Opera,”  says Richard Wargo, Artistic Director at The Sembrich. “We’re honored to further that tradition through  this exciting partnership with The Hyde—and to share the rich history of Sembrich at the Met with the  community.”

Each performance ticket is $20, $18 for Hyde members, $18 for seniors and students with valid ID, and  $5 for children under 12. Special student matinee performances are $10 per student.  

This series is funded in part by Robert and Susan Hahm, Pinnacle Nutrition LLC, and The Candy Space.  Student matinees are supported by lead education sponsor Stewarts Shops & The Dake Family with  additional support from Francine & Robert Nemer.  

CLICK HERE for 2023-2024 on Screen @ The Hyde Performances. Students interested in attending any performance should register here.

ABOUT THE MET: LIVE IN HD 

The Met: Live in HD is The Metropolitan Opera’s award-winning series of live high-definition cinema  simulcasts. Broadcasts feature the full performance along with backstage interviews and commentary. The Helen Froehlich Auditorium on the Hyde Collection Campus at 161 Warren Street, Glens Falls, NY,  provides an exceptional viewing experience, offering a large screen, excellent acoustics, and comfortable  seating. Accessible seating options are available for those requiring special assistance.  

The Met: Live in HD series is made possible by a generous grant from its founding sponsor Neubauer  Family Foundation. Digital support of The Met: Live in HD is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies.  The Met: Live in HD is supported by Rolex.  

ABOUT NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE 

Since 2009, the UK’s National Theatre has produced an on-going performing arts series, featuring world class stage plays from its London stages and other venues, captured live in high definition, and offered to  cinema audiences around the world at an affordable ticket price. BY Experience (BYE) helped launch the series in cinemas and is the exclusive international distributor of the program. Each National Theatre Live  event is captured with cameras preferentially positioned to give the in-cinema capture the best viewpoint  to the on-stage action. The result is an unparalleled experience for theater lovers, magnified by the big  screen. The events also feature behind-the-scenes interviews with cast and creative teams plus additional  bonus content.  

National Theatre Live is an initiative by the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain to broadcast  performances in cinemas around the world. Over 11 million people have now experienced the work of  National Theatre Live. 

ABOUT GREAT ART ON SCREEN 

Great Art on Screen is a series of event documentaries exclusively for U.S. cinemas, featuring an in-depth  look at the most extraordinary and groundbreaking art masters of their time. Audiences will be able to  journey all over the world with the most expert scholars viewing the works of artists such as Modigliani,  Botticelli, and many more.  

ABOUT BY EXPERIENCE 

BY Experience, a pioneer of global live cinema events presents the most in-demand arts events in  cinemas. Since 2009, BY Experience helped launch and continues to distribute National Theatre Live to  cinemas and other venues globally (excluding the UK and China) and is now also the U.S. distributor of  the Great Art on Screen series. In addition, BY Experience is the Worldwide Distribution Representative  of the Metropolitan Opera’s award-winning and critically acclaimed Live in HD series. 

ABOUT THE HYDE COLLECTION 

The Hyde is one of the Northeast’s exceptional small art museums with distinguished European and  American art collections. The core collection, acquired by Museum founders Charlotte and Louis Hyde,  includes works by such artists as Sandro Botticelli, Tintoretto, El Greco, Rembrandt, Peter Paul Rubens,  Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Georges Seurat, and Pablo Picasso  and American artists Thomas Eakins, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, James McNeill Whistler, and  Anna Hyatt Huntington. The Museum’s Modern and Contemporary art collection features works by artists  including Josef Albers, Dorothy Dehner, Sam Gilliam, Adolph Gottlieb, Grace Hartigan, Ellsworth Kelly,  Sol LeWitt, Robert Motherwell, Ben Nicholson, Robert Rauschenberg, and Bridget Riley. Today, The  Hyde offers significant national and international exhibitions and a packed schedule of events that help  visitors experience art in new ways. Visit www.hydecollection.org  

Throughout the years, the Museum has expanded considerably from the historic Hyde home. It includes a  modern museum complex with an auditorium, classroom, five galleries, and a state-of-the-art storage  facility.    

Glens Falls Symphony 40th Anniversary Season Starts this Sunday!

