Inside Chappaqua and Inside Armonk: The Magazines for New and North Castle

This Weekend: Chappaqua Performing Arts Center Kicks Off Inaugural Season 9/23

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Opening Night Features Acclaimed Jazz Vocalist CYRILLE AIMÉE Performance and Love Art Gallery Exhibit / Reception Saturday September 23

CHAPPAQUA, NY –  Westchester County’s new hidden treasure, Chappaqua Performing Arts Center, is finally ready to officially open its doors this weekend.

The inaugural season kicks off Saturday, September 23 with an opening night concert by the acclaimed jazz vocalist CYRILLE AIMÉE at 8:00pm. Tickets are $25-$75 are available in advance at Ticketmaster.com, by calling 1-800-745-3000 and in person on the night of the show in the lobby box office.

Patrons are encouraged to arrive early to enjoy an entire evening of rich artistic experiences. Chappaqua Performing Arts Center has partnered with the LOVE ART Gallery to present a pop-up exhibition and reception entitled “Art for Positive Social Change” taking place in the lobby of ChappPAC from 4:00 to 7:00pm. The exhibition will feature a group of twelve artists from Connecticut and New York sharing a cross section of works focusing on social issues from race, to feminism to politics.

Described as “one of the most promising jazz singers of her generation” by the Wall Street Journal, CYRILLE AIMÉE is a vocalist with French and Dominican roots who fell in love with gypsy music and its culture heritage at an early age. Aimée grew up in Samois-sur-Seine, France – a village best known as the home of gypsy guitar icon Django Reinhardt – and its little wonder that its legacy resonates throughout her performances and recordings. In recent years Aimée has toured and recorded in a variety of ensembles configurations, among them, various duet projects with  Brazilian guitarist Diego Figueiredo. Her rich hybrid of influences has resulted in an award-winning vocal style that incorporates gypsy swing with Brazilian rhythms and melodies into well-known standards and original compositions that led the New York Times to proclaim, “No other young artist gives me hope for the future like Cyrille Aimée, the brilliantly inventive jazz vocal prodigy.”

Located on the former campus of Reader’s Digest in a building once known as the Wallace Auditorium, the 425-seat Chappaqua Performing Arts Center — or ChappPAC for short – was recently saved from demolition and established to provide a blend of local and national arts and cultural programming for people throughout Westchester County and the region.

2017 CHAPPAQUA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER FALL SEASON LINE UP
9/23 Cyrille Aimee (Jazz)
10/8 Tim Kubart & The Space Cadets (Children)
10/14 So Percussion (Classical)
10/20 Soulshine: An Allman Brothers Experience (Rock)
10/27 Rocky Horror Picture Show (Film)
10/28 Echos of Sinatra (Swing)
11/2 Matt Schofield (Blues)
11/11 The Greatest Pirate Story (N)ever Told! (Children)
12/1 What Fresh Hell Live! (Spoken Word)
12/9 Ragtag Theatre’s Cinderella (Children)
12/17 ELF (Film)

The Chappaqua Performing Arts Center is located at 480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua, NY 10514 just inside the gate on the former Reader’s Digest campus.

Tickets can be purchased online at Ticketmaster.com or by calling 1-800-745-3000

For additional information, visit www.ChappaquaPAC.org or call 914-458-5143

Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChappaquaPerformingArtsCenter/

Musical Duo: The Kennedys Set to Grace the Stage at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center

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For more than two decades, husband and wife team Pete and Maura Kennedy have performed on stages in the U.S. and the U.K., as a folk/pop duo and as members of Nanci Griffith’s Blue Moon Orchestra. Now for the first time ever the show will be one of the inaugural events in a special benefit concert at the new Chappaqua Performing Arts Center (ChappPAC), formerly known as the Wallace Auditorium on the Reader’s Digest campus. The benefit concert titled “Life is Large” at 8 p.m. on Friday, September 22 will raise funds for the Axial Theater, a professional theater company founded in 1999 that is a member of the Westchester Arts Organization. Axial Theater presents contemporary theatrical hits, timeless stage classics and original works in addition to hosting a bi-monthly Sunday Writers Series for play development.

The Kennedys have released over a dozen CDs, are longtime core artists on metropolitan New York’s jazz radio station WFUV and were named Artists-in-Residence at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Their original music has been described as uplifting, encouraging and empowering, and their choice of covers is emblematic of their love for the classic songwriting of Buddy Holly, The Beatles and Bob Dylan. Long time New York City residents, they are regulars at the Clearwater Festival in Croton-on Hudson and have played legendary venues including Carnegie Hall, the Beacon Theater and the now defunct Bottom Line.

