Arts

Peace Amidst War In Opera At Glimmerglass Festival

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ROCHESTER, NY (WXXI) – Cooperstown, New York means one thing to baseball fans  – the Hall of Fame, And another thing to opera fans – The Glimmerglass Festival, held every summer.

Arts

The Cooperstown Summer Music Fest Presents its First Concert of the Season

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Cooperstown Summer Music Fest Artistic Director Linda Chesis joins us to talk about the first concert of the season, taking place at the Otesaga in Cooperstown.  The American String Quartet performs Franz Schubert’s famous “Death and the Maiden” Quartet, Claude Debussy’s String Quartet in g minor, and Linda Chesis joins them as flutist in ‘Poem’ by Elmira-born composer Charles Tomlinson Griffes.  

Photo credit: Peter Schaaf

Arts

The Jasper String Quartet Presents Three Concerts this Weekend

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The Cooperstown Summer Music Festival welcomes the Jasper String Quartet for a series of three concerts: August 4 in Christ Church, August 5 in Templeton Hall, and August 6 in the Otesaga Resort Hotel.  We hear from the quartet’s violist, Sam Quintal, who took a break from his drive to perform a concert, in order to chat with us via Skype. http://wskg.org/audio/jasper.mp3

 

Photo credit: Vanessa Briceno-Scherzer for the Jasper String Quartet

Arts

Glimmerglass Film Days Present 'Against the Odds'

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Glimmerglass Film Days present its annual film festival.  This year the theme is ‘Against the Odds’.  The films, curated by Margaret Parsons, founder and director of the award-winning film program at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C, show a range of uplifting films about human resilience in the face of overwhelming challenges. We hear from Margaret Parsons about these lives through a lens. http://wskg.org/audio/parsonsmix.mp3

 

Photo credit: PeterTea via Flickr

 

 

Arts

Glimmerglass Film Days Present ‘Against the Odds’

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Glimmerglass Film Days present its annual film festival.  This year the theme is ‘Against the Odds’.  The films, curated by Margaret Parsons, founder and director of the award-winning film program at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C, show a range of uplifting films about human resilience in the face of overwhelming challenges. We hear from Margaret Parsons about these lives through a lens. http://wskg.org/audio/parsonsmix.mp3

 

Photo credit: PeterTea via Flickr

 

 

Arts

Correspondence Between A. Burr and A. Ham On Display In Cooperstown

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Thanks to a little Broadway show, one of the most talked about founding fathers these days is Alexander Hamilton. The Fenimore Art Museum is helping encourage this interest in American history with a new exhibition, Hamilton’s Final Act, which displays the letters between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton that led to their final, fatal encounter. Chris Rossi, curator at the Fenimore, spoke with Crystal Sarakas about the exhibition. The exhibition is on display until December 31 at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, NY.  

Photo: John Turnbull, National Historical Archives

Arts

'Beauty Flat Out' Displays Paintings of Chinese Ceramics.

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The Art Garage, just outside of Cooperstown, is presenting ‘Beauty Flat Out’.  The exhibit features works by Diana Cook, a decorative painter originally from D.C. who creates quilt-like artworks piecing together patinaed copper elements, among others. There is also an elegant new body of work from Gary Bower: works on paper with iconic Chinese vases. Mr. Bower tells us how his exploration of Chinese pottery and his association with a potter led him in a new direction.  We also hear from Sydney Waller, who founded the Art Garage. http://wskg.org/audio/garybowermix.mp3

 

Photo credit: Art Garage

Arts

Summer is Coming Early to Cooperstown

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The Cooperstown Summer Music Festival is presenting the American String Quartet in a program including music by Beethoven and Ravel.  The festival’s artistic director, flutist Linda Chesis, joins them for a rarely performed work by Albert Roussel.  

 

Photo credit: Peter Schaaf for the American String Quartet

Arts

The Early Works Of Ansel Adams Are Highlighted In Cooperstown

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Ansel Adams’ black and white photographs captured the American West with a level of sharpness and detail that seems far advanced for his time. Now, a collection of his early works will be shown at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown. Michelle Murdock, Director of Exhibitions at the Fenimore Art Museum, spoke with Crystal Sarakas about Ansel Adams and his legacy. Ansel Adams: Early Works opens April 1 at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown. It will be on display until September 18.

