Arts Features

Looks like we won't have live in-person concerts for a bit, so we'll bring some performances to you, with a series called HomeStage.

Jeff Spevak presents Rochester Music Hall of Famer John Dady. We'll have more performances for you by Rochester's talented musicians from the most intimate stage of all...their homes! 

The producers of the CGI Rochester International Jazz Festival announced Thursday afternoon that the event’s June dates are being canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, but they left open the door for a rescheduling in the fall of this year.

"In the past two weeks since we announced our 2020 festival lineup, our world has been turned upside down,” co-producers John Nugent and Marc Iacona said in a press release. “The health crisis we are experiencing has resulted in significant loss of life and illness, growing fear, and unprecedented disruption in all aspects of our lives.”

Dr. David Munson points to an empty stretch of wall near the ceiling in his seventh-floor office on the campus of Rochester Institute of Technology.

“Yeah,” he says, “we still have some shadows of banjos up on the wall there.”

Indeed, the vague outlines of banjos — perhaps it is dust out of reach of the custodians — can be discerned on the wall of the university president’s office, nearly three years after Munson moved in. The banjos belonged to RIT’s former president, Bill Destler, who played the instrument, and owned hundreds of them.

Country star Tim McGraw is the latest show to be added to the summer outdoor concert season. He’ll be joined by Midlands and Ingrid Andress for a 7 p.m. July 30 show at Constellation Brands-Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center.

Tickets (the prices have not yet been announced) go on sale at 10 a.m. March 6 at ticketmaster.com.

The summer concert season forecast includes a Norah Jones Confluence for western New York. The Rochester area will have two opportunities to see the jazzy pop singer this summer, in different configurations. 

And as they’re potentially competing for the same audience, the promoters of both events aren’t giving the other a jump start on tickets; both shows go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday.

Comedians Steve Martin and Martin Short is the latest show to be announced for the Constellation Brands-Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center.

Billed in typically self-deprecating fashion as “The Funniest Show In Town At The Moment,” they have an 8 p.m. Aug. 29 gig at the outdoor venue near Canandaigua.

The Gateways Music Festival is dragging classical music into the 21st century. 

On Monday, organizers of the event designed to create exposure for classical musicians of black or African descent will announce three significant changes to the 26-year-old festival.

What’s old is new again, at least when it comes to The Little Theatre in Rochester. 

The iconic main theater  officially reopened on Friday after the most recent phase of renovations.

The building dates back to 1929, and the upgrades that have been undertaken over the last few years include a more spacious front lobby and concession area and improvements in the building’s accessibility.

Two questions into this phone interview, where Joe Pug is at his home in Maryland, he's called away to an emergency.

"I have to go poopy."

A few minutes later, 3-year-old Rudy's all squared away and has settled in front of the television for some cartoons.

Poopy. "That's the stay-at-home dad life," Joe Pug says. "When I'm not on the road, I'm at home with my kids."

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