At just $20 for the entire family, the following upcoming events at the Hudson Opera House promise to be delightful entertainment bargains.
Music From China
The Hudson Opera House presents an afternoon of music by Music From China, a New York-based ensemble that specializes in both traditional and contemporary Chinese music, on Sunday, May 30, at 2:00 p.m. This interactive family performance will delight and enchant participants of all ages.
Tickets for the performance are $7 per person or $20 for the entire family. Past appearances have been sold out; reservations are strongly recommended.
Music From China is an extraordinary musical ensemble that invokes the delicacy and power of both traditional and contemporary Chinese music. Through their music, audiences can discover the sights and sounds of “silk strings and bamboo winds” with fiddles, lutes, plucked zithers, bamboo flutes, reeded mouth organs, and hammered dulcimers and step back in time for several millennia and hear the ancient sounds of the sheng and the pipa, or listen to the compelling music of the erhu. The percussive strength of drums, gongs, cymbals, and woodblocks summon the spirits of ancient music and invoke the vitality of folk music and traditional opera.
Based in New York City, this world-class ensemble introduces audiences to the best of Chinese music both past and present. Music From China was founded in 1984 by Executive Director Susan Cheng and performs for audiences throughout the east coast and cities across the U.S. Some of Music From China’s presenters include the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College, 92nd Street Y, Longwood Gardens, Princeton University, Eastman School of Music, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Duke University, Chautauqua Institution, Freer Gallery of Art with Yo-Yo Ma, Boston Early Music Festival, and the Library of Congress. In past years, they have performed at the Opera House to great acclaim.
Music From China collaborates with composers to develop new works that expand the boundaries of traditional Chinese music. Their annual Premiere Works series at Merkin Concert Hall has presented the music of composers such as Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Bun-Ching Lam, Dorothy Chang, and James Mobberley, as well as countless other works by emerging composers. They are the first Chinese organization to receive an Adventurous Programming award from Chamber Music America and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) for creating unique programs that combine eastern and western music.
Rock On with Uncle Rock
The Hudson Opera House presents a family performance with Uncle Rock on Saturday, June 5 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $7 per person or $20 for the entire family! His interactive family performance will have everyone dancing. Fun for the whole family! After the performance, get your photo taken with Uncle Rock thanks to the great folks at I Smile Studios. Proceeds from the Uncle Rock photo shoot benefit HOH’s community youth programs.
Inspired by American favorites like the Ramones, Neil Young, and Johnny Cash, Uncle Rock (aka Robert Burke Warren) uses music as a means of bringing folks young and old together. Uncle Rock draws inspiration from Maurice Sendak, The Beatles, Woody Guthrie and Shel Silverstein, taking his acoustic “rock of all ages” to clubs, libraries, bookstores, schools, and theaters.
Many of the catchy, rhythmically propulsive songs were born at his day job as a teacher’s assistant for preschoolers, where he landed after four years as a stay-at-home dad. Uncle Rock delivers plenty of celebratory, goofy singalongs, but the material doesn’t shy away from shadowy elements of life, often showing how music can help one to face the dragon in the closet.
Uncle Rock’s CDs of family music have won critical praise from The L.A.Times, The New York Times, and Cookie Magazine, to name a few. He has been in the Top 10 of Sirius Satellite Radio’s Kids Stuff and Pandora Internet Radio.
Before being dubbed “Uncle Rock” by his nephew, he went by his given name of Robert Burke Warren, playing bass in many rock and roll bands, including international garage rock titans The Fleshtones. He also spent a year portraying Buddy Holly in Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story in London’s West End, and soon thereafter released an acclaimed debut CD …to this day, cited by The World Cafe’s David Dye as “a gem of an album.” This led to co-writing with Rosanne Cash on her Grammy-nominated CD Rules Of Travel. Yet Uncle Rock is far and away the most fun he’s ever had.
Uncle Rock is a former globe-trotting bass player, stay-at-home dad, and preschool teacher whose rockin’ family music has won raves from parents, kids, and press alike.
For further information about either event, please call the Opera House at (518) 822-1438 or visit the website at www.hudsonoperahouse.org. The Hudson Opera House is located at 327 Warren Street, Hudson, NY.
