Albany Symphony Orchestra Archives

A week in the life for July 2025

money for college

Here’s a week in the life for July 2025. Some were referred to before the fact here. The last time was not.

Friday, July 4: Lavada Nahon, culinary historian and interpreter of African American history with the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation, spoke at the Underground Railroad Education Center, 194 Livingston Avenue in Albany. “She has a wealth of experience interpreting the lives of free and enslaved African Americans across the mid-Atlantic region, with an emphasis on the work of enslaved cooks in the homes of the elite class.”

She spoke powerfully about New York State’s Investment in the Institution of Enslavement and Its Legacy Today. Northerners seem to buy the myth that slavery was only a Southern thing, but enslavement existed in New York State until 1827. Frederick Douglass’s famous What To The Slave Is the Fourth of July in 1852 was only a quarter century later.

(Sidebar: I need to write about one of my ancestors who may have been enslaved in New York before 1810, just north of New York City, per the Northeast Slavery Records Index (NESRI), a “searchable compilation of records that identify individual enslaved persons and enslavers in the states of New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Jersey.)

Also, my church had raised $10,000 for the planned UREC Interpretive Center. The proposed Center has taken a hit with money allocated by the IMLS suddenly terminated.

Songs of Freedom

Sunday, July 6: My family had never been to Hudson Crossing Park in Schuylerville, about 45 minutes north of Albany. As a part of the buildup to the Albany Symphony concert that evening, the UREC singers performed Songs of Freedom at the Pavilion. I didn’t mention that I was one of the singers; my wife was also recruited. Some of us had rehearsed a week before.

Some songs were from George Washington Clark’s The Liberty Minstrel, a “collection of songs and poetry written in the mid-19th century addressing the themes of slavery and the yearning for freedom.” It seemed to have been well received.

But it was really hot and muggy, and my family left before the ASO performance.

Frederick Douglass

Tuesday, July 8: Jack Hanrahan discussed his history/travel book, Traveling Freedom’s Road: Frederick Douglass in Maryland at the 161 Washington Avenue branch of the Albany Public Library. He was very informative and engaging.

Jack also described his 2022 book, Traveling Freedom’s Road: A Guide to Exploring Our Civil Rights History. “In 2018, [he] and his wife Lisa took a lengthy car trip to the South. They visited big cities and small towns where civil rights history was made decades ago. The trip changed them.” While initially focusing on several Southern States, he expanded the book to most of the country.

He’s now working on books about Frederick Douglass in New England, and in New York in the next two years.

Money for college

Wednesday July 9th: My wife and daughter, with my input, have been working on a letter to send to our daughter’s college. The college has offered us far less for this upcoming semester than what they had given us in previous years.

They believe that we are lot more well off. That’s in part because I had taken out several thousand dollars from my retirement 401K to help finance my daughter’s semester abroad to the University of Cape Town, South Africa. This shows up as income on an IRS statement, but in fact I am merely taking money from my extant resource.

The appeals process trying to convey this messsage mechanically involved making a bunch of PDFs and then trying to upload it to the college. It didn’t “take” on Monday, so this was a redo.

Unfortunately, the computers of my wife and daughter are lacking upload capabilities. So they had to purloin my computer for several hours over the two days. My own machine also has upload limitations – I can’t upload Windows 11, which I need to do before October – but I had enough capacity so they could eventually get those documents to the college.

We hope that our appeal is successful, but we do have a Hail Mary Plan B.

Weird random thing

In the past week, two strangers, separately, walked up to me and said how much they like my sunglasses. They fit over my regular glasses. I have had prescription sunglasses, but they’ve never worked for me, even the ones that change. for a few minutes, they are too dark when I walk indoors and not dark enough when I go outdoors.

These sunglasses I bought for three bucks at Lodge’s, a downtown department store founded around the end of the Civil War. I should see if they have more.

Underground Railroad and Frederick Douglass

Albany Symphony Orchestra

This week, it feels like the Underground Railroad and Frederick Douglass all the time.

