Archive: Arts & Entertainment

The Cornell Department of Music announced its spring semester slate of concerts, featuring a wide range of performances from faculty, students, and special guests. Highlights include the Chorus and Glee Club collaborating with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra to perform Brahms' Requiem on April 27; the Wind Symphony, Chorale, and Chamber Singers teaming up for Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms on May 5; chamber music in a variety of configurations and styles; organ concerts from renowned recitalists Nathan Laube and Christophe Mantoux; and a piano festival to start off the semester.

This year will see the launch of the Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards where the University's historical keyboard instruments will be kept in concert-ready condition for historically-informed study, performance, and recording of classic and romantic repertoire. As part of the celebration of these instruments, the music department presents a festival, "Fugitive Resonance: The Piano in the Early 20th-Century" January 25-27, featuring the Blüthner "Aliquot grand" piano from 1878 and the 1908 Kovner Steinway.

The Kitchen Theatre Company will enchant audiences with its upcoming dark comedy The Roommate by award winning playwright Jen Silverman. Performances of The Roommate begin at the Kitchen Theatre Company in the Percy Browning Performance Space on January 27th and run through February 14th. Opening night is Thursday, January 31st.

Recent divorceé Sharon is a 50's something homemaker who places an ad to find a roommate for her tidy Iowa home. When city slicker and probable outlaw Robyn moves in, she cracks Sharon's world wide open with possibilities.

The Hangar Theatre announced its 2019 summer season last week.The season will offer five shows from June 13 through the end of August.


Or, What She Will by Liz Duffy Adams
June 13-22
The Hangar season opens with a rollicking farce, Or, What She Will. The comedy is based on the actual life of Aphra Behn, considered the first professional female playwright. Playwright, lover, or…spy? Desperate to escape a life in 17th century espionage, up-and-coming playwright Aphra Behn just landed her first chance with a professional company—if she can deliver her play by dawn. But in a world of romance and spies, can Aphra save the life of King Charles II and launch her budding writing career all in one night? With Nell Gwynne interrupting? With echoes of Restoration comedy, it’s a mad, literate romp of formidable wit by American playwright Liz Duffy Adams.

Running to Places (R2P) kicks off the holiday season with a spirited production of the musical 'Annie', a perennial family favorite. The story of a plucky young orphan who believes that better times are "only a day away" runs Dec. 21-23 at the State Theatre of Ithaca.

Annie (Torianna 'Tori' Payne) has big dreams: to find her parents and escape the orphanage, run by the tyrannical Miss Hannigan (Zoe Klausner). When billionaire Oliver Warbucks (Ike Keahna Uran) has his assistant Grace (Mae Simon) bring an orphan to his mansion for a special Christmas, things seem to be looking up for Annie. But a scheme to fleece Warbucks, hatched by Hannigan and her brother, 'Rooster' (Jack Cecere) and his girlfriend Lily St. Regis (Emma Sosebee), threatens everything.

Brooktondale - The Slocan Ramblers will present a house concert at The Canaan Institute on Friday December 14th 2018 beginning at 7:00 pm followed by a jam session. The Slocan Ramblers are one of Canada's hottest rising bluegrass bands. They play rip-roarin' old-time also.

The Slocan Ramblers are Canada's bluegrass band to watch. Rooted in tradition, fearlessly creative and possessing a bold, dynamic sound, The Slocans have become a leading light of today's acoustic music scene. With a reputation for energetic live shows, impeccable musicianship and an uncanny ability to convert anyone within earshot into a lifelong fan, The Slocans have been winning over audiences from Merlefest to RockyGrass and everywhere in between.

Come get your graveyard on with DeWitt Middle School's Drama Club students as they portray America's favorite ghoulish family with an affinity for all things macabre! The cast and crew have been hard at work preparing for five upcoming performances of The Addams Family, this December 13, 14, 15 at 7pm and December 15 and 16 at 2pm, 2018 in the DeWitt Middle School Theatre in Ithaca.

The Addams Family, a beloved 60s TV show turned movie and Broadway musical, became beloved all over again, with everyone's favorite characters returning – including Morticia, Gomez, Wednesday, Pugsley, Grandma, Fester and Lurch. They bring their unique brand of cheerful gloom and doom to the world with such wonderful songs as "When You're an Addams," "Full Disclosure," "One Normal Night," "Crazier Than You," and "Let's Live Before We Die."

