The Genesee Chorale presents its annual Christmas concert at 2 p.m. on Saturday at St. James Episcopal Church, 405 E. Main St., Batavia, featuring baritone Joseph Finetti.
Finetti is featured in the performance of "Fantasia on Christmas Carols," composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
The chorale will also perform "Magnificat" by Taylor Scott Davis.
Tickets are $10.
Press Release:
Batavia Downs Gaming & Hotel has announced that tickets are now available for several indoor concerts in the Park Place Event Center on Thursdays throughout the upcoming Winter and Spring months.
All events will have General Admission tickets, and some will have VIP tickets. All tickets include $10 back in Free Play to be redeemed at Player’s Club. These shows will all begin at 7 p.m.
“As Batavia Downs continues to grow with weekend events, we’re excited to introduce a brand new Thursday night concert series that stretches from mid-December to mid-May, “ said Byron Brown, President & CEO of Batavia Downs. “With a wide range of musical acts, including Polka, Rock, Comedy and Country, we’ve got something for everyone.”
On December 19, Batavia Downs welcomes Terry Buchwald as Elvis Presley. This acclaimed musical experience showcases Terry Buchwald's talents, as he has done for many years, performing “The King” Elvis Presley’s greatest hits throughout the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s. This show will have GA ($10) and VIP ($15) seating.
On January 9, WBBZ’s Polka Buzz returns to Batavia Downs. Listen to polka music from the New Direction Polka band while Ron Dombrowski hosts WBBZ’s weekly show. You may even see yourself on TV. This show will have $10 GA seating.
On January 16, “Band on the Run Live”, a Tribute to Sir Paul McCartney, will rock the Park Place Event Center stage at Batavia Downs. Take a trip through Paul’s music throughout his iconic and award-winning artistic career with the Beatles, Wings, and as a solo artist. This show will have GA ($10) and VIP ($15) seating.
On February 27, Jason Ostrowski will return to Batavia Downs to perform the greatest hits of piano-rock legends Elton John and Billy Joel! Enjoy back-to-back hits from the Piano Man and the Rocket Man live inside the Park Place Event Center. This show will have GA ($10) and VIP ($15) seating.
On March 13, 2025, Batavia Downs welcomes Frank Spadone's comedy. Frank has been featured at comedy festivals in Australia and South Africa and is a regular face at the prestigious Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, Canada. His movie credits include “Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle,” and he has appeared in several television series. This show will have both GA ($10) and VIP ($15) seating.
On April 10, 2025, following their acclaimed set during the Rockin’ the Downs Summer Concert Series, Tiny Music Band will grace the Park Place stage to perform a standing-room-only show. This tight, talented group will showcase their skills playing crowd-pleasing party hits throughout the night. This show is FREE. There will NOT be seats, but an ADA-seated section will be available for those who need it.
And finally, on May 22, 2025 the popular Zach Brown Tribute Band (ZBTB for short) will close out the Thursday concert series with a bang, playing a mixture of Zach Brown Band hits alongside country and rock classics. Known well throughout the area, this band is sure to please music fans of all genres. All tickets for this show are $15. This show will NOT be seated (ADA ticketed seats will be available).
General admission tickets are now available on BataviaConcerts.com, and the Lucky Treasures Gift Shop is located in the lobby of the main entrance of Batavia Downs. VIP tickets will be available exclusively at BataviaConcerts.com. Hotel Specials for select events are available on the Hotel Deals tab on BataviaDownsGaming.com.
Batavia Downs’ Summer Concert Series announcement will take place later in December.
Your ugly Christmas sweater could be your ticket to ride at Sunday's annual Genesee Symphony Orchestra holiday concert at GCC.
At intermission, GSO elves seek out the ugliest sweater worn by an audience member who will be the winner of the grand prize -- a chance to conduct the orchestra during its annual performance of Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride."
While "Sleigh Ride" is a perennial fan favorite, among the highlights of the concert, said Conductor and Musical Director Shade Zajac, is the vocal performances of Soprano Jessica Moss.
She's singing an aria from the opera “La Wally,” two from Handel's “Messiah,” and an aria from “La Bohème.”
"She's an extraordinary singer," Zajac said. "I met her about two years ago. I've only been able to work with her one other time before, and she's a real, a real fine artist. I mean, absolutely, see her now before she gets to the Met, where the tickets are going to be more expensive."
Besides "Sleigh Ride," other fun numbers on the program include "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," as well as selections from the “It's a Wonderful Life” Suite -- yes, the soundtrack of the Jimmy Stewart classic arranged for orchestra.
"We've had a very busy start of the season and really intense start of the season, so it's really nice to just kind of let loose a little bit and play some fun music," Zajac said. "We love doing 'It's a Wonderful Life.' It's some great, great music and they don't make scores like that any more. It’s really cute and full of old Hollywood schlock."
