All Over Albany

Massry Center 2015-2016 season

The schedule for the upcoming 2015-206 season at the Massry Center at the College of Saint Rose is out. The slate includes a ukulele virtuoso, a couple of banjo titans, a river-spanning jazz festval, and the return of the popular Christmas concert featuring the music of Vince Guaraldi.

Compressed schedule

Jump to the expanded schedule listing, which includes some blurbs about each event.

September 25: Turkish Cultural Night with Amir Vahab Ensemble and Traditional Whirling Dervish

October 2: An Evening with Andy McKee Family Weekend Concert

October 3: The College of Saint Rose Camerata

October 16: The Arturo O'Farrill Septet Latin Jazz Night

November 6: An Evening with Jake Shimabukuro

November 21: The College of Saint Rose Camerata

December 4: It's a Jazzy Christmas! A Celebration of Vince Guaraldi's Holiday Jazz Music

February 13: The College of Saint Rose Camerata Chamber Music with Voice

February 27: The Bridge Jazz Festival - Presented with the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall

March 5: An Evening with Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn

March 20: Guitar Foundation of America Concert with Ekachai Jearakul

April 7: An Evening with Stewart Copeland and Jon Kimura Parker

April 15: Terrance Simien

April 16: The College of Saint Rose Camerata

Expanded schedule

All blurbage via Saint Rose. For more description and ticket info, head on over there.

September 25: Turkish Cultural Night with Amir Vahab Ensemble and Traditional Whirling Dervish
The New York Times calls him the "ambassador for a silenced music." Honored as a peacemaker and virtuoso, Amir Alan Vahab is one of New York's most celebrated and distinguished
composer/vocalists of sufi and folk music. He sings in many different languages with a unique mystical style. The virtuosos of Vahab weave fiery instrumentals and songs of the Ancient Land of the Middle East that include Persian, Turkish, Azeri and beyond.

October 2: An Evening with Andy McKee Family Weekend Concert
Andy McKee is among the world's finest acoustic guitarists, and his crossover success to more than 150 million YouTube viewers underscores his emergence as one of today's most unique and influential artists. To fans of virtuoso musicianship, it is McKee's attention to song structure and melodic content that elevates him above the rest. To fans of popular music, McKee entertains both the eye and the ear as he magically transforms the steel string guitar into full orchestra via his use of altered tunings, tapping, partial capos, percussive hits and a signature two-handed technique.

October 3: The College of Saint Rose Camerata
This evening's program features works by Bourland, Beethoven and Piazolla.

October 16: The Arturo O'Farrill Septet Latin Jazz Night
In 2002, Arturo O'Farrill established the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra to bring the musical traditions of Afro Latin jazz to a wider general audience and to greatly expand the contemporary Latin jazz big-band repertoire. A celebrated composer with a ground-breaking and forward-looking perspective, O'Farrill has received numerous commissions and recorded a host of albums both with his smaller groups and the Grammy®-winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra's most recent album, The Offense of the Drum, was honored with both a 2015 Grammy® Award (Best Latin Jazz Album) and Cubadisco Award (Best International Album).

November 6: An Evening with Jake Shimabukuro
Consider the ukulele. Jake Shimabukuro began his music career in the mid-90's performing on this humble instrument at local coffee shops as a sideman with his first band, Pure Heart. In 2002, he signed with Epic Records, becoming the first ukulele player to sign with Sony Music. His career skyrocketed when a cover of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" went viral on YouTube with more than 13 million views, opening the rest of the world's eyes to Shimabukuro and his unique playing style. In the years since, Shimabukuro has collaborated with an array of artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Jimmy Buffett, Bette Midler, Cyndi Lauper, Jack Johnson, Ziggy Marley, Dave Koz, Michael McDonald, Béla Fleck and The Flecktones, Tommy Emmanuel and Lyle Lovett.

November 21: The College of Saint Rose Camerata
Concert will feature works by Bach, Piston and Prokofiev.

December 4: It's a Jazzy Christmas! A Celebration of Vince Guaraldi's Holiday Jazz Music
Family-favorite "It's a Jazzy Christmas! A Celebration of
Vince Guaraldi's Holiday Jazz Music," an unforgettable "high smileage" evening of Guaraldi's music made famous in the "Peanuts" holiday special, is back for its fifth year. This popular concert is perfect for the jazz lover and the entire family, just in time for the holidays.
[AOA adds: This concert is very popular and often sells out, so it's worth getting tickets ahead of time. It's also fun.]

February 13: The College of Saint Rose Camerata Chamber Music with Voice
Repertoire includes works by Bach, Puccini, Holst and Marx.

February 27: The Bridge Jazz Festival - Presented with the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall
[T]he Arch Stanton Quartet, the No BS! Brass Band, and Delfeayo and Ellis Marsalis will take the stage. [The previous night of the festival will be at the Troy Music Hall, with Nnenna Freelon and Pierre Bensusan.]

March 5: An Evening with Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn
Béla Fleck virtually reinvented the image and the sound of the banjo through a remarkable performing and recording career that has taken him all over the musical map and on a range of solo projects and collaborations. Fleck's total Grammy® count since 1998 is 15 wins and 30 nominations, and he has been nominated in more musical categories than anyone in Grammy® history. A singing, songwriting, Illinois-born, Nashville-based clawhammer banjo player, Abigail Washburn is every bit as interested in the present and the future as she is in the past and every bit as attuned to the global as she is to the local. Washburn pairs venerable folk elements with far-flung sounds, and the results feel both strangely familiar and unlike anything anybody has ever heard before.

March 20: Guitar Foundation of America Concert with Ekachai Jearakul
Ekachai Jearakul is considered one of the most outstanding classical guitarists on the international scene. In 2014, he became the first Asian guitarist to win the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America International Concert Artist Competition. The prize includes a 50-concert tour in North and South America, including a Carnegie Hall debut in New York City and recordings on the Naxos and GHA labels with worldwide distribution. Jearakul has performed in more than 16 countries, including Thailand, China, France, Korea, Russia, Greece, Japan, Austria, England, Italy, Germany, Mexico, Philippines, Indonesia, Spain, Singapore and the United States.

April 7: An Evening with Stewart Copeland and Jon Kimura Parker
Stewart Copeland and Jon Kimura Parker are used to breaking the mold. With three incredible collaborators, they have created Stewart Copeland Jon Kimura Parker and Company, a quintet that has one foot in the classical world and its other foot all over the place. As the iconic drummer of The Police, Copeland's sound is immediately recognizable the world over. "Jackie" Parker is a pianist whose forward-looking programming is matched by his incredible chops. It is the rare classical musician who can improvise, as it is the rare rock musician who reads music. In this project, all of the musicians can do both.

April 15: Terrance Simien
Leading his Zydeco Experience band, Terrance Simien has become one of the most respected and accomplished artists in American roots music today. He and his band mates have performed more than 7,000 concerts and toured millions of miles to more than 45 countries. In 2014, Simien and his collaborators were honored with
their second Grammy®. The year also marked their 28th consecutive New Orleans Jazz Festival performance, an event that has become the gold standard for showcasing and celebrating all Louisiana music traditions. Well known for his legendary live performances, Simien also helped change the vocabulary for his genre by introducing complex vocal harmonies, diverse repertoire and carefully crafted high-quality recordings.

April 16: The College of Saint Rose Camerata
Performance will feature works by Saint Rose faculty members Bruce Roter, Sean McClowry and Andrew McKenna Lee.

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