March is "Music in Schools Month" across the nation, and on Thursday evening, Batavia City Schools held its annual concert featuring educators and students at all levels to celebrate the month.
The concern opened with the faculty/alumni band playing Sir Duke, a Steve Wonder hit honoring Duke Ellington.
Also performing are the High School Orchestra, the Middle School Beauty Shop, High School Guitar, John Kennedy Second Graders, High School Select Choir, Middle School Band, High School Rock Band, and High School Jazz Ensemble.
Notre Dame High School opens its staging of the musical "Anastasia" tonight (Friday) at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium.
A second show is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Saturday.
Director Kate Edwards said of the show:
Anastasia the Musical is based on the animated film Anastasia, which is also based on the real-life story of the Romanov family. It takes place during the Russian Revolution when the Bolsheviks took over Russia and killed the Czar and his entire family. The rumor was always that young Anastasia, the youngest of all the children, actually lived.
The musical is based on the animated film of the same name. The plot is that Anastasia did live, but her memory has been wiped. She now knows herself to be Anya, and she’s searching to find where she belongs. She looks for help from two Russian revolutionaries, who are also good-hearted con men. They are looking for a young girl who can pretend to be Anastasia because they want the reward money. They also need to escape Russia because the communists are taking over.
Through a series of escapades and traveling from Russia to Paris, they discover that Anya is actually the real Anastasia. Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks are looking for Anya because if she really is alive, they want to kill her.
To see what happens next, you’ll have to come see the show!!
Opening on Friday night in the Pembroke High School Auditorium is the school's production of the musical "Cinderella."
Performances are at 7 p.m. on Friday and 2 and 7 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for students.
"Come watch that sweet, innocent young maiden as she is terrorized by those closest to her and by the evasive love she so desperately craves," said Director Andy Clark. "Witness a brand new script with new characters and new songs in addition to some of the songs and characters from the original musical."
The cast:
Cinderella, Grace Strassburg
Prince Topher, Charles Stringham
Madame, the Stepmother, Sarah Forness
Charlotte, Stepsister, Emily Guilian
Gabrielle, Stepsister, Mikayla Stringham
Marie, the Fairy Godmother, Lindsey Zanghi
Sebastian, the Lord Chancellor, Sam Burton
Lord Pinkleton, James Childs
Jean Michelle, Micah Forness
"Our show this year also features a brand new set design team that far exceeded my expectations," Clark said. "I call them the 'Amazing Eight.' They are Stephanie and Tim Benson, Jessica and Zack Dawson, Summer Forness, Justin Reynolds, Patti Schafer and Rodney Stringham. We couldn't have done this show without them. "
Le Roy Jr.-Sr. High School presents "Chicago," a teen edition of the musical, this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
All show times are 7 p.m. Performances are in the school auditorium.
Tickets at the door are $15 for adults and $12 for students and senior citizens.
The music is by John Kander, book by Fred Ebb.
The cast includes Aubrey Puccio as Velma Kelly, Anna Long as Roxie Hart, Ethan LaBarbera as Fred Casely, Jameson Zitz as Sergeant Fogarty, Kira Ryan as Matron "Mama" Morton, Judge Biviano as Amos Hart.
The artistic director is Jacqueline McLean, Joe Kusmierczak is the co-director, and the choreographer is Jessica Pcioneck.
The Roberts Wesleyan University Brass Quintet will perform a free concert at the Bergen Evangelical Presbyterian Church at 6 p.m. on Sunday, March 10.
The Roberts Wesleyan Brass Quintet performs various styles ranging from early Baroque to modern music. It regularly performs at special events on and off campus, including commencement, accompanying the Chorale, and performing in departmental recitals.
The quintet is directed by and performs with Dr. Paul Shewan, professor of instrumental studies, who teaches conducting and trumpet. Dr. Shewan is a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra trumpet section and has been a guest conductor numerous times. He has also performed with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.
The concert is part of a series the church offers to celebrate the renovation of the historic Viner pipe organ installed in the sanctuary in 1907. “We want to share a variety of music with our community, so we have planned a spring series of concerts in celebration,” said Alden Snell, church organist.
The evening’s performance will include a performance of a hymn on the organ.
Other concerts in the series are:
Jaclyn Breeze, flute, April 14, 6 pm. Ms. Breeze, from North Chili, is an American composer and flutist crafting pieces and programs that foster community between artists and audiences. Her works have been commissioned and performed by groups in North America, Europe, and Asia.