GSO performs at GCC at 4 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are $17 for adults; seniors $12, and students with ID are free.
Photos by Howard Owens
An eclectic evening of music is planned for the main gallery to GO ART!, 201 E. Main St., Batavia, at 7 p.m. on Friday when local musicians Howard Owens and Henry Grace perform solo sets that touch on pop, folk, country and Americana.
On stage first, Henry Grace, a Batavia-based singer-songwriter whose style evokes a variety of influences cultivated from years of living a life simple as a moment, partly an urban legend, a dreamer of dreams, and a storyteller to the working class whose live performances connect vividly with audiences.
Grace has an extensive musical background has taken him through New York to Atlanta to Nashville and back again, playing coffeehouses, church basements, bars, colleges, libraries, backyards, and regional festival stages.
Recently, Henry Grace has become a part of the burgeoning Batavia music scene as co-founder of the folk duo Parris and Holly and clamor pop band Rose Mary Christian’s Babies gigging locally at Jackson Square, GO ART!, Iburi Photography, Pub Coffee House, and VFW Post 1602.
Grace plays a mixture of original songs and covers by Vic Chesnutt, Jules Shear, and Neil Young, among others.
Owens is a product of the backcountry of San Diego County and the nascent punk scene in Southern California (birthplace of cowpunk). He never lost his Western roots, and his musical interests reflect that broad range of influences. On Friday, expect to hear some Dave Alvin, Odetta, Iris Dement, Johnny Cash, Graham Parsons, Jack White, Amos Milburn, Tanya Tucker, and Bob Dylan.
Over the past two years, he's played at Juneteenth, GO ART!, Iburi Photography, and VFW Post 1602.
Admission to Friday's show is free.
When conductor Shade Zajac discovered the piece “From the Diary of Anne Frank” by American composer Michael Tilson Thomas, who was already “a big hero of mine,” he says, he also thought of his sister Gemini, a freelance actor and vocalist who could embrace the emotional importance of the work.
That was during the pandemic, and Gemini lives in Philadelphia, so it took some time for this concert to come together for Genesee Symphony Orchestra.
“I was just struck by what a great piece of music it is. So of course, two years go by and everything worked out that we could do it this season. I think people will have a bit of an idea what the piece might be, just because we know how her story ends, unfortunately, which is tragically. But the remarkable thing about the piece and about her writing, and all of the text comes from her diary, obviously, is that how optimistically and how hopeful she views not only the world, but people,” Zajac said during an interview with The Batavian. “One of the most striking lines is towards the end she writes, I'm paraphrasing here, but deep down, I truly believe that people are good at heart, which is incredible, that this 13-year-old girl hiding in an attic while people are disappearing or being shot or, all this kind of horrible stuff that's going around, that she can still be so optimistic and have such a view of, not just the world, but of people.”
Genesee Symphony Orchestra’s program is to begin at 6:30 p.m. with a pre-concert chat/lecture followed by the concert at 7 p.m. Saturday at Stuart Steiner Theatre, Genesee Community College, 1 College Road, Batavia.
Anne Frank was a teenager caught up in the horror of the holocaust, and she began to write in a diary two days after her birthday on June 14, 1942. She documented her life in hiding amid Nazi persecution during the German occupation of the Netherlands. She died in February 1945.
“Even after they were discovered and she was sent away to the camp at first she was still in a good mood. There were other children, there were people that she could be with. It was only right up to the very end. And she talks an awful lot about being in nature, that she wants nothing more than to stick her head out of the window and breathe the air and listen to the birds and all this,” Zajac said. “And it's this love of nature that connects the second half of the program, which is the Beethoven “Pastoral” Symphony, which is all about nature, being in nature, and having nature be a safe haven, having it be a cure for feeling depressed or dejected, or an escape from all the terrible things.”
The first half features the orchestra as a strong backdrop to Gemini’s reading Anne Frank’s words from the diary. There are somber moments accentuated with heavier strings offset with fluttering woodwinds, and long paused notes held to emphasize points throughout the essay.
The program also includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 in F Major “Pastoral,” one of those lengthy classical numbers that is pretty, flowing, and if you close your eyes — possibly conjures visions of someone running about in a field with butterflies or perhaps watching clouds floating overhead.
There’s a connection between Anne Frank and Beethoven, Zajac said, and it’s one of isolation. While Anne’s was forced upon her by being captured, Beethoven’s was self-imposed due to his embarrassment at being deaf and unable to hear and understand most conversations. Throughout both stories, there’s a message about “just finding hope in really terrible times,” he said.