The Glens Falls Symphony’s 40th Anniversary Season starts this Sunday, October 8th, 2023! It will be featuring Metropolitan Opera Star and Mezzo-Soprano MaryAnn McCormick, performing Edward Elgar’s “Sea Pictures” as the symphony kicks off their highly anticipated year of Music & Adventure!

The adventure starts with a Short Ride on a Fast Machine – John Adams, born in 1947, composed Short Ride in a Fast Machine in 1986 on a commission from the Great Woods Music Festival in Mansfield, Massachusetts. It’s a good example of Adams’s particular take on minimalism – its melody (if one can call it that) is monotonous, but the rhythm and meter constantly and unexpectedly shift; as does the instrumentation, keeping a sense of both exhilaration and scariness… There are also echoes of Aaron Copland and John Williams in the harmonic language. Asked about the title, Adams said, “You know how it is when someone asks you to ride in a terrific sports car, and then you wish you hadn’t?”

The next piece is Sea Pictures, Op. 37, by Edward Elgar (1857-1934). Composing songs was not one of Edward Elgar’s strong points – he usually composed them out of a more mundane than artistic imperative, or as he referred to them, “a nice little earner.” He started a number of song cycles, but completed only Sea Pictures, which premiered in October of 1899. The poems of Sea Pictures provide five different perspectives on the sea by five diverse speakers! For more information on this piece, please visit our website at www.theglensfallssymphony.org

The orchestra will round out the evening by dancing through time and space with Symphonic Dances, Op. 45, by Sergey Rachmaninov (1873-1943). Composed in 1940 and dedicated to Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Symphonic Dances is Rachmaninov’s last work, and is often considered his best orchestral composition. Surprised by its favorable reception, Rachmaninov commented: “I don’t know how it happened. It must have been my last spark.”

The work is something of a retrospective nostalgic piece that recalls pre-Bolshevik Russia, with its romantic sentimentality and the pervasiveness of the Russian Orthodox Church. The first dance – marked Nonallegro – has a primeval quality with its pounding ostinato and large percussion section; in it, Rachmaninov demonstrates a particular interest in the musical texture of individual instruments. The middle section features the oboe and the alto saxophone – Rachmaninov’s only scoring for this instrument – in a series of birdcalls, followed by another of the composer’s broad romantic themes on the saxophone, taken up later by the violins.

A fanfare for muted trumpets introduces the second dance, Andante con moto (Tempo di valse). It is a dreamy serenade, mostly lightly orchestrated, with solos passed off from one instrument, or section, to another in mid-phrase. As the waltz approaches the end, the tempo becomes increasingly erratic, ending with a frantic coda.

Following a slow introduction, the dark final dance (marked Allegro assai) combines the syncopated rhythm of a theme from the Vespers, with dance-like allusions to the Dies Irae plainchant melody – Rachmaninov’s signature theme from the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead. It has a contrasting middle section in which the tempo slows considerably, focusing on the strings… When the initial tempo resumes, the solo trumpet begins hinting more broadly at the Dies Irae; and finally, near the end, Rachmaninov states it openly as part of the climax to the movement with the full battery of percussion instruments in attendance… Now, the character and meaning of the entire movement is revealed as a dance of death.

Concert #2: November 12, 2023
Astor Piazolla – Otoño Porteño
(Buenos Aires Autumn) with Michael Emery
Maurice Ravel – Le Tombeau de Couperin
INTERMISSION
Felix Mendelssohn – Symphony No. 4, “Italian”

About MaryAnn McCormick:
Internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano MaryAnn McCormick has been hailed in the press as “charismatic”, “spell-binding”, and “elegant”. She has performed at top theaters all over the world for more than 25 years, and has sung with the Metropolitan Opera for more than 20 seasons; as well as with La Scala in Milan, Rome Opera, Turin Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and others. The recipient of a 2012 Grammy award for her participation in Wagner’s Ring Cycle with the Metropolitan Opera, Ms. McCormick has performed many roles there in more than 118 performances, and most recently as Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro.

Equally at home with concert repertoire, she has performed with many of the greatest orchestras – including the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, and Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. She has recorded with the Emerson String Quartet, the New York Philharmonic under Kurt Masur, Orchestre National de France in the role of Tigrane in Puccini’s Edgar, and is featured singing in the Miramax film, The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Ms. McCormick’s numerous awards include the Grammy Award in 2012, the Best Opera Recording/
Wagner’s Ring Cycle (Metropolitan Opera/James Levine), the Richard Tucker Career Grant, the George London Foundation Award, and the International Tchaikovsky Competition, among others… And in 2015, Ms. McCormick was honored to join the voice faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.