George Collichio, guitar, special Door of Hope Coffeehouse event at the church, April 27, 6 p.m. Mr. Collichio is a national recording artist, performer, educator, and private guitar instructor from Rochester. He has nine national CD releases and plays over 100 shows per year. He is a college professor (guitar and music theory) and founder of "Collichio School of Music" with two locations and hundreds of students.
An organ recital featuring students from the Eastman School of Music will be held on Sunday, May 5, at 6 p.m.
All concerts are at the Church, 38 South Lake St., Bergen. A free-will offering will be accepted.
Prince is a rare form of rock star, according to Chris Botelho, drummer and leader of the LoVeSeXy, which plays at Batavia Downs on March 9.
He was admired by peers and fans alike in his lifetime, and his legend has only grown since his untimely death at 57 in 2016.
LoVeSexy was formed in 2008 as a Tribute to Prince, who is ranked #27 on Rolling Stone's list of 100 Greatest Artists of All-Time, and Botelho has seen firsthand how Prince continues to attract new fans and old fans who hunger to hear his music performed live.
"He's pretty much a real rock star when there's not a lot of those types of people around any more," Botelho said. "He was someone who was real special, like just the type of person who would walk in the room and everyone would just stop and be quiet and kind of like be like, 'Can I talk and I say hello.’ Like they would be that afraid to even speak. You don't get that from other people, even other stars. And that was with everyone, not just regular people but movie stars and top musicians."
There are several quality Prince tribute acts, Botelho noted, a level of reference that is seemingly missing from the legacy of other dead megastars of the era, such as David Bowie and Michael Jackson.
"Michael Jackson, I would think, would have big tributes, and there are some tribute shows, but there's really not as much talk about him as much as you would think. It's weird. But Prince, if you go online and search 'Prince,' there are fan sites, Facebook pages, and media coverage like this. There are so many fans all over the world, so many people still, every day, posting and talking and sharing his music. It's kind of amazing."
Prince was born Prince Rogers Nelson, the son of a father who was a jazz pianist and composer and a mother who was a jazz singer. He grew up in Minneapolis, Minn., and never did forsake his hometown, maintaining Minneapolis as his base and where he recorded most of his music until he died of an accidental fentanyl overdose.
Signed by Warner Brothers when he was only 19, Prince released 40 studio albums during his life -- playing all of the instruments on some -- covering a range of musical genres, from funk, R&B, new wave, soul, jazz, blues, and hip hop. He sold more than 100 million records. His biggest hit singles included “When Doves Cry,” “Let's Go Crazy,” “Purple Rain,” “Raspberry Beret,” “Little Red Corvette,” and “Kiss,” among his 19 Top 10 hits.
For a time, Prince was known by a symbol, or The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, or just The Artist (because of a contract dispute with Warner Brothers), and it is said that he has enough unreleased material in his vault that his estate could continue releasing new albums of new material for the next 100 years.
That means there's a lot of material for a Prince tribute act to pick from, and for the 90-minute set at Batavia Downs, LoVeSeXy will concentrate on the hits, but if needed, LoVeSeXy can dig deep into the Prince catalog -- deep enough to cover two 90-minutes sets if needed, Botelho said.
"We've played shows that are, you know, entirely Purple Rain (the album) or 1999, but there's so much more to him in just that era that we feel like people already know what is there, so we like pushing out other stuff to them that maybe they've never heard before," Botelho said. "It's kind of bring the music of Prince for Prince. It's one little thing to kind of keep his memory and music alive."
And the music is the thing to LoVeSeXy, Botelho said. There are a lot of Prince tributes that concentrate on the showmanship and the craft of creating a Prince concert. For LoVeSexy, the goal is to bring the music alive. The entire six-piece band is comprised of top-tier musicians, Botelho said, and they all get their moment in the spotlight.
"It's a team sort of situation," Botelho said. "It's not about just the lead singer and a bunch of players behind. It's like the six of us together, creating and making the sound of the band. We have four lead singers in the band, so the vocals are extremely strong."
It's not that showmanship isn't there -- the primary lead singer does look like Prince, after all -- but Botelho said the band really wants to put on a show that lives up to Prince's musical legacy (if you haven't seen it, check Prince's lead guitar on this performance of While My Guitar Gently Weeps (at about 3:30 into the song.)
"His live shows, I think, was a big part of why a lot of people really feel that he was above the rest as far as a performer," Bothelo said.
