Community Calendar

Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death by Susana Monso

Come and discuss themes of ecology and humanity’s relationship with nature with other book and nature lovers in our reading and hiking club! Each month we will go on a leisurely hike with stopping points for book discussion. Some months will have guest lecturers.

Registration is encouraged.

Mark St. Germain’s play is filled with the humor, honesty, and life-affirming spirit of Karola Ruth Siegel, the girl who became “Dr. Ruth,” America’s most famous sex therapist.
Everyone knows Dr. Ruth Westheimer from her career as a pioneering radio and television sex therapist. Few, however, know the incredible journey that preceded it. From fleeing the Nazis in the Kindertransport and joining the Haganah in Jerusalem as a sniper, to her struggle to succeed as a single mother newly-arrived in America, her’s is a stunning tale of becoming Dr. Ruth.

“An illuminating portrait…her story is certainly a stirring one.” - NY Times

90 min | Written by Mark St. Germain | Directed by Stephen Nachamie

On a train to Auschwitz, 17-year-old Heinz Geiringer told his sister Eva that he hid the paintings and poetry he had created beneath the floorboards of their attic hiding place. Heinz made Eva promise that if he should die in the camps, she would retrieve the artwork. Today, his story lives in the shadow of the Diary of Anne Frank—and in a twist of fate, Eva became Anne’s posthumous stepsister when after the war her mother married Anne’s father. While the world knows Anne’s story, this film introduces Heinz, his artistry, and his sister’s efforts to find and share his remarkable legacy.

Documentary, 2022, run time 60 minutes

Steve McCarthy is an Emmy Award–winning TV news producer and documentary filmmaker. A former staff producer for 60 Minutes, Dateline, and CNN, he founded McCarthy Productions in 2001, producing work for major networks, including PBS, BBC America, and HBO. His films include Finding Paddy (2006), The One That Got Away (2016, PBS), Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists (2019, HBO, Emmy winner), and Life with Layla (2019), about a family affected by the opioid crisis. McCarthy teaches documentary film and journalism at Montclair State University.

Local historian and guest speaker, Ron Gabriele will present a talk on classic radio shows from the 1930s through the 1950s and 60s.
Waxing nostalgia from a bygone era, we will hear of Jack Benny, The Shadow, Gunsmoke, The Lone Ranger, as well as other radio shows and the founding of the first four networks and how they came to be.

As Albany Pro Musica celebrates its 45th year of inspired choral singing, we present Hear My Heart Sing, an intimate program of works that delight in the power of the human voice and capture our shared human experience. With music by Rutter, Whitacre, Fauré, Hagenberg, and others.

As Albany Pro Musica celebrates its 45th year of inspired choral singing, we present Hear my Heart Sing, an intimate program of works that delight in the power of the human voice and capture our shared human experience. With music by Rutter, Hughes, Whitacre, Fauré, Hagenberg, and others.

We welcome back the stellar brass ensemble of principal players from London’s top orchestras to open our Schenectady season with a program highlighting the profound connection between French Impressionism and George Gershwin.

Ravel: Mother Goose Suite
Debussy: Préludes (selections)
Gershwin: Three Piano Preludes
Joplin: Treemonisha Suite
Gershwin: An American in Paris

St. Gregory’s Woodstock to Host Award-Winning Juilliard Pianist in Concert Oct. 19

WOODSTOCK—Classical pianist Nicholas Fanara will be in concert on Sunday, Oct. 19 at 3 pm as part of the Juilliard School’s partnership with St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Woodstock.

Fanara, who is pursuing a Master of Music degree from Juilliard, has performed at Alice Tully Hall, Rose Studio at Lincoln Center, and the Scandinavia House. He has toured throughout Spain with the New York Youth Symphony as part of their chamber program. Fanara is an alumnus of The Mannes School of Music and in 2019 was named winner of the LaGuardia High School Concerto competition.

The St. Gregory’s concert will feature works by Beethoven and Liszt. This event is open to the public with donations appreciated. St. Gregory’s is located at 2578 Route 212 in Woodstock.

Sunday, October 19 at 3 PM, Friends of Music of Stamford, NY presents the Balourdet Quartet, performing with pianist Asiya Korepanova. These world-class, award-winning musicians are known for taking creative risks on stage, producing both emotionally intense and intimate moments. Featuring Angela Bae (violin), Justin DeFilippis (violin), Benjamin Zannoni (viola), and Russell Houston (cello), the Quartet will play works by Brahms and Sohn, followed by Shostakovich's Piano Quintet in G minor (Opus 57) with pianistic powerhouse Asiya Korepanova.

In 2021, the Quartet won the Grand Prize at New York’s Concert Artists Guild Competition and has also earned prizes in Canada’s Banff International String Quartet Competition and the International Premio Paolo Borciani Competition in Italy, as well as the Gold Medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and Gold Medal and Audience Prize at the Yellow Springs Competition. Asiya Korepanova’s early career garnered accolades in Russia and Europe, then took off after winning the Gold Medal at the Nena Wideman International Piano Competition in 2012. In the years since, she has been featured on CNN, NPR stations, WFMT, and WETA, and performed at the Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, the Phillips Collection, the Newport Classical Festival, Miami International Piano Festival, San Francisco International Piano Festival, and many other notable series, symphony orchestras, and festivals throughout the country.

This event is generously hosted by the First Presbyterian Church at 96 Main Street, Stamford, NY. Admission is by donation at the door; the suggested donation is $15 per person, $10 for seniors & students. There is no charge for those under age 13. Cash or check only; no reservations or advance sales. Visit https://friendsmusic.org/ for more information about this concert and the rest of the Friends of Music 2025 season.

Crescendo's award-winning Andean Instrumentalists Carlos Boltes, charango and viola, and Gonzalo Cortés, quena, zampoña, and flute, are joined by Artistic Director Christine Gevert, virginal and percussion, in a unique chamber music concert of Latin American Music. Explore South America’s music through a blend of indigenous, European, and African musical elements. The ensemble presents transcriptions and arrangements of early compositions and folk themes, alongside contemporary fusion pieces by composers and artists such as Manuel de Zumaya, Antonio Sarrier, Illapu, Los Kjarkas, and others. More information at: crescendomusic.org