May 17, 2013 — A group of musicians who love swing and big band music gather every week to practice. Todd Moe caught up with Jack Kelley's Little Big Band as they prepped for an evening of music and dancing on Saturday night, to help celebrate the Potsdam CORC Thrift Store's 40th anniversary.

Join Jack Kelley's Little Big Band at the C.O.R.C. Thrift Store's Spring Fling, Saturday at 7:30 pm, at First Presbyterian Church in Potsdam. An evening of swing dancing to celebrate the store's 40th anniversary. Dance lessons at 7 pm.  Go to full article

May 15, 2013 — The St. Lawrence Country Arts council kicked off its inaugural community gallery project "Art walk" on Friday night in the villages of Canton and Potsdam. Around 20 local businesses lined their walls and shelves with local art and hosted receptions featuring local artists.

The idea of art in local businesses is nothing new. Other communities in the region have held similar events in recent years. St. Lawrence County art leaders hope to foster a long term relationship between the businesses community and local artists. The council contacted local businesses with the idea that shops would stay open late and display local work. The hope is that having the walk will get people to enter places they may not normally go.  Go to full article

May 10, 2013 — New music will be performed tonight and tomorrow in Saranac Lake and North Elba as part of the John Brown Day events. Voices of Timbuctoo is a new work based on the Adirondack settlement of Black farmers in the mid-1800's designed to secure voting rights. Abolitionist Gerrit Smith gave away 120,000 acres of his land, beginning in 1846, hoping the Adirondack wilderness would offer refuge to black families.

Voices of Timbuctoo, is an oratorio written by western New York composer Glenn McClure. It's part of what he calls a Musical Freedom Trail. Some of his other works written to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation have been performed in Alabama, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and later this month in Rochester.

McClure says his research for the oratorio included reading through diaries, letters and documents featuring the words of Gerrit Smith, John Brown, and the individuals who worked on the land that Smith had provided. McClure told Todd Moe that these texts illustrate hope and promise.  Go to full article

May 09, 2013 — A new children's book by Canton writer Mary Sue Seymour includes illustrations by a young artist from Ogdensburg. Friends in a Storm tells the story of Squirrel, who gets locked out of his house during a rainstorm, and is befriended by Owl.

Todd Moe spoke with author Mary Sue Seymour and 12-year-old artist Samantha Flynn, who created the illustrations for the book. Seymour says she wrote the story while teaching a kindergarten class in Hammond.

Mary Sue Seymour and Samantha Flynn will sign copies of their book, Friends in a Storm, at the Brewer Bookstore in Canton from 1-3 pm on Saturday.  Go to full article

May 08, 2013 — Actor/mime Bill Bowers brings his one-man show, It Goes Without Saying, back to the Adirondacks next Monday night. The show, which began ten years ago at the Adirondack Theater Festival in Glens Falls, has traveled around the country from Manhattan to Alaska. When it premiered Off-Broadway, the New York Times called it "zestful and endearing."

He'll perform it Monday at 5:30 pm at the "A Taste of the Arts" dinner at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts.

Todd Moe talks with Bowers about the success of his quirky, autobiographical production based on his life and theatrical career. From a childhood in rural Montana, to Broadway, to training with Marcel Marceau, Bowers says, It Goes Without Saying, tells a funny and touching story of the important role that silence plays both on stage and in life.  Go to full article

May 06, 2013 — Kim and Reggie Harris will bring their music and stories of the Underground Railroad and the modern civil rights movement to Saranac Lake tonight and tomorrow. The duo combine a strong folk and gospel legacy along with a solid background in classic, rock and pop music.

They'll perform songs of peace and freedom tonight, 7:30 pm, at Saranac Village at Will Rogers, and use their music to teach students at Saranac Lake Central School more about Harriet Tubman and Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior. Reggis Harris told Todd Moe that their music is meant to entertain and inspire.  Go to full article

Potsdam, NY, May 03, 2013 — The single most important day in the Orthodox calendar - Easter, or Pascha, is this Sunday. Many Orthodox churches base their holiest days on the Julian calendar, rather than the Gregorian calendar.

Historically, Orthodox communities in the United States have been defined largely by ethnicity and found mostly in urban areas. But a group of Orthodox Christians in the Canton-Potsdam area has created a mission that brings diverse groups together. They don't have a permanent worship space, sometimes share priests with the Greek Orthodox Church in Watertown, and even visit a small monastery in Ontario. Their membership includes students, families and seniors. This Sunday will mark the group's first Easter service, or Great Vespers, and a meal of festive foods.  Go to full article

Watertown, NY, May 02, 2013 — The Sackets Harbor Vocal Arts Ensemble will pay tribute, through song, to the 272 Fort Drum soldiers who died in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last decade. The choir will perform its Remembering the Fallen concert on Sunday, 3 pm, at Trinity Espiscopal Church in Watertown. The concert will feature soloists Diana Gamet and Phillip Addis.

Todd Moe spoke with Richard Probert, director and founder of the choral group, about performing Brahm's "Requiem" and Vaughan Williams' "Dona, Nobis, Pacem." Probert says Vaughan Williams, a soldier in World War One, used the poetry of Walt Whitman.  Go to full article

Lowville, NY, May 01, 2013 — World-renowned soprano Lisa Vroman took a break from concerts and musical tours to return to her native North Country this spring.

Vroman, who grew up in Adams, just south of Watertown, and graduated from SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music, hosted a workshop for dozens of young singers in Lewis and Jefferson counties. The students auditioned before a panel of judges, including Vroman, in an event dubbed "Broadway Idol."

Some of the top students got an opportunity to sing on stage with Vroman at Lowville Academy as part of the Black River Valley Concert Series. Competition aside, for many of the students it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to meet a Broadway star with local roots.  Go to full article

Apr 30, 2013 — An anti-bullying organization will use a play written by a St. Lawrence University theater professor as part of its "peaceful schools" tour this spring.

SLU Associate Professor of Performance and Communication Arts Ann Marie Gardinier Halstead, is the author of the one-act play, Have you Filled a Bucket Today?. She says schools and parents seem eager to use the arts and creative ways to address bullying in schools.

Based on Carol McCloud's popular children's book of the same name, the play also emphasizes that bullying is wrong. The organization, Peaceful Schools, will perform the play at schools in northern and central New York throughout the 2013-2014 school year.

Halstead told Todd Moe that she first heard about McCloud's book at a meeting at her son's school, and was thrilled when McCloud gave her permission to adapt it as a play.  Go to full article