Albany Symphony Announces American Music Festival & Tour

The Albany Symphony today announced the 2019 American Music Festival, Sing Out! New York, a bold two-weekend national festival and regional tour of musical performances and new art happenings, taking place in renowned concert venues in Troy and in public parks throughout New York State's Capital Region. 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, then embarks on a four-concert tour of the greater Capital Region on Thursday, June 6,2019.

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. Sing Out! New York draws inspiration from both these events, and 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. Curated by GRAMMY Award-winning conductor and Albany Symphony Music Director, David Alan Miller, the festival will turn downtown Troy into a national hub and incubator for new American concert music, featuring 50 new or recent works by 38 composers, including 26 world premiere performances.

The Festival's programs include world premieres by Clarice Assad, Viet Cuong, Molly Joyce, Alexis Lamb, Loren Loiacono, Danika Lorén, Evan Mack, Beata Moon, Andre Myers, Rachel Peters, Tanner Porter, Jorge Sosa, Bora Yoon, as well as recent works by John Corigliano, David Del Tredici, Melissa Dunphy, Stacy Garrop, Gilda Lyons, Missy Mazzoli, Frances Pollock, Juri Seo, and Christopher Theofanidis. Joining the Albany Symphony and Music Director David Alan Miller are artistic collaborators including the Argus Quartet, Clarice Assad, the Albany Symphony's Dogs of Desire with vocalists Lucy Dhegrae and Lucy Fitz Gibbon, pianist Phillip Fisher, IAMIAMIAM Vocal Collective, Patrick Jones, Angelica Negron, and choreographer Adam Weinert. The Festival also 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, and soprano Hila Plitmann.

When asked about the significance of Sing Out! New York, Music Director David Alan Miller said, "The Albany Symphony is committed to telling the stories of our time, place, and history through the creation of compelling new music and collaborations between composers and fellow artists. The fight for women's equality in the 19th and early 20th century, and for LGBTQ rights beginning in 1969, are great New York stories. To tell them, 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. We paired these news works with established ones by composers who have told related New York stories, and have designed immersive events that celebrate the things that bring us together as New Yorkers and human beings."

The American Music Festival Sing Out! New York includes more than 22 concerts and related events over two weekends starting on Thursday, May 30 and again on Thursday, June 6. On Friday, May 31, the orchestra's new music chamber orchestra, Dogs of Desire will premiere five new works on subjects ranging from the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention to Frederick Douglass' participation in the abolitionist and suffragist movements, from the aftermath of the Stonewall Rebellion to, Alice Duer Miller's Women are People and Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman" speech. On Saturday, June 1, the full orchestra will premiere a suffragist-inspired piece by composer/performer Tanner Porter alongside Pop-Pourri with soprano Hila Plitmann, David Del Tredici's first work based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland from 1968, and John Corigliano's Piano Concerto, with pianist Phillip Fisher. Committed to giving new music life beyond the concert hall, the Albany Symphony will also record both Pop-Pourri and the Piano Concerto for commercial release.

Other festival highlights include: a screening of the powerful new documentary film, "Of Rage and Remembrance" in which composer John Corigliano tells the story of his Symphony No. 1, commemorating the friends he lost to AIDS; Del Tredici's Bullycide, performed by the Argus Quartet in St. Paul's Episcopal Church, one of the only fully integrated Tiffany interiors in the world; Late Night Lounge performances on Friday and Saturday night; and a free family-friendly concert and suffragist themed street fair in Monument Square with performances by Molly Joyce, IAMIAMIAM, and local jazz/folk bands on Sunday. On Saturday afternoon at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, David Alan Miller and a 14-member chamber orchestra will premiere four newly commissioned melodrams by Evan Mack, Jorge Sosa, Molly Joyce, and Bora Yoon. The following weekend, the Festival will break out of the concert hall with free outdoor concerts at Hudson Crossing Park in Schuylerville (June 6), Mohawk Harbor in Schenectady (June 7), Albany's Jennings Landing (June 8), and Basilica Hudson in Hudson (June 9), NY.

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, giving voice to the stories, aesthetics, thoughts, and emotions of our society right here and 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."

The American Music Festival and Tour is made possible with New York State funding through Market NY/Empire State Development, New York State Council on the Arts and the Regional Economic Development Councils, as well as funding from the National Endowment of the Arts.