The views and opinions of our audience are very important to us. So we look to you, our most devoted readers, to tell us what you value about Preview and what you would like Preview to be in the future.
Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts at http://timesunion.com/PreviewSurvey before Monday, Oct. 15.
Everyone who completes the survey can enter into a drawing to win a $50 gift card to Regal Theaters and a $50 American Express gift card so you can enjoy dinner and a movie.
By STEVE BARNES
As the Saratoga Performing Arts Center looks toward welcoming two new dance companies next summer and returning the New York City Ballet to a two-week season in 2014, the organization reported essentially flat attendance and modest income gains for classical programming during its 2012 season.
The City Ballet and its longtime resident sibling at SPAC, the Philadelphia Orchestra, over the summer each drew audiences about 4 percent smaller than in 2011. Their attendance was approximately 35,000 and 34,000, respectively, according to figures released by SPAC at Thursday’s meeting of the SPAC board of directors.
The ballet company’s ticket income for its two-week July residency was about $991,000, an increase of 6 percent, while the orchestra generated approximately 7 percent more ticket revenue, about $970,000 over three weeks in August, the board learned at the meeting, held at the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce office. (more…)
By Tresca Weinstein
Longtime supporters of the New York City Ballet may have gotten their feathers ruffled by SPAC Executive Director Marcia White’s recent announcement that, come summer, the company will no longer be the only ballet game in town. But no one should feel threatened — there’s room for lots more tutus in what was formerly NYCB’s territory.
The addition of other ballet companies (Aspen Santa Fe Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada) to SPAC’s 2013 offerings should in no way dilute or detract from City Ballet’s time-honored place in the Capital Region’s cultural firmament.
If anything, it will shed light on the company’s strengths and versatility by providing a context in which different perspectives and artistic visions can coexist. Each of these three companies brings something exciting and valuable to the stage; together, they may even expand the region’s dance audience. (more…)
The 2012 Rockstar Energy Drink UPROAR Festival tour hit SPAC this summer, and the Albany band Mirk won a spot as an opener at the concert. Now Mirk is in the running against 27 other local market finalists for the Grand Prize package which includes a coveted spot on the 2013 Rockstar Energy Drink UPROAR Festival, the opportunity to record an EP with legendary producer Jay Baumgardner at NRG Recording Studios in Hollywood, CA, $10,000 worth of music gear and other prizes. For details, visit www.RockstarUPROAR.com/battleofthebands.
Mirk and the other winners are being evaluated through Oct. 30 by a panel of music industry professionals and artists including: Jose Mangin from Sirius XM, Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Zacky Vengeance, legendary producer/mixer Jay Baumgardner, and music industry veteran Bill McGathy.
The winner will be chosen soon after, so stay tuned.
Good luck, Mirk!
Check out these great shots behind the scenes, publicity images and production shots of “How to Train Your Dragon.” Are you going to go?
[nggallery id=7626]
“How to Train Your Dragon”
When: 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday; 11 a.m. 3 and 7 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 5 p.m. Sunday
Where: Times Union Center, 51 S. Pearl St., Albany
Tickets: Prices vary by day and time, range from $19.50-$69.50
Info: 800-745-3000; http://timesunion.com
Be sure to pick up Thursday’s Times Union to read about the show in Preview, the weekly entertainment section.
The Palace Theatre announced this morning that the Tedeschi Trucks Band will return to Albany for a Dec. 2 show.
Tickets — which range from $39 to $79 — go onsale at 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 5, though members of the Palace can purchase tickets beginning Thursday.
The Tedeschi Trucks Band made its Capital Region debut last year, in an October show at The Egg, in which the 11-member band is fronted by the blues powerhouse couple of guitarslinger Derek Trucks and vocalist Susan Tedeschi.
For more information, visit http://www.albanypalace.com or call 465-3334.
Read the review of TTB’s Oct. 19, 2011, show.
[nggallery id=7516]
The MoHu Arts Festival is back.
The 10-day event begins Friday, Oct. 5, as a way to draw attention to the diversity of arts offerings in the region. And once again I have mixed feelings.
Yes, it’s great the event supports the arts in all its diversity. That includes big-name guests to our region: Nobel Prize-winning novelist J.M. Coetzee at the New York State Writers Institute on Oct. 12 or Warren Haynes on Oct. 13 at The Egg come to mind.
It also includes plenty of homegrown talent, from small-scale classes such as Beginning Crochet with Barbara Neu-Berti on Oct. 7 at the Sand Lake Center for the Arts (limited to 12 students) to a big collaboration by Albany Pro Musica and Albany Symphony Orchestra, who will perform Bach’s Magnificat on Oct. 13 and 14 at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. You can find more information about these events at http://www.mohufest.com. (more…)
[nggallery id=7516]
Earlier this month, the people behind MoHu — a 10-day celebration of the arts in the Capital Region — gathered to announced that the second annual MoHu festival will take place beginning Friday, Oct. 5, with more than 100 venues, artists, and arts organizations from all over Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer, and Saratoga counties banding together to display the strength and diversity of the cultural programming that makes this area so special.
One of the main goals of the MoHu festival is to raise awareness of the diversity and quality of the arts in the region — to let readers like you know more about what’s going on in the area around you — in the areas bordering the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers. (Get it? That’s where “MoHu” comes from, Mohawk and Hudson.)
Last year, the MoHu organizers hoped to have 50,000 attend various MoHu-labeled events, and they say an estimated 52,272 people turned out for music, dance, theater, comedy, poetry and visual arts. The figure is an estimate, because not all events were ticketed.
One of the events of note is a free event called “Drums Along the MoHu Festival Finale” at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 14, at The Egg in Albany. The event features four percussionists – Brian Melick, Devesh Chandra, Robot Aston Ellis and Zorkie Nelson – will perform musical works that celebrate the diversity of the Capital Region.
Another new thing this year is a pre-MoHu fundraiser, called MoHu Takes Flight and labeled as a “an interactive arts cocktail party to kick off and help support the second annual MOHU Festival.” The benefit includes opportunities for art-making and watching. It takes place from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4, at the Eclipse Hangar at the Albany International Airport. Tickets are $50 for the public and $30 for MoHu artists. For more information about the benefit, contact Leesa Perazzo 518•382•3884 x187 or lperazzo@proctors.org
For more information about MoHu, visit http://mohufest.com/
The Palace Theatre has announced another rescheduling of “Sandy Hackett’s Rat Pack Show,” which had been scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 15. (The Saturday date had been the rescheduled date for the event which was originally slated to be Friday, March 23.
Tickets for the show will be honored on the new date. For those unable to attend, refunds are available at the original point of purchase.
Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 9, performance are on sale at the Palace box office, Ticketmaster.com and by phone at 800-745-3000.
Call the Palace Theatre box office at 465-4663 for more information.