Friday, July 4th: Oration at the Underground Railroad Education Center, 194 Livingston Avenue in Albany, 11 am-1 pm. New York State’s Investment in the Institution of Enslavement and Its Legacy Today. The speaker will be Lavada Nahon, culinary historian and interpreter of African American history with the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation. Nell Stokes, long time community activist and supporter of UREC will share her poetry. Maggie D’Aversa, weaving artist, will share her storytelling coverlet.

Saturday, July 5: Frederick Douglass’ What To The Slave Is the Fourth of July, 2 pm. Location: Peterboro United Methodist Church, 5240 Pleasant Valley Road, Peterboro, NY 13134. Parts of the famous 1852 speech to be delivered by Owen Corpin.

ASO

Sunday, July 6: Water Music New York: More Voices – Schuylerville, Hudson Crossing Park, County Road 42, Schuylerville, NY, 1-10 pm. As part of the Erie Canal bicentennial commemoration, the Albany Symphony, the NYS Canal Corporation, and Hudson Crossing Park are presenting a festival day celebrating the rich, multifaceted history of Washington and Saratoga Counties, with an emphasis on the experiences of Black Americans, culminating in a free orchestra concert at 8 pm that will feature a thrilling world-premiere composition by DBR (Daniel Bernard Roumain) inspired by the legacy and life of Solomon Northup.

Among the many PRE-CONCERT EVENTS & PERFORMANCES between 1 and 6 pm: at 4:00 PM – Songs of Freedom with the Underground Railroad Education Center at the Pavilion.

Author talk re: Douglass.

Tuesday, July 8: Author Talk – John J. (Jack) Hanrahan, PhD, discusses and reads from his history/travel book, Traveling Freedom’s Road: Frederick Douglass in Maryland., 2:00 pm–3:30 pm. Location: the 161 Washington Avenue branch of the Albany Public Library, Large Auditorium, sponsored by the Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library.

The book combines “a narrative on Douglass’s historical links to Maryland with detailed travel information guiding readers to over four dozen Douglass-related sites in Baltimore and on the Eastern Shore. At each recommended stop, the book details the great man’s connections to that place and provides a short selection relating to that location from his voluminous writing or his inspiring speeches.

“When asked why he added these ‘Douglass Speaks’ selections, author John Hanrahan noted, ‘It’s a moving experience just to visit the places that were part of Douglass’s life in Maryland, but that experience is amplified when one can read his words that connect with that place. The power of place and the power of Douglass’s words help us to know this great American better.'”

Eclipsed (theater); ASO

Art at APL

Even though we complain about being too busy, my wife and I had three events in three evenings.

Thursday, June 5: Eclipsed is the third program this season from the Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate NY, after Berta, Berta, and Once On This Island.

The description: “‘Eclipsed’ tells the story of five Liberian women and their tale of survival near the end of the Second Liberian Civil War.

“Their lives set on a nightmarish detour by civil war, the captive wives of a Liberian rebel officer form a hardscrabble sisterhood. With the arrival of a new girl who can read—and the return of an old one who can kill—their possibilities are quickly transformed.” It was excellent, but very intense, and occasionally quite funny. Here is a review from the Berkshire Edge.

I was unfamiliar with the Danai Gurira play, which played on Broadway about a decade ago. Here’s a New York Times review from a 2016 production featuring Lupita Nyong’o.

From here: “Danai got the idea for Eclipsed from a 2003 magazine article featuring a female rebel solider named Black Diamond. The influence from that article, Danai’s own African upbringing, and her research in Liberia helped her to shed a light on enormities that are still issues today.”

I’m looking forward to next season from BTTUNY at the Cap Rep building.

Art

Friday, June 6: The Albany Public Library and Opalka Gallery celebrate the latest Art at APL exhibition, “Sight Specific.” The opening that night at the Pine Hills branch of the APL featured The Pine Hills Band.