About Glens Falls Symphony:
Since Maestro Charles Peltz’ arrival in 2000, the fully professional Glens Falls Symphony has performed a dynamic repertoire, regularly including musical premieres and world-renowned guest artists while expanding musical offerings to include family concerts, summer pops programs, and more. Cited as “one of the great orchestras of our country” by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Joseph Schwantner, the orchestra comprises professional musicians who come from all over the Northeast to perform.

Glens Falls Symphony 2023-24 Season
All concerts on Sunday at 4:00 PM
Glens Falls High School Auditorium, 10 Quade St, Glens Falls, NY 12801
Pre-Concert Talk at 3:00 PM (FREE with price of Ticket)

TICKETS
Season and single tickets are priced in three tiers:
Adult: $39/33/26
Student: $10
Student Season Tickets: $50

For information regarding ticket pricing and seating for season, visit www.theglensfallssymphony.org, call the Symphony office at (518) 793-1348, or stop by the office – upstairs in the LARAC Gallery building at 7 Lapham Place in Glens Falls; office hours are Monday through Friday, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

2024 Play More Membership at Bay Meadows Golf Club: Two Course, One Year, One Price!

Have you hung up your golf bag for the season? Still trying to get out for one more round? Bay Meadows can ensure that next year you get back out on the course and save some money too!

Although, you may have just cleaned up your clubs and knocked the grass out of your spikes for the last time this season, Bay Meadows has an eye on your 2024 golf game. For $299 which includes service fee, you can play at two courses during the 2024 season. This membership is good for both Kingsbury National Golf Club and Bay Meadow Golf Club for the entire 2024 season. 

As an added bonus to this great offer you also will get 1 free hour of Golf Simulator time at Bogey’s Pub and Grill. This offer is also available to new members who can play the courses for free for the rest of the year with the purchase. 

Bogey’s and the Bay Meadows Golf Club know that you love golf! Help yourself get through those long winter days while looking forward to the 2024 season knowing that your membership is paid for at a great price! And remember the goal is always to…Play More Golf! For more information please visit baymeadows.golf

9-Year-Old Charlotte Sena Believed to Have Been Abducted from Moreau State Park

Throughout this past weekend, amber alerts echoed through cell phones to alert the general public that 9-year-old Charlotte Sena is still missing. Charlotte Sena, a fourth grader from Greenfield, was last seen wearing an orange tie-dye Pokemon Shirt, dark blue pants, and black Crocs. Charlotte and her family had been camping at Moreau Lake State Park. Charlotte had gone for a bike ride with friends along “Loop A” and wanted to do one last loop by herself. That was at about 6:45 PM on September 30th. 

What is now believed to be an abduction, took place at Moreau Lake State Park, Loop A, Site 18, at about 6:45 PM on September, 30th. Charlotte E. Sena is a white female, approximately 9 years and one month old, with long blonde hair and green eyes. She is approximately 4 feet, 6 inches tall, and weighs about 90 pounds.

When Charlotte did not return in about 15 minutes, friends and family began searching. Her bike was found on “Loop A”. The police arrived at 7:00 PM.

According to State Police, a command post was established at the state park, bloodhounds were used to check the forests, drones were dispatched to look from the sky, and 100 officers, specialists, and the FBI are working the case.

During a press conference, Lt. Colonel Richard L. Mazzone, Assistant Deputy Superintendent of The New York State Police said, “It is quite possible that an abduction has taken place. I feel confident at this point that we have conducted a search of this park and we’re going to continue with that as we search every other avenue.”

Governor Hochul updated the public regarding what is now believed to be an abduction: “On a picture-perfect Fall day here in Upstate New York, Charlotte Sena’s family and friends gathered for a weekend of friendship and food and enjoying one of the last few days of good weather, but instead, the day turned into every parent’s nightmare,” Governor Hochul said. She then implored the public to call 911 if they see or hear anything about Charlotte.

Anyone with any information should call (518) 457-6811, or email crimetip@troppers.ny.gov.