Zajac hopes that the audience can glean some of the overall contemplative essence that while we can celebrate a Thanksgiving in the end, it came with steep cost and some have paid dearly. It’s a heavy program, he said, but a thought-provoking one that features a little food for thought to this concert menu.
This is a third visit to perform with GSO for Gemini (pronounced Gemin-ee), who has her bachelor’s in fine arts from University of Buffalo and performs with Sesame Place in Philadelphia. Similar to her brother, she grew up with creative interests, realizing early on that it was more than a passing whim.
“I just kind of remember one show I was in in high school and I didn’t get the part that I wanted, and I remember being back stage during one of the performances, going ‘it’s not the part that I wanted, but if I’m going to pursue theater, then I have to be ok with getting parts that I don’t want, because that’s part of the lifestyle.’ And it was at that moment where I was like, oh I’m thinking about pursuing my career in theater,” she said. “So it was that moment where it was, I guess, the deciding factor. I’ve always enjoyed doing just kind of anything creative, and that’s just what’s pulled me most.”
When Shade talked to her about doing the Anne Frank piece, he felt confident about it being a role for her, one that she could breathe life into.
She quickly agreed that it was quite an emotional piece.
“Incredibly. I know I talked about it on my little video on Instagram and the Facebook page, how I talked about that a lot of people don't feel safe and seen in this world. And that's a lot of what this piece talks about, in as much as finding the hope," the 26-year-old said. "But it's one of those things that I know lots of people personally who experience those fears and those things throughout the world, just because of who they are and their differences, and it just breaks my heart, that they have to go through things like that and they don't feel safe or welcomed in certain areas. And when I'm reading this piece, it just makes me think how how they're feeling, and how awful it is that they are feeling this, experiencing this.
“But also with that idea that these people that I know, they're still hopeful, they still see the good in people, and they're still fighting for, you know, their place in this world," she said. "And I think that's the part that really gets me, is that no matter what, there always is that hope and that drive to find your place.”
She has been rehearsing with a recording while being out of state, and described the music as having “moments where it gets very beautiful and light, and whimsical.”
“But there's also moments that are very haunting, and that contrast is it keeps the listener very engaged, because it kind of flows one way and then the other from that beauty and that fear,” she said. “It’s a very emotional piece, and I hope that people, they feel that emotion, not necessarily the emotion that I'm feeling on stage, from narrating and from the words, but the feeling of the music and what they take away personally.
“I really hope that people will get that same feeling of, people go through this, they're still going through this, and that's horrible, that people are still going through these kinds of fears and emotions,” she said. “But there’s always that hope, and I think that what people really should take away is that treating people with kindness, respect and equality is so important now more than ever, and to continue to do that.”
Tickets are $17 adults, $12 seniors, and free for students with a student ID, and are available at Mr. Wine & Liquor, GO ART!, YNGodess, The Coffee Press, Holland Land Office Museum, Gillan Grant and at www.geneseesymphony.com.
Photos by Howard Owens.
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 Logan Music at jlogan6505@gmail.com or use the "+ Add your event" button above.
Parris and Holly, a Batavia-based folk/pop duo, headlined the second of a four-night residency at GO ART! on Thursday, with featured artist Alex Feig opening.
The residency continues on Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. with Billy Lambert as the featured guest artist and on Oct. 24 with Chris Humel.
Photos by Howard Owens.
Requiems are a centuries-old art form.
The most famous, perhaps, is Mozart’s, which was left unfinished (though finished by other composers) at the time of his own death.
Typically, composers write eight or nine movements corresponding to the Catholic Mass for the Dead. A vocalist or chorus sings the mass in Latin.
Typically.
Thirty-five years ago, Laurence Tallman, a Genesee County resident, had a different idea. He became intrigued with the idea of composing a requiem that was purely orchestral—no singing, just the music, with the lyrics implied by the melody.
On September 28, Tallman's “Unsung Requiem” will have its world premiere at Genesee Community College, where the Genesee Symphony Orchestra will perform it.
"The piece was inspired by an experiencing Maurice Durufle’s Requiem with the Crane Chorus and Orchestra in Potsdam way back in 1989," Tallman said to The Batavian. "Even then, as a composition student, I thought it would be amazing to write a requiem using the form that would be just instruments. It's been mulling around in my head forever. Then, 200-some compositions later, and finally, the time and the inspiration were there, and so I constructed this piece, so based on an actual Requiem form, the nine movements that are typical in it, but there's no singing."
This isn't the first time GSO has performed a piece by Tallman, but this is a piece that Musical Director Shade Zajac encouraged Tallman to complete so the orchestra could perform it.
