by Michael Janairo

Olivia Quillio seeks kickstart for her debut album

By Kaitlyn Jasnica

The clock is ticking for “The Bomb.”

Albany singer-songwriter Olivia Quillio — who won the Times Union-College of Saint Rose Garage to Glory music competition in 2011 — has turned to Kickstarter to help fund the release of her debut album, “The Bomb.”

She has until midnight Friday March 1 to raise $3,500 through the online fundraising platform. As of 2:45 p.m. Thursday, she had raised $2,952.

“The eight songs from this album are the songs I won Garage to Glory with,” Quillio said. “It’s been a long time coming for this album, and I have a second one written already. I’m not the same girl that wrote ‘The Bomb,’ but people need to see that girl to see who I am now. Many people really liked the songs on the first album and have been anticipating its release.”

Although she spent two years recording the songs, Quillio still needs funds for more recording, mixing, mastering and printing (CDs and vinyl). Her music is a mix of folk-inspired lyricism and melodic jazz tonality played on ukulele and guitar.

Kickstarter is a website that helps people fund projects. If a person wants to help fund a certain project, they pledge money. Money will be charged only if the project reaches its funding goal.

After the person seeking funds sets a time frame to reach his or her goal, the date cannot be extended, and those who fall short of their goal receive nothing. Quillio is feeling a sense of urgency as her deadline nears.
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by Michael Janairo

Howard Fishman brings ‘Instructions’ to Skidmore

HOWARD FISHMAN (Jack Vartoogian/FrontRowPhotos)

“No Further Instructions,” a performance by Howard Fishman with New York Times travel journalist Michael Benanav, takes place at 8 pm Friday tonight in the Arthur Zankel Music Center at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs. The program combines original music, historical memoir, storytelling and photography to document the duo’s exploits and experiences as American Jews in rural Romania.

Fishman uses music to better understand his heritage and identity as a Jewish American, and the voice is decidely Jewish, but the music he creates as a singer, guitarist, composer and bandleader often flirts with jazz, soul, country, blues and gospel. Fishman’s most recent recording is 2011’s “The Howard Fishman Quartet Vol. III: Moon Country.”

Tickets are $8 for adults, $5 for seniors and the Skidmore community, and free for students and children. Please visit http://www.skidmore.edu/zankel for ticket information.

by Michael Janairo

From three-day book to ‘Small’ movie

Saratoga Springs resident Chris Millis wrote a novel in 72 hours as part of the annual Three Day Novel Contest and just like most books written that way … he adapted it into an independent film directed by Grammy-winning Swedish video director Jonas Akerlund and starring Billy Crystal, Johnny Knoxville, James Caan, James Marsden, Rosie Perez, Juno Temple, Rebel Wilson, David Koechner, Amanda Plummer, Matt Lucas and Dolph Lundgren.

“Small Apartments” premiered in Los Angeles on Feb. 5 and makes its local debut at Saratoga Music Hall on Broadway at 6:30 pm Friday night. And Roxette’s Per Gessle contributes her first ever movie soundtrack. In the film, Franklin Franklin (played by Lucas of “Little Britain” and “Bridesmaids” fame) kills his landlord and tries to get away with it while trying to escape to “magical” Switzerland.

The premiere event is also a DVD release party that will feature a Q&A, raffles, DVD sales and signings, free popcorn and Moxie cola (featured in the film) and more. Millis’ former Saratoga High teacher Dave Patterson moderates the evening.

by Michael Janairo

Jim Gaudet and The Railroad Boys celebrate new CD

Jim Gaudet and the Railroad Boys

Jim Gaudet and The Railroad Boys are coming back to The Linda, WAMC’s Performing Arts Studio, in Albany at 8 pm Friday for a release party for their third album, “Reasons That I Run.” The CD will be available at the concert for $5 off.

The roots music album is filled with character sketches, bluegrass story songs, blues tunes and call-and-response dance numbers, all delivered in Gaudet’s distinctive voice. The songs may come from Gaudet, but the msuic lives because of all the members of the band, including: bassist Bob Ristau, mandolinist Sten Isachsen and new addition and former Times Union employee, fiddler Mat Kane of The Doc Marshalls.

Tickets are $15. For tickets or information on the show, visit http://www.thelinda.org or call 465-5233, Ext. 4. For more information on Jim Gaudet and The Railroad Boys, visit http://www.jimgaudet.com or call 438-1297.

by Michael Janairo

Judge a book by its cover: Dan Brown’s ‘Inferno’

Courtesy Random House

People didn’t so much read Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” as inhale it, with the page-turner selling something like a bajillion copies (now those tattered paperbacks are left behind at rental cottages all up and down the coasts).

In anticipation of his newest book, Inferno, Random House has just released the cover art.

So, go ahead, judge this book by its cover.

by Michael Janairo

DMB returning to SPAC on May 25, 26

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There is no official word from the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, but the Dave Matthews Band say they’re playing the outdoor amphitheater for two nights in May.

The calendar on the band’s website says the jam band will be at SPAC on May 25 and 26.

SEE THE BAND’S WEBSITE

Pre-sale for tickets will be held on Feb. 21 and tickets go on sale to the general public on March 22.

by Michael Janairo

Home Show art show winners announced

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“Spring Bed #4” by Catherine Wagner Minnery of Saratoga Springs was named best in show at Albany Center Gallery’s Project Art, a pop-up gallery at last weekend’s Great Northeast Home Show at Times Union Center.

The award for the 8-by-8-inch oil-on-panel painting comes with a $250 prize and is meant to recongize a single work that stood out among the more than 90 entries of various mediums by artists from throughout the Capital Region.

Four other works received recognition as honorable mentions. They were:

  • “Coincidentia Oppositorum” by Chris Escobar of Albany, mixed media
  • “Lake George” series by Chris DeMarco of Albany, photography
  • “View” by Jenny Hutchinson of Glens Falls, painting
  • “Bloodwood and Holly Vessel” by Raymond Puffer of Watervliet, sculpture (wood turning)

The jurors of the show were Elizabeth Dubben, director of exhibitions at Saratoga Arts; Tony Iadicicco, executive director of Albany Center Gallery; and Michael Janairo, Times Union’s arts and entertainment editor.

by Michael Janairo

ASO announces 2013-14 season

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Albany Symphony Orchestra music director David Alan Miller, coming off the blockbuster success of Yo-Yo Ma’s sell-out performance last month, on Thursday announced the ASO’s 2013-14 season.

The featured concert will be a special gala performance next January with acclaimed pianist Andre Watts, who is slated to fill the Palace Theatre with the sweeping Romantic grandeur of Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2.

Watts previously performed with the ASO in 1995, and has been a frequent guest with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Saratoga Performing Arts Center, having performed the Brahms piece in 1997 at SPAC.

Another superstar performer slated to play with the ASO is Dame Evelyn Glennie, the Scottish percussionist who was featured during the Olympics opening ceremonies in London last year. She will be the featured soloist of the May 17, 2014, American Music Festival at EMPAC in Troy, performing “Strike Zones” by Joan Tower.

Known for featuring the work of new composers, the ASO season includes three world premieres of pieces by Clarice Assad, Aaron Jay Kernis and Conor Brown.

The ASO is also known mixing new with old, and the season will include cherished works such as Ravel’s “Bolero,” Tschaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade,” Beethoven’s Third Symphony and Barber’s Violin Concerto.

For ticket information, contact the Albany Symphony Orchestra at 465-4755 or visit http://www.albanysymphony.com.

The complete season Continue reading →