September 13, 2024
Susan Bardack, Buzz Media Solutions
(518) 867-7940 · susan@buzzmediasolutions.com
Jim Kelly, Marketing Manager - Albany Symphony
(518) 465-4755 x 110
Project Details: www.albanysymphony.com/watermusicny
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 Albany Symphony launched Water Music NY: More Voices in June at the 2024 American Music Festival. In Fall 2024, the project includes five free pop-up concerts, featuring small ensembles of Albany Symphony musicians and vocalists in unique Canal-adjacent spaces, highlighting unexplored stories of the 524-mile New York State Canal system’s past, present, and future. These free concerts will be viewable to all via online video livestream and used to promote the larger Bicentennial Commemoration events in 2025 and 2026. Through these events, Water Music NY: More Voices will shine a bright light on New York as the “State of the Arts.”
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.
Daniel Bernard Roumain’s piece, Agrarian and Liquid, to be performed in Lockport, was created in partnership with librettist Marc Bamuthi Joseph. The piece centers on abolitionist and freedom fighter Harriet Tubman and her relationship to the Erie Canal. (September 26)
Francisco del Pino created Orenda, which is inspired by concepts of place and interconnectedness with nature. According to del Pino, this piece behaves like running water: a continuous stream of motion underneath which things change only imperceptibly over time. Floating above that tapestry, a singer chants words from the Oneida Nation’s motto: good mind, good heart, strong fire. (September 27)
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 28)
“I am deeply honored to be part of this meaningful program. The concept for this composition emerged from a conversation with Kay Olan, a celebrated Mohawk storyteller, teacher, and writer. During our discussion, Olan shared insights from the world's creation story, emphasizing the people's gratitude for the bounty of Earth and Water. She beautifully described Earth as our mother and Water as its lifeblood - an image that profoundly inspired this composition,” said Assad.
A livestream of a no-audience performance in Waterloo features composer Dai Wei, whose piece explores the journey of Oong Ar Showe, a Chinese merchant who adeptly navigated the economic and social landscape of 19th-century America, emphasizing the crucial role of the Erie Canal in facilitating interregional trade. (November 1 via livestream)
The mini-concert series concludes at the Montezuma Wetlands Complex where Juhi Bansal’s piece Refuge will be performed. A thriving expanse of marshes, the Montezuma Wetlands Complex has been a rich wildlife habitat for centuries, supporting many species, notably a wide variety of migratory birds. It was also a home to hunting and fishing grounds for the Haudenosaunee people. (November 2)
Water Music NY: More Voices brings people together to explore new musical works that amplify voices that have been underrepresented. This project strives to elevate more aspects of local culture to weave an inclusive history and future of the Erie Canal.
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