"The things he's done of mine have been very playful, very funny," Tallman said. "I get hired a lot for humor pieces and pieces that have a lot of moving parts to it. I told him about this, and I said, 'This has always been on the back burner, and I've got bits and pieces of it done.' I started showing him some sketches, and he's like, 'I love this. I love this idea. I think you should invest in this, and we'll get the group to do it.'"
Tallman, who lives in Byron with his husband, is a retired music teacher. He taught at Byron-Bergen Central Schools. He is the music director for the First Presbyterian Church of Byron and plays contrabassoon and piano in the GSO. He received his B.M. and M.M. in Music Education from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. He also has a certificate of compositional study from the Birmingham Conservatory of Music in Birmingham, England.
He said his requiem reflects the text and moods of the Mass for the Dead.
"Some of them are very somber and pensive. Some of them are playful and joyful," Tallman said. "The lux aeterna is like the light that you know we're searching for. And then the in paradisum ends with this lovely kind of ascension into the Netherworld."
He said the last movement is composed through the lens of his own passing and he had some fun with it.
"(It is) what would it be like if I was in that state of transition and then, ideally, the ascension," Tallman said. "So that piece has a lot of musical allusions to some of my favorite works of music, and it just becomes this collage of sound. The agnus dei has this little repeated pattern that is a variation of a pop tune that is very obscure, and everything builds around that pattern. It's dedicated to a pop star I loved in the 1980s (Alison Moyet), who got me through a lot."
The concert is at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Stuart Steiner Theater at GCC. Tickets are $17 for adults, seniors $12, and students (with ID) may attend for free.
Additional works on the program:
For more information, click here.
The rock band Falling in Reverse headlined a night on Tuesday, supported by Jeris Johnson, Tech N9ne, Dance Gavin Dance, and Black Veil Brides.
Photos by Philip Casper
The Genesee Chorale is opening its 2024 Fall Season and is looking for a few good singers.
The Chorale held its opening rehearsal on Monday at St. James.
For more information on joining, click here.
Photos by Howard Owens.
On a cooler rainy September Friday night, it didn’t stop anyone from dancing and grooving to T-Pain, who opened for Pitbull at Darien Lake Amphitheater.
A sold-out 22,000 plus crowd packed the venue to greatest hits by both performers including a few dressed up Pitbull outfits.
In two years, the Songbirds, a Fleetwood Mac tribute band, has gone from playing for a couple of dozen people at a block party in Batavia to headlining at some of Western New York's top music venues.
On Monday, they closed out, as headliners, the Oakfield Labor Daze Music & Food Festival, drawing, likely, in the area of hundreds of fans for a three-hour set of all the best of Fleetwood Mac along with some deep tracks.
Previously: It's more than just ‘Rumours’ that Songbirds pay tribute to Fleetwood Mac
Photos by Howard Owens.
After the parade, on a beautiful blue-sky Labor Day, the third and final day of the music portion of the Oakfield Labor Daze Music & Food Festival opened with power trio Salvatore, an Albion-based band, followed by Elvis impersonator Terry Buchwald.
Photos by Howard Owens.
Sunday night's headliner, Nerds Gone Wild -- perhaps Western New York's most popular cover band -- thrilled all their fans who turned out in Triangle Park for their headlining performance on the second day of the Oakfield Labor Daze Music & Food Festival.
While waiting for the band make its grand entrance, one woman from Arizona approached a reporter and praised the festival. She couldn't believe all the music was free. And she loved all the food options. She said she extended her vacation an extra week just to see Nerds in Oakfield.
Photos by Howard Owens.
Hazzard County, a Buffalo-based country music band, got a late start due to heavy rain, lightning, and thunder but still put on an all-out performance for music fans Sunday in Oakfield.
Photos by Howard Owens.
The Eaglez, an Eagles tribute band, performed Sunday afternoon at the Oakfield Labor Daze Music and Food Festival.
The band's set was cut about 20 minutes short by a torrential downpour.
Photos by Howard Owens.
On Saturday at Labor Daze in Triangle Park in Oakfield, Mayday Buffalo was the afternoon band, and Dave Viterna Group was the headliner for the night.
The rest of this weekend's lineup:
On Sunday:
On Monday:
The Labor Daze Parade is at 10 a.m. on Monday
Photos by Howard Owens
Genesee Ted kicked off three days of live music in Oakfield for the Labor Daze Music & Food Festival.
Also on Saturday, Mayday from 4 to 7 p.m. and Dave Viterna Group from 7 to 10 p.m.
On Sunday:
On Monday:
The Labor Daze Parade is at 10 a.m. on Monday
Photos by Howard Owens
One of Batavia's most accomplished bands, The Bluesway Band, packed the house on Friday in Jackson Square for a night of classic rock and blues-based rock.
Photos by Howard Owens
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