The LoVeSeXy lineup is:
Giovanni Morant, Lead Vocals, Guitar, Keys & Trumpet
Anthony C. Grant, Sax, Keyboards, Flute, Vocals & Percussion
Jodee Frawlee, Lead Guitar & Vocals
Brian Eggleston, Keyboards & Vocals
Jeffrey Gilman, Bass & Vocals
Chris Botelho, Drums & Samples
It's amazing, Botelho said, to see how much love the world had for Prince when he died and how that love and appreciation has just continued to grow.
"It is a testament to how strong it was around the world when he passed," Botelho said. "All the celebrations, the purple lights that were put on all the buildings around the world. It was kind of unbelievable, really, after all these years since 2016 that now the audiences are getting bigger and bigger for all of the Prince tributes."
LoVeSeXy performs at Batavia Downs on March 9. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. For more information and tickets, click here.
Friday and Saturday evenings, and Sunday afternoon, theater goers can take a special Valentine's moment to explore along with Batavia Players the nuances of love.
The play "Love Lines" was written by Patrick D. Burk, who is also the director of the production, and Vincent M. Gauteri.
The production is described as "a celebration of love and how people fall in love currently or in the past; there are special moments from real people and real-life situations."
Show times are 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. on Sunday, at the Main St. 56 Theater in Batavia City Centre.
Music has been a big part of Melzie Case's life since she was four years old when she first started piano lessons at Roxy's Music Store.
Along the way, she's had teachers and mentors to guide her, and one of the most important was Roxie Choate, the former president of the Genesee Symphony Orchestra, herself a retired teacher, who died in October.
Case, who first served on the GSO board as a high school student, has stepped in to lead the GSO.
"Roxie was a passionate and unabashedly determined leader," Case said. "Under her guidance, I learned how to positively steer the GSO Board and how to be a leader in music ministry. We connected and bonded over music, from appreciating classical music to playing piano and organ duets together, and forged a seemingly unlikely friendship through our love for music in the community. Her influence continues to serve me well on a daily basis."
In addition to working together on the GSO board for a number of years, Choate and Case became well acquainted with one another musically at the Batavia First Presbyterian Church, where Coate was an organist, and Case played piano.
Coate had been a music teacher in Oakfield-Alabama. After graduating from Batavia High School, she earned a degree in music education from Buffalo State University. The 30-year-old Case is now a music teacher at Batavia Middle School.
Her musical journey has prepared her well for both roles. Starting with those piano lessons at Roxy's Music, she participated in musical theater as a child, was a member of the chorus in middle school and high school, and along the way, she became a percussionist to go along with singing, playing the piano, and organ. She first joined the GSO as a percussionist while still a teen, and then Choate asked her to be a student rep on the GSO board. Following a break for college, Case rejoined the orchestra and the board as she wrapped up her education in 2016.
"I like GSO because you meet so many people in the community, people from all ages and backgrounds. That is what really drew me in," Case said.
The orchestra, she said, is comprised of “local folks, people from surrounding counties, music teachers and people with jobs outside of music. It’s such a wonderful group of people. We have a wonderful time rehearsing together and putting on concerts together.”
Obviously, Case is passionate about music. She thinks music helps bring people together.
"Music has a unique way of connecting people like nothing else. Music is healing, exciting, joyful, engaging," Case said. "I see every day the impact that music has on people of all ages and how it is a creative outlet in so many ways. Music is a part of nearly every moment of my day, whether I’m singing, playing, teaching, or listening."
One reason GSO has thrived in recent years is the leadership of music director and conductor S. Shade Zajac, Case said.
“I enjoy working with Shade," Case said. "The whole board does. We appreciate that he comes to board meetings when he can or gets on a call with us and that he brainstorms with us about concerts. We really have a great time working with him. He has a great vision when it comes time to select repertoire. The music he picks pushes us all as musicians, and we feel grateful to have him at the helm.”
As president of the board, Case, of course, has a role in ensuring the GSO continues to build on its success, and she that can happen through collaboration with other arts groups in the community and making connections with young people who are interested in music.
Entertaining programs, such as the one Zajac has programmed for Saturday at GCC, will also help garner growing support for the orchestra.
"The program is a blend of emotions," Case said. "There are some familiar pieces and some new ones that people will enjoy."
One of the new pieces is a composition by Paul McCartney. Yes, the former Beatle writes more than pop songs. He has composed a number of classical pieces, including Spiral, which the GSO will perform at the concert.
"I'm a huge Beatles fan, so I'm excited to play one of Paul McCartney's lesser-known works," Case said.
The rest of the program is comprised of pieces by other English composers, as Vaughn-Williams and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.
