SPAC

The full New York City Ballet company is at SPAC in Saratoga Springs, New York this week with six performances featuring the timeless works of Balanchine and Robbins, as well as the return of Merce Cunningham’s Summerspace and SPAC debuts by Jamar Roberts and Pam Tanowitz.The week kicked off with NYCB On and Off Stage and closes with “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”To tell us more we are joined by dancer Indiana Woodward.

The soul and jazz singer Ledisi will perform twice this summer at The Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, New York.This weekend she’ll take the amphitheater stage at SPAC as part of the 2022 Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival on Sunday, June 26th. She’ll return on August 3 with the Philadelphia Orchestra with her renowned “Ledisi Sings Nina” concert - a tribute to Nina Simone, which she’s also released as an album and a version was filmed for PBS as “Ledisi Live: A Tribute to Nina Simone.”Ledisi is an acclaimed and award-winning musician and actor and she joins us to talk about her career, her music, and her philosophy.

The Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival returns to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center with two full days of programming on two stages – this Saturday and Sunday, June 25 and 26, the festival is celebrating its 45th year at SPAC. Wynton Marsalis - managing and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and a world-renowned trumpeter and composer will be headlining Sunday’s show with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Wynton Marsalis joins us.

Saratoga Performing Arts Center and Skidmore College are presenting trailblazing pianist, speaker and NPR’s Amplify co-host, Lara Downes for a special appearance on April 14, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. at the Arthur Zankel Music Center. Downes’ performance explores the landscape of American music from George Gershwin and Morton Gould to Billie Holiday, Scott Joplin, and Florence Price, giving voice to underrepresented and forgotten artists alongside their contemporaries. Downes will return to Saratoga on August 4th, 2022 for her SPAC debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra where she’ll perform two premieres: The Strayhorn Concerto and Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement.

The Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival is returning to SPAC on June 25th and 26th, 2022! This year's festival will feature more than 20 world-class jazz artists performing on two stages. SPAC CEO Elizabeth Sobol & Festival Presenter and Producer Danny Melnick will tell us more.

The Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) has announced the return of its resident companies -- New York City Ballet and The Philadelphia Orchestra -- to their summer home in Saratoga for a diverse season featuring SPAC premieres and debuts by women and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) composers, choreographers, performers and conductors, alongside iconic masterworks of the classical repertoire. It has been an awesomely weird year for all of us and certainly for the arts. So, talking about some normalcy is quite refreshing. We do so this morning with Elizabeth Sobol, president and CEO of Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

For over 50 years Saratoga Performing Arts Center has been known as a presenter of world class performances, fewer people know that over the past 5 years SPAC has significantly enhanced its role as a center for innovative and accessible arts education and community programs. SPAC Education has grown exponentially over the past 5 years – from serving 5 to 50,000 students annually, building partnerships with more than 120 schools and nonprofits in the Capital Region, and bringing more than 400 arts education events to the community every single year. Senior Director of Education Dennis Moench joins us to discuss education and community events at SPAC.

The Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) has announced the return of its resident companies -- New York City Ballet and The Philadelphia Orchestra -- to their summer home in Saratoga for a diverse season featuring SPAC premieres and debuts by women and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) composers, choreographers, performers and conductors, alongside iconic masterworks of the classical repertoire. It has been an awesomely weird year for all of us and certainly for the arts. So, talking about some normalcy is quite refreshing. We do so this morning with Elizabeth Sobol, president and CEO of Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

Presidential Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco has become the first visiting artist at the SPAC School of the Arts (SOTA) -- a multidisciplinary school dedicated to dance, music, and theatre, with additional offerings in literary arts, visual arts, and media arts – in addition to serving as a mentor for the 2022 Adirondack Trust Company Festival of Young Artists.

The Philadelphia Orchestra season returns to SPAC August 11-14. They have a record number of women and black, Indigenous and people of color composers this season – with Valerie Coleman being one of them and among the world’s most performed living composers.