“The artists in ‘Sight Specific’ are not directly mapping a place, but employing memory, direct observation, documentation, comparison, or abstraction, to tell stories of familiar places like gas stations, rest areas, basketball courts, backyards, living rooms, landscapes, industrial sites, or neighborhood streets…

“The exhibition features Michael Bach, Seth Butler, Matt Chinian, Sean Hemmerle, Susan Hoffer, Maeve McCool, Rob O’Neil, Andrew Pellettieri, and Laura Von Rosk.” It’ll be in place through November 8.

I went by myself because my wife had a work thing.

Symphony

Saturday, June 6: Last year, my wife and I attended almost the entire American Music Festival of the Albany Symphony Orchestra at EMPAC. Indeed, on Thursday night, we were invited to attend the open rehearsal, but we chose to attend the play instead.

This year, we only attended the American Music Festival, which had the theme of Water Music. It started with What do flowers do at night? by Sophia Jani. A cactus species called the Selenicereus grandiflorus blooms only once a year for one night.

Then Play: A Concerto For Percussion Quartet, Vocalist & Orchestra by Clarice Assad, which was just wack. The percussionists played glockenspiel, marimba, xylophone, toy drums, bells, rubber chickens, and many other instruments. It was excellent, lots of fun, and semi-autobiographical.

From here: “Indigo Heaven is a clarinet concerto in all but name, laid out in three movements running 27 minutes. The work is inspired by the open Western vistas described in Mark Warren’s novel of the same title.” It premiered with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, composed by Christopher Theofanidis, commissioned for the CSO’s principal clarinet, Stephen Williamson, who also played it at the ASO.

Bobby Ge’s Beyond Anthropocene was commissioned, premiered, and recorded by David Alan Miller and the ASO. The final movement is solastalgia, which is defined as “the distress that is produced by environmental change impacting on people while they are directly connected to their home environment.” It was a workout, especially for the horns.

Funny Girl; Hindustani violin

Albany Symphony Orchestra

My wife said to me, “Should we try to do both of these things, or is this really stupid?” I replied, “Yes, we should, and yes, it’s really stupid.” We had tickets to see Funny Girl at Proctors at 2 pm on April 5th as part of our subscription.

I’ve never seen Funny Girl, as a movie or as a musical. I did know that it was based on a real vaudeville performer named Fanny Brice, who was in Flo Ziegfeld’s Follies and became a big star on Broadway. Yet I know some of the music: If A Girl Isn’t Pretty, I’m The Greatest Star, and People. Don’t Rain On My Parade contains some of the most interesting chord changes I’ve ever heard.

I liked the first act. The second act seemed to have more focus on Fanny’s husband, Nick. It was less exciting, and the actor’s voice wasn’t consistently strong, cracking at least once.

The genuine local interest was that there was a former Albany High School young woman in the cast, Annabelle Duffy, an understudy for Fanny Bryce, as well as a couple of other characters, and also a swing. Melissa Manchester, known for songs like Midnight Blue, played Fanny’s mother. I’m glad I saw it, but I didn’t love it. I wonder if it was the end of the tour’s wear and tear, for the next stop, in Rochester, was the last for the touring company.

Next gig

We had obtained tickets from friends of ours who were under the weather to attend the Albany Symphony Orchestra concert at the Palace Theater in Albany that evening. After we got something to eat, we needed to pick someone up and take her to the Palace by the 6:30 pre-concert talk led by conductor David Allen Miller and composer Reena Esmail, who had written the Concerto for Hindustani Violin, a piece in five parts: Aakash (space), Vayu (air), Agni (fire), Jal (water), and Prithvi (earth) with an atonement postlude.

We learned that the soloist was Kala Ramnath, playing the Hindustani violin while seated on a platform with her legs crossed. It’s tuned lower than the standard violin, often using viola strings. She’s considered the Ravi Shankar of Hindustani violin. She was accompanied by her tabla player, Abhijit Banerjee.

The first piece of the program was Bolero by Maurice Ravel. We heard it by ASO 11 years ago. As I said at the time, Bolero is much better and more interesting than listening to recordings.

The Hindustani violin piece of music doesn’t adhere to standard Western music signatures. I’m not sure about this, but I could have sworn that Ramnath was looking offstage at composer Esmail to see when to come in. Whether that was true or not, it did seem to work.

