Albany Symphony and David Alan Miller Present The American Music Festival, Sing Out! New York

Sing Out! New York celebrates New York’s leading role in championing equal rights through innovative concerts, close encounters with today’s most adventurous artists and composers, interactive workshops, collaborative community events, film screenings, and artistic happenings throughout Troy and the New York Capital Region.

The Albany Symphony is committed to telling the stories of our time, place, and history through collaborations between composers and fellow artists, and through the creation of new music.  In late May and early June 2019, we will shine a light on New York State’s leading role in social justice history through Sing Out! New York, this year’s American Music Festival and free concert tour. To frame an artistic discussion surrounding the fight for inclusion and equality in New York State, we drafted a broad team of artists, including a number of emerging composers who represent our richly diverse community and partnered them with other creative artists and community organizations from myriad disciplines. Then we invited them to tell stories, about the heroic figures, defining events and related issues of some of the most defining equal justice movements in our history.  We paired remarkable new and recent works by composers who have led the fight for social justice in New York State alongside established works, and we designed immersive events that celebrate the things that bring us together as New Yorkers and as human beings.

David Alan Miller, Albany Symphony Music Director

The Albany Symphony’s American Music Festival will return to Troy with performances and happenings at EMPAC, Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and Troy’s Monument Square starting Thursday, May 30 through Sunday, June 9. Curated by Grammy Award-winning conductor and Albany Symphony Music Director, David Alan Miller, the festival will turn downtown Troy into a hub for new American concert music featuring 50 new or recent works by 38 composers, including 27 world premiere performances.  The Festival includes works by acclaimed composer-activist David Del Tredici, and four-time Grammy and Academy Award-winning composer, John Corigliano, as well as performances by composer/performer Molly Joyce, the Argus Quartet and soprano Hila Plitmann.  Sing Out! New York kicks off on Thursday, May 30 with First Draughts Reading Session & Beer Tasting and runs through Sunday, June 2 in Troy. The musicians, then embarks on a four-concert regional tour in Schuylerville (June 6), Schenectady (June 7), Albany (June 8), and Hudson (June 9), New York.

The American Music Festival Sing Out! New York explores the storied legacy of New York’s rich cultural history in the fight for inclusion and equality.  Two milestone anniversaries frame the festival: the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. 

“I began researching the history of the suffragist movement last year in advance of its centennial.  I discovered that many of the seminal events of the movement happened right here in New York. At the same time, I knew that June 2019, marks the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, that amazing moment in Greenwich Village when members of the LGBTQ community stood up and demanded true equal rights for all. By exploring these movements together, we send the message that the fight for social justice and equal rights never includes just one interest group but applies to all of us.” – David Allen Miller

Sing Out! New York

The stories of the activists who led these movements, and their significance today are the basis for each festival event. On Friday, May 31, the Dogs of Desire, combining popular culture and classical ensemble, will premiere five commissions inspired by the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention. The Albany Symphony will premiere a suffragist inspired piece by composer/performer Tanner Porter on Saturday, June 1 alongside Pop-Pourri with soprano Hila Plitmann, David Del Tredici’s first in his series of works based on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and John Corigliano’s Piano Concerto with pianist Phillip Edward Fisher.  Albany Symphony will record both Pop-Pourri and the Piano Concerto for commercial release.

Sing Out! New York is a terrific addition to the slate of events taking place across New York State this summer to celebrate WorldPride and commemorate Stonewall 50, and the concerts will inspire travel to the Capital-Saratoga vacation region. Empire State Development and I LOVE NY are excited to support this great series of events and the always innovative work of the Albany Symphony.

Ross D. Levi, New York State Executive Director of Tourism

According to Executive Director Anna Kuwabara, “The American Music Festival is the annual blossoming of the Albany Symphony’s commitment to the music of our time, to giving voice to the stories, aesthetics, thoughts, and emotions of our society right here, right now. The Festival is a hub for new music, and it is our opportunity to celebrate and unite our community, to transform lives and be transformed through the power of music.  The four free Sing Out New York! Tour events are our joy and honor to present. The program in each community includes Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, sing-alongs, and summertime favorites.  The centerpiece of each is one of the newly commissioned works from the Dogs of Desire concerts earlier in the Festival.  Along with great music, we look forward to bringing attention and business to each site with family activities, food trucks, fireworks, and other festivities.” 

Tickets and Festival Passes to the American Music Festival Sing Out! New York in Troy May 30 – June 2, 2019 are on sale now and can be purchased through the Albany Symphony Box Office: 518-694-3300, Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. or online. Performances take place at EMPAC Concert Hall on the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, and Troy’s Monument Square 

The American Music Festival Sing Out! New York Tour concerts at Hudson Crossing Park in Schuylerville, Mohawk Harbor in Schenectady, Albany’s Jennings Landing, and Basilica Hudson are free and open to the public.  

2019 American Music Festival Sing Out! New York Calendar can be found at their website.

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