Our 11th Season

Concerts in the Village (CITV), Kinderhook, NY announces the resumption of programming this fall and the beginning of its 11th season of choral, orchestral and chamber music. With this CITV continues its important contribution to the cultural landscape of the Upper Hudson Valley-Capitol District Region. Over ninety musicians will be performing in the first four concerts of CITV’s 2021-2022 Season, representing one of the largest collaborations of professional and non-professional musicians in upstate New York.

CITV Artistic Director and Conductor David Smith comments, “If the pandemic we are experiencing has taught us anything, it is that the arts – musical, dramatic and visual – are essential for our personal and social well-being. Over the past eighteen months I have been greatly reassured by the ongoing commitment of those who have supported CITV during its first decade. Despite the pandemic this commitment has actually risen and the enthusiasm of our performers remains undiminished. As we return many thanks are in order!”

On September 26th at Kinderhook Reformed Church, CITV’s 43rd concert opens its season. Featured is the Broad Street Orchestra in works of Rietz, Farrenc and Beethoven. The virtuosic Oboe Concerto of Julian Rietz will be performed by Karen Hosmer, brilliant principal oboe of the Albany Symphony Orchestra and Associate Professor at SUNY Schenectady’s School of Music. The exciting Third Symphony of 19^th-century French composer and pianist Louise Farrenc follows. Farrenc was a very complete and in her time renowned musician, and the first woman symphonist. In the United States although her Third Symphony has recently been performed by the orchestras of San Francisco and Washington DC and will be performed by Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society later this year, CITV’s program will be a rare opportunity to experience this remarkable work. To conclude as dramatically as possible, the Broad Street Orchestra will perform one of the most glorious and riveting of Beethoven’s nine symphonies, the Seventh – so well summarized by Wagner as “the apotheosis of dance.” David Smith adds, “The Seventh is regarded by many as Beethoven’s most exhilarating symphony!”

On October 24th at Van Buren Hall, works of Bach and Mozart celebrate vocal and instrumental marvels of the baroque and classical eras. Bach’s reassuring solo Cantata 170 marks mezzo-soprano Kameryn Lueng’s fifth CITV appearance. A graduate of Bard’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program and 2019 Tanglewood Vocal Fellow, Lueng is currently pursuing advanced studies in Cleveland. Solo Cantata 51, well-known for its vocal and trumpet fireworks, follows, and will feature Burmese-American soprano Robin Steitz, an Eastman School of Music Graduate and former Tanglewood Vocal Fellow. Two of the best-known concert arias of Mozart will be sung by soloists previously appearing in CITV’s 2019 performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor. Both are graduates of Bard’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program. Soprano Jardena Gertler-Jaffe sings “Bella mia fiamma, addio” and tenor Maximillian Jansen sings “Misero! O sogno.” To conclude the October program the Broad Street Orchestra performs Mozart’s Symphony 29, a work of strength and elegance often regarded as the first of the composer’s mature symphonies.

On November 7th CITV returns to Kinderhook Reformed Church for a program rich in striking contrasts, and featuring the Broad Street Chorale, Broad Street Orchestra and soloists. The concert opens with glorious Venetian-style brass music of the Renaissance played antiphonally from the opposing galleries of the church. The third of Respighi’s sumptuous Ancients Airs and Dances celebrates the rich string quality of CITV’s orchestra. Then all instrumental forces unite in Paul Hindemith’s powerful Concert Music for Strings and Brass, commissioned for the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 50^th anniversary in 1930. Following a brief intermission, the Broad Street Chorale and soloists perform Gabriel Fauré’s much-loved Requiem in its original 1893 version for chorus, soloists, strings, brass, harp and organ. Appropriately this performance is a timely acknowledgement of the global and personal challenges posed by the current pandemic and with commitment to a brighter future for all.

POSTPONED until 2020 (was slated for December 4th in Van Buren Hall). The Broad Street Chamber Players conclude the first half of CITV’s 2021-2022 season with two substantial works for strings and winds: Beethoven’s stirring Septet (1799-1800) and Farrenc’s symphony-like Nonet (1849). With this program CITV echoes the first of its season, offering listeners an appealing opportunity to experience two romantic era composers of great, if very different excellence, one very well-known and the other worthy of increased attention.

The balance of CITV’s 11th season, four concerts in the first half of 2022, will be announced in late 2021, and feature all of its resident ensembles, as well as guest artists. CITV greatly appreciates the patience of its loyal listeners and supporters as it prepares for an exciting return this fall.

Covid precautions and requirements:

For entry to its events Concerts in the Village (CITV) requires either

proof of vaccination, or for those unable to be vaccinated, proof of a negative Covid PCR test (taken within 48 hours of performance). 

Please be prepared to show appropriate documentation.

Masking is required.

CITV concerts are made possible by the generous support of many individual, institutional and business supporters, including the T. Backer Fund, CITV Emerging Singer Fund, The Alexander and Marjorie Hover Foundation, Hudson River Bank and Trust Company Foundation, Eugene M. Lang Foundation, Price Chopper Golub Foundation, and Stewart’s Shops. Kinderhook Reformed Church is especially acknowledged for its many in-kind donations