Community Calendar

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, Hughes, 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, 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.

For its second concert of the 2025-2026 season, Clarion Concerts presents a collaboration between two young artists who bring the rich traditions of their separate ancestries together to create a unique blend influenced by the musics of Cuba, Argentina and more - cellist Tommy Mesa and composer/bandoneonist JP Jofre. They will appear at The Stissing Center in Pine Plains on Sunday, 19 October at 3pm. Tickets are $35. Students from pre-K to grad school may attend free.

Cuban-American cellist Tommy Mesa has established himself as one of the most charismatic, innovative, and engaging performers of his generation. Mesa is recipient of Lincoln Center’s 2025 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Sphinx Organization’s 2023 Medal of Excellence, and his open ears and sense of adventure drew him to the award-winning virtuoso of the bandoneon, JP Jofre, a Grammy-nominated master musician and composer from Argentina. These extraordinary artists combine their talents, deep knowledge of the rich cultures they inherited and a playful eagerness to create new soundworlds together. The result is, as concertgoers are soon to discover, irresistible!

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

250 years ago, eight Shakers fled England, bound for New York in hopes of finding religious freedom. Named for their trembling “religious ecstasies,” the Shakers received gifts of revelation; communications from the spirit world. Led by a woman whom they called, “Mother Ann”, they were subject to bloody persecution. Shakers were beaten, imprisoned, abducted, and chased out of town on both sides of the Atlantic. Undeterred, they persevered to build their vision of Heaven-on-Earth right here, in Albany. We invite you to join us as we pull back the veil separating this world from the next at America’s First Shaker Settlement.

Tours are on Oct. 15, 16, 17, 24, & 25 at 5:30pm.

*This ghost tour touches on sensitive topics including sickness, mental illness, suicide, physical abuse, religious persecution, and death, both of children and of adults. If these topics hit too close to home, we hope that you will take good care and join us for a regular tour another time

Humanist A.W. Bartczak will compare and contrast the actions of President Donald Trump, General Secretary Xi Jinping of China, Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un of North Korea, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary and President Vladimir Putin of Russia. The hybrid meeting will take place on Sunday, October 19, 2025 at 6pm in the New Paltz Community Center on 3 Veterans Way in New Paltz. This meeting is free and open to the public. All are welcome. Any changes in date (weather problem) or time will be on MeetUp. For more information, email auer1@att.net .