The anchor piece of the program is Elgar's “Enigma Variations.”
"It's one of my favorite pieces in the entire literature," Zajac told The Batavian at the start of the season. "It's a very special piece. I've conducted only one movement from it (previously). It's a remarkable piece of music. Every note and every bar sounds like English music, which is incredible because you can trace every note to some other composer. You can hear the influences of Beethoven and Bach and Wagner. But somehow, he makes it all sound like English music."
Choate is, as they say in show business, a tough act to follow, Case acknowledged. She led the board. She often handled concert publicity. She was also the personnel manager.
"Roxie did so much. We find things all the time we didn’t even know about," Case said. "As a board, we say all the time, 'Oh, Roxie did that, and she did this, and she did that.' She was a huge advocate for GSO and for music education.”
The GSO, with what it has achieved and how it can yet grow, will carry on because of a lot of people over the past eight decades, but Choate certainly contributed to GSO's success.
"I have so much pride in GSO," Case said. "We have a professional orchestra right here in Batavia. We can offer to our community that experience. You can go to Buffalo and Rochester and hear those orchestras, or you can stay right here in Batavia and hear a professional orchestra."
The GSO concert on Saturday at GCC begins at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for seniors, and students with an ID can get in for free.
Opening at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, the Batavia Players bring to life Scrooge and his ghosts in a performance of Charles Dickens's “A Christmas Carol” at Main St. 56 Theater in Batavia.
There are also performances on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Tickets are $18 for adults and $16 for seniors.
The musical is directed by Patrick Burk, with music directed by Kathy White.
From Medieval times through the Renaissance, the classical period, and into modern carols, Christmas music has changed to reflect the times. On Saturday, at St. James Episcopal Church, the Genesee Chorale will take listeners through that journey in a program entitled "Christmas Through the Ages."
"We're going to go through the process of the beginning of Christmas carols back in the 1400s and then work our way up," said Musical Director and Conductor Ric Jones. "It's a wide mix of styles and in music, a lot of things that will be familiar, some that there'll be new."
Jones said he expects the audience to find the performance as entertaining as it is beautiful.
"The whole concert begins with Gregorian chants so that's really cool," Jones said. "We have four instrumentalists. They're gonna be joining us on about six different pieces, so they'll really liven things up. We have some great, really cool arrangement of "Jingle Bells." It's a rearrangement of the Barbra Streisand version of Jingle Bells written for choir. That's a lot of fun. And then "Joy to the World," "Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending" -- there's some really beautiful, large moving pieces as well."
The concert also isn't without its challenges for the choir, which should also impress listeners.
"The biggest challenging piece is probably "Here We Come A-wassailing," which is a traditional song, but it's super challenging for the choir," Jones said. "It's seven verses, and every verse gets more and more intricate. So it begins with the choir in unison and as we progress, it gets more and more integrated, and it breaks out into eight different parts of one point. So they're going to do great on that."
Jones said he always looks forward to the traditional Christmas concert because, for him, it signals the beginning of the season.
"You get into the mood and the spirit," Jones said. "Also, they're always well attended. They're always popular concerts because people just people want to hear great music at Christmastime."
The Genesee Chorale will perform Christmas Through the Ages 4 p.m. on Saturday at St. James Episcopal Church. For more information, click here. To purchase tickets, click here.
The Roz Steiner Art Gallery at Genesee Community College is excited to announce its latest group exhibition, Handicraft Habitat. This invitational explores the world through the eyes of artists. It aims to showcase the beauty of both the natural environment and the manufactured realm.
This exhibition plays with the dichotomy between abstract art and realism, as well as being a multi-media experience. The gallery is excited to be working with three incredibly talented artists from Western New York to bring this stunning new show to life.
David Burke is a lifelong resident of the Rochester area where he raised and homeschooled is two children. He began his artistic journey by drawing, painting, and taking photographs sporadically while doing other work. In 1999, he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from SUNY Brockport, where he studied ceramic sculpture and painting.
In 2015, David realized making art was his passion and what he wanted to pursue for the rest of his life. His focus since then has been acrylic painting. His artwork is inspired by nature, and to a greater extent, his connection to the life of the earth and the mystery of the world. David uses light, shadow, color, and composition to evoke memories and emotions.
In the past few years, he has been getting away from purely figurative painting to explore different ways of applying paint and experimenting with abstraction. This enables him to express the subtle, intangible energies of life. A collection of David's abstract expressionism and his realism paintings will be part of this exhibition.
