Symphony Spotlight
This week, we are excited to share a look at our upcoming 2021-22 season! The year ahead is full of new works, audience favorites and more in an array of programs we can’t wait to share with you. Our Spotlight also includes Lemn Sissay’s poem “Spark Catchers”—the inspiration for a work by Hannah Kendall we are featuring on February 2022 program—as well as a recording by composer Tanner Porter, who has a world premiere on our concert this Saturday. Enjoy!
As we get ready to welcome back Tanner Porter this weekend we share a previous performance of her work KNIT/PURL. This recording of the Albany Symphony was taken at our 2019 American Music Festival! Tune in Saturday April 24th at 7:30 to hear her new work A Flash of Teeth Before the Bite!
Albany Symphony Hour
Start off your weekend with the Albany Symphony, WMHT, and Rachmaninoff! Tune in via 89.1 FM Albany, 88.7 FM Poughkeepsie, or online at wmht.org/classical on Friday 4/23 at 6pm!
2020-21 Season at a Glance!
We are excited to share next season's concerts with you all! The season at a glance includes all the repertoire we plan to play as well as our anticipated guest artists and composers. You definitely won't want to miss David Alan Miller's 30th anniversary season, it's going to be a great one!
Take Your Child to Work Day
We at Albany Symphony recognize that “work” has come to look very different than in the past. This Thursday, to celebrate Take Your Child to Work Day, we are asking for working parents to post pictures of them working from home with their children. We know you have those candid selfies of trying to finish that email with a toddler sprawled on your laptop. Share them with us on our Facebook page!
National Poetry Month with Hannah Kendall and Lemn Sissay
To continue our celebration of Poetry Month we look forward to our 2021-22 season, with features a piece by Hannah Kendall "The Spark Catchers." Kendall's piece shares its title and draws inspiration from a Lemn Sissay poem. We look forward to sharing the piece with you all next year and hope you enjoy Sissay's Poem.
"Spark Catchers"
Tide twists on the Thames and lifts the Lea to the brim of Bow
Where shoals of sirens work by way of the waves.
At the fire factory the fortress of flames
In tidal shifts East London Lampades made
Millions of matches that lit candles for the well-to-do
And the ne’er-do-well to do alike. Strike.
The greatest threat to their lives was
The sulferuous spite filled spit of diablo
The molten madness of a spark
They became spark catchers and on the word “strike”
a parched arched woman would dive
With hand outstretched to catch the light.
And Land like a crouching tiger with fist high
Holding the malevolent flare tight
‘til it became an ash dot in the palm. Strike.
The women applauded the magnificent grace
The skill it took, the pirouette in mid air
The precision, perfection and the peace.
Beneath stars by the bending bridge of Bow
In the silver sheen of a phosphorous moon
They practised Spark Catching.
“The fist the earth the spark it’s core
The fist the body the spark it’s heart”
The Matchmakers march. Strike.
Lampades The Torch bearers
The Catchers of light.
Sparks fly Matchmakers strike.
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