09/24/2024
Albany Symphony to Present Water Music NY: More Voices Festival, a Project 200 Years in the Making, Highlighting the Past, Present, and Future of the Erie Canal
State-Wide Creative Endeavor Commemorates the Bicentennial of the Completion of the Original Erie Canal.
ALBANY, NY — The two-time GRAMMY® award-winning Albany Symphony, in partnership with the New York Power Authority and the New York State Canal Corporation, presents a powerful commemorative and celebratory series of livestreamed pop-up concerts taking place along the Erie Canal, Water Music NY: More Voices. The 2024 concert series will span the state, with livestreamed concerts in unique venues in Lockport, Little Falls, Fort Hunter, Waterloo, and Savannah, NY between September 26 and November 2.
The new three-year Water Music NY project takes inspiration from the orchestra’s original 2017 Water Music NY Festival, and opens a new chapter, exploring underrepresented voices, including those of women, immigrants, people of color, and indigenous peoples, to commemorate the bicentennial of the completion of the Erie Canal. Built between 1817 and 1825, the original Erie Canal traversed 363 miles from Albany to Buffalo.
“As the Erie Canal nears its third century of operation, we are excited to embark on a grand new adventure with our wonderful partners at the New York State Canal Corporation,” said Albany Symphony Music Director David Alan Miller. “We believe that by commissioning brilliant new works by some of the most compelling composers working today, and challenging them to look at the Canal through fresh eyes, the music they create will spark dialogue, expand perspectives, and energize canalside communities on what the Canal represents, and what it can become.”
The five pop-up concerts will take place at the Lock Tenders Tribute Monument in Lockport, Old Lock 36 (near Lock 17) in Little Falls, *Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site in Fort Hunter*, Waterloo (livestream only), and the Montezuma Audubon Center at Montezuma Wetlands Complex. Featured composers Daniel Bernard Roumain, Clarice Assad, Francisco del Pino, Dai Wei, and Juhi Bansal will have their new works premiered at unique venues along the Canal.
Clarice Assad’s world premiere, Earth and Water, will be performed overlooking the Schoharie Crossing Aqueduct, a New York State Historic Site. This coincides with another anniversary – the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation celebrates its centennial in 2024. This musical dialogue between earth and water explores themes of environmental change, human progress, and the relationship between nature and civilization, all centered around the construction of the Erie Canal. (September 28th at 4pm)
For More Information: https://www.albanysymphony.com/news
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