Julie A. Lambert is a master papermaker; creating, transforming, and exhibiting the unusual art of handmade paper. The artist has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from SUNY Oswego. While attending Oswego, a professor introduced the artist to papermaking; a medium she spent over 25 years enhancing her techniques and understanding both her perspective and relationship with her surroundings.
Nature has become her muse. Her work explores the natural and mankind's created impacts on the landscape. The pieces she creates are based on landscapes that convey a mood that speaks to the artist. To the surprise of the viewer, Julie A. Lambert's works are often first mistaken for paintings. But as the viewer is drawn in, they realize that the works of art are individual pieces of handmade paper, dyed, textured, cut, torn, and layered by the artist to express how she sees the world. The viewer steps back with a greater understanding of the complexity required to render her visions.
Originally a native of southeast Kansas, Steve Piper moved to the Finger Lakes region in 1978 to pursue his graduate studies in photography at RIT. He is a freelance photographer (Gelfand-Piper Photography), specializing in photographing people and events for publications and annual reports. Major clients have included Eastman Kodak, Xerox, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
Mr. Piper taught photography at St. John Fisher College and is currently an adjunct instructor of photographic arts at the Rochester Institute of Technology. His artistic vision is greatly inspired by his rural life growing up in the mid-west. Through color, texture, and composition, he is able to take a recognizable image and create something representational. The viewer finds meaning and emotional response through the sumptuous color and intriguing lines. Steve's colored abstract photographs of railway cars will be on exhibit in Handicraft Habitat.
The Handicraft Habitat exhibition will run from Dec. 7 to Feb. 1. Gallery hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. and 3 - 5 p.m., as well as Wednesdays from 9:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Don't miss the chance to attend the opening receptions on Dec. 7 from 12:30 - 2 p.m. and 5 - 7 p.m. Stay tuned to the gallery's social media pages for any updates or changes to the schedule.
For more information contact Jessica Skehan at the Roz Steiner Art Gallery by email at jeskehan@genesee.edu, gccgallery@genesee.edu or (585) 343-0055 ext. 6490
If you're a musical act playing a show in Genesee County, or a Genesee County music venue, send your press releases about your shows to news@thebatavian.com or use the "+ Add your event" button above.
For those who love murder mysteries and comedies, the Batavia High School Drama Club is staging The Alibis, a collection of eight interconnected 10-minute plays that revolve around the murder of eccentric billionaire J. Leslie Arlington.
There are plenty of suspects in the murder, and all have alibis, which none of them want to admit to because they were all committing other ridiculous crimes at the time. The suspects include disgruntled chefs, teen detectives, and vengeful divas.
Performances are at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday on the stage of the Batavia High School Auditorium, 260 State St., Batavia.
It's that time of year when the Genesee Symphony Orchestra rosins up the bows and gets crackin' on holiday chestnuts such as “Christmas Festival,” “Sleigh Ride” and selections from “The Nutcracker.”
The annual holiday concert is at 4 p.m., Sunday, at Genesee Community College.
GSO's concertmaster, Julia Plato, is looking forward to taking the solo on another holiday favorite, the winter movement from Vivaldi's “Four Seasons.”
She's excited about it, she said, because "I think it's insanely easy to make it sound modern, even though it was written through like 300 years ago. It still has so much excitement and vigor and, yeah, personality that you would never know that it was written in the 1700s."
Plato, who is originally from the Hershey area of Pennsylvania, is in her second year as the first chair of the GSO, under the direction of conductor S. Shade Zajac.
She's been involved in orchestra performance since she was a child, participating in the youth orchestra in her hometown.
"That's kind of where I fell in love with playing music," she said. "I went to school for music education in Ithaca and wound up teaching in Pittsford."
Through a friend, she heard about GSO during the pandemic, when the orchestra was still finding ways to perform, and that piqued her interest.
"I was so excited because I just wanted to have a group to play with, and it just lined up really well with the time that I moved to the area, and I found a good group of people to perform with," she said.
She's found it inspiring to work with Zajac.
"He has got such a great taste and repertoire," she said. "He selects very nice, well-rounded programming from all the modern works that you may not have heard to the classics that everyone hopes to hear."
This month's night (or afternoon) of theater at Main St. 56 Theater at Batavia City Centre consists of three one-act plays performed by members of Batavia Players.
The plays are:
"The Bear," by Anton Chekov
"Mr. Icky," by F. Scott Fitzgerald
"Verbatim," by Albi Gorn
Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are $16 for adults and $14 for students and seniors.