Arts

Louis Sherry creates fantastical sculptures with wood

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Farmer and Korean War veteran Louis Sherry makes bird houses, but they are much more than bird houses.  Each is a one-of-a-kind free-form explosion of color.  Sherry talks about how his sculptures take shape, and Sydney Waller of the Art Garage describes how exciting it was to discover his work. http://wskg.org/audio/sherrymix.mp3

 

Photo courtesy Richard Walker

 

History

Cooperstown | Town Spotlight | Harvest

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Cooperstown, New York sits along the pristine water of Otsego Lake and is surrounded by the rolling and heavily wooded hills of Otsego County. The headwaters of the Susquehanna River begin here, and the river flows southward through New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland before emptying into the Chesapeake Bay. Today, the village is best known as the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, but Cooperstown is also home to a number of other museums and historic locations including the  Fenimore Art Museum, the Glimmerglass Opera, and the  Farmers’ Museum. In fact the village is full of historic buildings tied to its early agricultural beginnings. The Revolution
During the American Revolution, the area was still a vast wilderness.

Arts

Cooperstown hosts a festival of independent films

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Glimmerglass Film Days presents a festival of independent films, Sacred Places, at various venues.  Film curator Peggy Parsons talks about the unifying theme of the festival and the many hosting venues where these wide-ranging films can be seen. http://wskg.org/audio/FILMDAYSFINAL.mp3

 

Photo provided

History

A Peaceful Detour in Cooperstown

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On a cloudy day this past July I found myself on a film shoot at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. As I made my way back to the car along a tree-lined street only a block from the Hall of Fame, I took a planned detour into a small inconspicuous cemetery. For most of the morning throngs of tourists and a cacophony of noise had surrounded me. However, within the peaceful grounds of Christ Church Episcopal Cemetery, my only companions were a few of Cooperstown’s more important historical figures. The quaint cemetery is the final resting place of both William Cooper and his son James Fenimore Cooper.

History

James "Deacon" White

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James “Deacon” White was born in Canton, NY in 1847. On May 4, 1871, White had the first hit during the first at bat in the first all professional major league baseball game. He is considered to be one of the greatest catchers during the era when baseball became America’s pastime. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013. Learn more about White, including how he got the nickname “Deacon,” in this conversation between WSKG’s Sarah Gager and Shane Johnson.

Arts

January 8, 2015 | The David Wax Museum plays in Cooperstown; Robert Rogers Puppet Theatre; Connor Garvey in Oxford

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The David Wax Museum appears in Cooperstown this weekend. Robert Rogers Puppet Theatre presents Cinderella in the Wild West at the Schorr Family Firehouse Stage. Singer/songwriter Connor Garvey performs at 6 On the Square in Oxford. https://youtu.be/w9zhaqp4l7k

History

Hyde Hall

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Hyde Hall, located near Cooperstown, NY, is considered one of the finest examples of a neoclassic country mansion in the United States. George Clarke (1768-1835), a prominent and wealthy landowner, modeled his home after the great estates of England. Construction began in 1817, and it took almost 17 years to complete the sprawling mansion complex. Hyde Hall was home to five generations of the Clark family, however by the the mid-1900s, the mansion and outbuildings had fallen into disrepair. The Friends of Hyde Hall, now Hyde Hall Inc., formed in 1964 to help restore and preserve the house.

Arts

From a Turkey Farm to Glimmerglass

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Just north of the busy streets of Cooperstown stands the world-class opera house Glimmerglass Festival.  Behind Glimmerglass curtains unfolds the extraordinary story of a committed community of musicians, artists, educators and performers, whose efforts helped transform a turkey farm into one of the most celebrated opera houses in the world.  The opera presents an annual season along the banks of the magnificent Otsego Lake, which contributes to an unforgettable experience, not only brought by the music emanating from its concert hall, but also by the breathtaking beauty of its surroundings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PCNNKlbRlA
In this segment of Arts and Culture Shorts, WSKG’s Tina Reinhard interviews Glimmerglass Artistic Director Francesca Zambello who explains the reasons behind its diversity in programming.