Passion

After intermission, it was an early Berlioz piece, Symphony fantastique. The story that Miller told about Berlioz highlighted how he was inspired by his passionate feelings for Irish actress Harriet Smithson, whom he first saw in 1827 in the Paris production of Romeo and Juliet. She later became his wife in an unhappy marriage. The unconventional 55-minute Symphony was subtitled Episode de la vie d’un artiste (episode from the life of an artist).

Then my wife took TWO people home, making it an entertaining but exhausting day.

Re: Berlioz, check out Discovering Classical Music and a live recording by The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Myung-Whun Chung.

The Last Of James Fennimore Cooper

The 19th Amendment

In due course, we’ll get to The Last Of James Fennimore Cooper (by a Mohican).

The next item at our Albany Symphony Orchestra’s American Musical Festival was the composer talk moderated by ASO conductor David Alan Miller on Saturday, June 8 at 6:30 pm. All four composers were present. It’s always entertaining.

In answer to a question from the audience, both of the women composers noted that they absolutely hate hearing their compositions the first time it’s being played. Until then, it’s all in their ears, in their heads. As they listen to more often, they think, “Well, maybe it’s not so bad. Perhaps I don’t have to change it substantially.” This was a fascinating glimpse into the minds of music creators.

At 7:30, the concert began with 1920/2019 by Joan Tower, who has had a sixty-year career. In the talk beforehand, in response to Miller’s emphasis on playing living composers, she joked about her mortality. When asked what the piece was about, she often quips, “About 15 minutes.”

1920 was the year of the 19th Amendment allowing women the right to vote. 2019 was amid the Me Too Movement. Here’s a recent recording of 1920/2019 by the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic, conducted by David Alan Miller.

Albany High, again

Michael Gilbertson created his Flute Concerto, a world premiere, based on the famous Rudyard Kipling poem If. The flutist was Brandon Patrick George, who was very good. Gilbertson worked with the Albany High School Chamber Choir, who were excellent.

A rant here: back when my daughter was entering school, someone I knew thought allowing her to attend Albany public schools was tantamount to child abuse. But many Albany High kids thrived, attending Ivy League schools, becoming name performers, et al. Earlier this month, the AHS band was the only US high school represented at D-Day+80.

After the intermission, the next piece was On the Bridge of the Eternal by Christopher Theofandis. This was his contemplation of time, impacted unsurprisingly by the pandemic. I thought the best part was the extraordinary vocalise section based on a short text from St. Augustine’s Confessions, performed by the Tantalus Chamber choir. The music followed from the vocal setup.

Finally, Brazilian-American Clarice Assad‘s world premiere of Flow, for she also played piano, a small percussion instrument, and even plucked the piano strings briefly. It may have been the most entertaining of the pieces.

Finally

On Sunday, June 9 at 4 pm, we went to the Sanctuary For Independent Media in Troy. It uses “art, science, and participatory action to promote social and environmental justice, and freedom of creative expression.” A lot of cool stuff is taking place there.

Brent Michael Davids “(Mohican/Munsee-Lenape) is an internationally celebrated Indigenous composer and music warrior for Native equity and parity.” He explained the complicated legacy of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, of which he is a member, as his ancestors were driven from their lands.

He read several sections of an essay that Mark Twain wrote about James Fenimore Cooper, including the paragraph starting with “Cooper’s gift in the way of invention was not a rich endowment,” which discusses the dry twig ruse, ridiculously magical resourcefulness by the white settler, and the inane and physiologically impossible actions off the Indians.

Then, he narrated The Last Of James Fennimore Cooper (by a Mohican) as a string quartet played. It’s occasionally very funny. Here’s a performance with Davids from 2022.

A person from the Sanctuary interviewed Davids and David Alan Miller. Then guides conducted a tour of how the Sanctuary has helped the neighborhood to be revived. It was a VERY full weekend.

I must note that I saw at least two dozen people I knew at the various events over the three days, many of them more than once.