Tickets for The Kennedys’ Axial Theater benefit are $45 and can be purchased online by searching for “Axial Theater” at brownpapertickets.com. ChappPAC will play host to a variety of cultural events in its inaugural season through December including children’s concerts, jazz performances and family movies.

The Chappaqua Performing Arts Center is located at 480 North Bedford Road. Ample free parking is available.

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Donald Fagen & The Nightflyers at The Capitol Theatre: August 3 & 4!

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Donald Fagen –musician, composer, vocalist, producer, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, and co-founder of Steely Dan and The Dukes of September–has recruited a quartet of young musicians he’s been working with over the past few years to form a new band called the Nightflyers. At an exclusive August 3rd and August 4th performances at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, Fagen and his band are expected to play songs from Donald’s solo albums, Steely Dan hits and as the Rock & Roll Hall Of Famer describes, “some swell surprises.” The Nightflyers features Connor Kennedy (guitar, vocals), Lee Falco (drums, vocals), Brandon Morrison (bass, vocals) and Will Bryant (keyboards, vocals). Visit The Capitol Theatre online for more info about this concern and other programming, and to purchase tickets: http://www.thecapitoltheatre.com/

 

Donald Fagen & The Nightflyers

About The Capitol Theatre:
Designed by celebrated architect Thomas Lamb in 1926 and listed in The National Register of Historic Places, the theatre is located approximately 30 miles from NYC, conveniently accessible by I-95 and only one block from the Port Chester Metro North train station. In its distinguished history, the 1,835-capacity theatre has hosted concerts by the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Derek and the Dominos, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, David Bowie, Santana, Black Sabbath, Iggy Pop, and many more. Following a transformative renovation under the guidance of music entrepreneur Peter Shapiro (Brooklyn Bowl, Wetlands, Relix, U2 3D), the theatre reopened as a rock palace on Sep 4, 2012, with a performance by Bob Dylan and has since hosted everyone from Al Green and My Morning Jacket to Sleigh Bells and Morrissey. The New York Times raved, “a rock theater that looks and sounds as good as the Capitol is something to celebrate,” while Billboard agreed that “the lavishly decorated theater–filled with mirrors, chandeliers and painstakingly restored detail–looks absolutely stunning, and sounds even better.”

 

Tom Petty: Breaking Hearts at Mountain Jam

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By Amanda Kraus

Before the preceding performance began to cease, hundreds of people crowded to the front of the main stage at Mountain Jam, on Hunter Mountain, where Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers would be headlining — I was just one among many. The 45-minute wait time between the performances didn’t seem to faze any of his crazed fans; in fact, we were well lined up at 8:30, an hour and a half before he would take to the stage.

A distinct energy that had permeated the entire day began to condense in the crowd and intensify as his appearance drew nearer and nearer. I looked around: middle-aged women (the original fan girls), older men, entire families, and little children ran the gamut that was his audience. Despite our clear differences in age, origin, and livelihood, it was evident that we all shared a common enthusiasm for the band and their music, which had at one point gripped us all and infatuated us up until this moment.


 

And then it was time. The buzzing crowd erupted into a roar as the group made their way into the spotlight, opening with “Rockin’ Around (With You),” and proceeding to please with a wide variety of songs. When the air wasn’t being filled with a cascade of sultry notes, it saw endless appreciation in the form of applause, screaming, and whistling, to which the smiling Tom Petty expressed his gratitude. He didn’t need to say much; we could all feel it. The enchanting, ethereal scenery of the Catskill Mountains induced the magical feeling that encompassed his performance and the entire weekend. I had seen Tom Petty at The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, where a mass of people distanced me from the stage and the band. At Mountain Jam, you didn’t have to stare up at the huge screens to get a good look at him; the intimate setup allowed anyone to get close to the stage.

Photo by Matt Taylor

At one point in the set, Tom asked the crowd to sing along with him to his next song, which turned out to be the infamous “Free Fallin’.” It was the audience and the band, singing every word together, making music, and an unforgettable two hours. In the middle of the set, Tom welcomed Marty Stuart, who had performed earlier in the day, to the stage to play “Crawling Back to You,” with the rest of the Heartbreakers. There is no doubt that these rock legends got the audience moving and grooving for the entirety of their set — and especially me during my personal favorite, “You Got Lucky.” They closed the show with two encore’s, “You Wreck Me,” and, “American Girl,” leaving the audience fulfilled and elated.

After 40 years, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers still got it. Their music and conspicuous passion on stage enthrall the older and younger generations alike, keeping us coming back for more, time and time again — just as the ski slopes of Hunter Mountain do when they are magically transformed into the peaceful, bewitching festival grounds of Mountain Jam.

Inside Press summer intern Amanda Kraus is a rising junior at Tulane University studying English, Philosophy, and Psychology.

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