After enchanting families in 2016 & 2017, the Cherry Artists Collective, Ithaca's source for innovative theater, revives Ithaca's unexpected and delightful annual holiday favorite The Snow Queen for a third magical year. Featuring live actors, original puppetry and live music, this classic story of friendship and tenacity will captivate adults and thrill mature young audiences (ages 7+) for ten performances, this December 12-22.

The Cherry's version of Hans Christian Andersen's classic tale (which inspired Disney's Frozen) was developed from scratch in 2016 by members of the Cherry Arts company, resulting in an innovative and completely unique theatrical adaptation. Each season the show grows with new songs, new puppetry and fresh theatrical magic, and this year is no exception. Director Buggeln says about the show, "We are so excited to return to this material for a third year. The innovations we have been able to make based on our experience of the last two years are making the show sparkle like never before!"

The History Center in Tompkins County announced the full line-up for the upcoming concert, presented in cooperation with the State Theatre of Ithaca and DSP Shows, and sponsored by CFCU Community Credit Union.

Hometown Music Makers' Revue: Celebrating Tompkins County's Extraordinary Musical History will feature the talents of the Burns Sisters (Annie and Marie Burns), Cayuga Nation Gayogo̱hó:nǫ Welcome, the Chorale of the Ithaca Children and Youth Chorus, The Cornell Hangovers, the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers, the Fall Creek Brass Band, Jean McPheeters (as Sebela Wehe), Joe Crookston, Johnny Russo and the East Hill Classic Jazz Band, Kevin Kinsella, Richie and Rosie, the Sim Redmond Band, and the UNITED Dance Troupe. The performance will include music of various genres, dance, drumming, and even living history! Emcee Peggy Haine will share the musical history of Tompkins County between acts.

The Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers (DCJS) will present an afternoon of Negro Spirituals at 3 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 16 at Ford Hall, Ithaca College School of Music.

The DCJS, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, is dedicated to preserving the Negro Spiritual and its themes of sorrow, despair, and hope to promote racial healing and social justice; and to furthering civil rights leader Dorothy Cotton's message of freedom and hope through music.

The Ithaca Community Orchestra, under the direction of Dr. Madeline Schatz-Harris, will present a concert entitled Beethoven and his Influences at 4PM on December 1st at the Lansing Middle School Auditorium. The program will feature Beethoven's Leonora Overture No. 3 and well as his Symphony No. 1. The program will also feature the first two movements of Haydn's Symphony No. 94 under the direction of assistant conductor, Aaron Burgess. The public is invited to attend a reception held directly after the concert. A recommended donation of $7 will be accepted at the door, and children are admitted free of charge.

The Ithaca Community Orchestra's music director, Schatz-Harris, brings to the group a rich experience as music director of professional ensembles, university orchestras, and youth symphonies. She was mentored by Michael Tilson Thomas and Leonard Slatkin and has guest conducted numerous ensembles, including the London (England) Symphony and the Aspen Music Festival Orchestra. As a violinist/violist, she has played in the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, appeared as a soloist with many orchestras, and worked as a Hollywood studio musician. After retiring from her faculty position at the University of Alaska, she moved to relatively balmy upstate New York, where she loves nurturing young musicians at Opus Ithaca.

Tompkins County Public Library will host the Senior Troupe of Lifelong's Living History Theatre, performing on the theme of 'Trust', at 5:30 PM on Wednesday, December 5, in the Library's BorgWarner Community Room East.

Trust of all kinds is the theme of this season's performance of the Senior Troupe of Lifelong, including trust in our memories, in our parents, and in the belief that our voices will be heard. The troupe's Living History Theatre features stories from the troupe's lives that are both humorous and serious.

The State Theatre of Ithaca, CFCU Community Credit Union and Gateway Commons Community Series Presents An Evening with Don McLean on Sunday, December 9th at 8:00pm.

Don McLean is one of America's most enduring singer-songwriters and is forever associated with his classic hits "American Pie" and "Vincent (Starry Starry Night)". Since first hitting the charts in 1971, McLean has amassed over 40 gold and platinum records world-wide and, in 2004, was inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame.