Tradition on Tap

From the Vault Dept.: Early in 1984, B. A. Nilsson vanished from the pages of Albany’s Metroland Magazine, and a similarly erudite scribbler called George Gordon took his place. Thus was I hidden from the greedy Knickerbocker News, a paper that wanted my exclusive services but would pay nothing approaching a living wage. And what kind of threat was my Metroland counterpart offering? A piece of here’s-what’s-coming puffery was the first.

                                                                                             

WHETHER YOU’RE LOOKING FOR a wind quintet or a string quartet, a chamber choir or an evening of dance or an excursion into the world of new music, this weekend should offer you something to suit your fancy.

Arthur Hall's Dance Ensemble

There will be a free concert on Thursday by Qwlndtessense, a group made up of five area wind players: flutist Mark Russo, oboist Gene Marie Green, clarinetist Paul Aldi, bassoonist June Partch and french horn player Ronald Patrick. The performance will take place at the Schenectady Library branch at Liberty and Clinton Streets.

Another chamber concert takes place in Troy on Friday night: The Friends of Chamber Music presents the Mendelssohn Quartet in concert in the Kiggins Auditorium at the Emma Willard School. The Quartet was founded five years ago; in 1981 it won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and has gone on to tour the country to great acclaim. On Friday’s program will be quartets by Beethoven, Dvořák, and Ruth Crawford Seeger.

The first of two choral concerts this weekend will be given Friday evening at the SUNYA Performing Arts Center: the SUNY-Stonybrook Chamber Singers present a performance at 8 PM. Call xxx-xxxx to reserve tickets.

A concert titled “The A Cappella Tradition: Music of France and England” will be given by Albany Pro Musica on Saturday night at 8 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Albany. The program opens with sacred songs of the English Renaissance wrlttten by Orlando Gibbons and William Byrd then continues with songs from the beginning of this century by Claude Debussy, offering works that celebrate love and nature. Christmas motets by another contemporary French composer, Francis Poulenc, and music of Olivier Messiaen round out the Gallic section; the concert concludes with Benjamin Britten’s Hymm to St. Cecilia, a setting of the poem by W.H. Auden celebrating the patron saint of music. David Janower, music director and conductor of Albany Pro Musica, chose St. Paul’s Church for its benevolent accoustical properties; it is located at 21 Hackett Boulevard.

Dance fans can celebrate “Sweet Saturday Nite” on Friday night at the Egg in Albany and see the show that was the hit of last year’s Dance Black America festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. It’s being brought back to Brooklyn for another week of performances, after which it will tour the state, starting in Albany.

Lenwood Sloan, dfrector of “Sweet Saturday Night,” describes the show as one that “pays tribute to the living heroes who continue the flow of the Afro beat and the parade of legendary stars of Black dance.” More than 25 performers take part in the show, including two groups dedicated to preserving traditional dance stylings: Arthur Hall’s Afro-American Dance Ensemble, a Philadelphia-based group that specializes in African and Caribbean dance; and the Mama Lu Parks Jazz and Soul Dance Ensemble, which focuses on Afro-American traditions from the early part of this century, including such dances as the Black Bottom, the Charleston and the Applejack. Other dances to be displayed include cakewalks, two-steps, tap dancing, and modern street dances. “Sweet Saturday Nite” begins at 8 PM; tickets may be obtained through CBO outlets or at the Egg box office.

“New and Unusual Music,” a Crane School of Music concert, will he presented Sunday at 3 PM at the Cohoes Music Hall. Featured will be acoustic and electronic compositions by Paul Steinberg. For more information, call xxx-xxxx.

– Metroland Magazine, 16 March 1984