Culture Picks: June 23

June is Pride Month, and June is African-American Music Appreciation Month. June is also the beginning of summer, a.k.a. outdoor concerts and arts festivals season. Celebrate June with one or all of this week’s picks!

All Arts presents
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Performs Beethoven’s Egmont
Streaming on-demand through June 27
Beethoven, an unyielding critic of despots, channeled his ardor and rage into music for Goethe’s historical drama about a local hero defying foreign occupiers. Liev Schreiber narrates an incisive new translation by Philip Boehm, while the clarion voice of Karen Slack and Orpheus illuminate the eternal truths of Egmont.
Watch and listen to Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Performs Beethoven’s Egmont on ALL ARTS

Ailey All Access presents
Love Stories (finale) by Robert Battle
On-demand now through July 3
June is African-American Music Appreciation Month and who better to appreciate this month than the legendary Stevie Wonder? His soulful music is a key ingredient to the success of the ballet Love Stories, which features choreography by Judith Jamison, Rennie Harris, and Robert Battle. This video excerpt (the finale to the piece) was created by Battle to represent the future of the Ailey company back in 2004. Little did he know that just six years later he would be personally selected by Ms. Jamison to take over from her as the Company’s new Artistic Director. This performance, celebrating Mr. Battle’s 10th anniversary leading the Company, was recorded at Ailey’s Opening Night Gala in December 2021 at New York City Center.
Watch Robert Battle’s “Love Stories” on Ailey All Access

Wigmore Hall presents
Sabine Meyer, clarinet; Alliage Quintett – Live at Wigmore Hall
On-demand
Sabine Meyer, clarinet; Alliage Quintett
One of the world’s leading clarinetists, Sabine Meyer, has been the recipient of eight Echo Classic Awards, as well as a laureate of the Niedersachsen Prize and the Brahms Prize; she is also a member of the Freie Akademie der Künste Hamburg and in 2010 was named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government. Together with her five colleagues, the Alliage Quintett (one pianist, four saxophonists), she brings a program of arrangements of various popular works from the concert hall and the stage.
Watch Live at Wigmore Hall on YouTube

Mint Theater Company presents
Conflict, by Miles Malleson
On-demand
Conflict is a love story set against the backdrop of a hotly contested election. It’s the Roaring 20’s, London. Miles Malleson combines his two great passions: sex and politics. The result is a provocative romance that sizzles with both wit and ideas. “It is an immaculately well-made, comprehensively satisfying piece of theater, old-fashioned in style without feeling at all dated, and the Mint’s production, directed by Jenn Thompson and featuring an ensemble cast of supreme merit, is beyond praise.” –The Wall Street Journal
Watch Miles Malleson’s “Conflict” on the Mint Theater Company website

Saratoga Performing Arts Center presents
The 45th Annual Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival
Saturday, June 25, and Sunday, June 26
Saratoga Performing Arts Center
Performances will begin each day on the Charles R. Wood “Jazz Discovery” Stage at 11 a.m. and on the Amphitheater Stage at noon.
The roster of 24 musical groups is headlined by Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, returning to the festival for the first time since 1998; soul music legend Booker T.; and powerhouse 2021 Grammy winner and fourteen-time Grammy-nominated vocalist Ledisi for her festival debut. Returning for the first time since 2019 is the popular Charles R. Wood “Jazz Discovery” Stage with rhythmic, global, and funk grooves by groups including Tiempo Libre.
More information and tickets available on the Saratoga Performing Arts Center’s website

The Westchester Philharmonic presents
The Phil’s String Quartet: 2 Dates, 2 Gorgeous Outdoor Settings
Sunday, June 26, 6pm, Untermyer Gardens, Yonkers. Click here for tickets.
Wednesday, June 29, at 7pm, in Crawford Park, Rye (free)
Visit the Westchester Philharmonic website for more information

Orchestra of St. Luke’s presents
“Sounds & Stories” Series: Julius Eastman’s Femenine
Live stream Tuesday, June 28, 6:30pm
Then on-demand
To mark Pride Month and Pride Day, the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots on June 28, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s premieres a free streamed performance of Femenine (1974), a mesmerizing, improvisatory tour de force by Julius Eastman, the late queer Black composer “now experiencing a dizzying posthumous renaissance” (New Yorker). Featuring the virtuosos of St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble and Tony- and Emmy-winning host David Hyde Pierce under the direction of award-winning filmmaker Tristan Cook, this virtual account of Eastman’s unjustly neglected minimalist masterpiece concludes the second season of the innovative “Sounds & Stories” series, which Sandy Kenyon of ABC News considers “almost better than having a front-row seat at a live show.”
Watch and listen to Julius Eastman’s “Femenine” on the Orchestra of St. Luke’s website

GEMS (Gotham Early Music Scene, Inc.) presents
Academy of Sacred Drama “After stormy seas, how much more sweet the harbor”
Wednesday, June 29, at 7:30 pm, at St. James the Less Church, 10 Church Lane, Scarsdale, NY
Thursday, June 30, at 7:30 pm, at St. Vincent Ferrer Church, 869 Lexington Avenue, Manhattan
Admission: free with RSVP
The Academy’s back… with performances featuring bass-baritone Jonathan Woody. From Alessandro Stradella’s hopeful Crudo mar di fiamme orribili to his celebratory Exultate in Deo, this program imagines the sweet harbors we all await. Special instrumental selections by Giovanni Legrenzi and Massimiliano Neri. Jonathan Woody ~ bass-baritone, Adam Cockerham ~ theorbo and leader, Jeremy Rhizor ~ violin & artistic director, Leah Gale Nelson ~ violin, Arnie Tanimoto ~ viola da gamba, Marc Bellassai ~ virginal.
See more information and register for tickets on the Academy of Sacred Drama website

The Greene Space presents
WQXR Celebrates PRIDE 2022
Live in the Greene Space with live stream on Thursday, June 30, 7-8:30pm
This concert hosted by pianist Sara Davis Buechner will feature musicians from the LGBTQ+ classical music community including members of ChamberQUEER, highlights from the operas of life partners and composers Mark Adamo and John Corigliano, and a performance from “sublime” (BBC Music Magazine) violist Jesus Rodolfo.
Get tickets and access the livestream on TheGreeneSpace.org

###

Culture Picks is a weekly feature celebrating the performing arts. The arts are back and there is so much to take in, both live and virtual. Cultural connoisseur and PAC staff member Coni Guhl is here to help you sort through it all. Each week we will post her curated selection of events featuring the artists you know and love from The PAC Center Series, work being done by Purchase alums, plus a sampling of arts experiences you just can’t miss. Enjoy!

All times are EDT unless otherwise noted.