Arts Features

Conductor Dr. Rachel Waddell describes music as a “performing tool to bring people together.” She views her work with the orchestras at the University of Rochester’s River Campus as a chance to have people challenge themselves, and society.  

The death of singer Aretha Franklin has touched a lot of people including a Rochester musician who actually played with her.  Herb Smith plays trumpet both with the RPO and with his own jazz trio. He is also an adjunct professor at RIT and is conductor of the RIT Jazz Ensembles.

Mike Gilbert is holding a cup of coffee in one hand and picking up trash with the other when I pull up to Schiller Park.

His company 5Linx, just moved across the street to the Harro East building, and Gilbert noticed the park had been what he calls "forgotten."

Eight years ago, Jessica Marten – Curator in Charge/Curator of American Art at Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery – was poking around among the paintings in a museum storage space when a small piece caught her eye.

It was many things. The artist’s medium, egg tempera and gold leaf, suggested medieval paintings, and the illuminated manuscripts of monks. The extensive use of borders is what might be seen on a tapestry. And the central figure looked like an image from Frida Kahlo: A woman in pain, clutching her head. Her eyes are bleeding.

What some may have once written off as a pipe dream is about to get real for a small western New York city.

Wednesday, August 1 is the grand opening of the National Comedy Center in Jamestown. The $50 million high tech venue has been years in the making.  It was inspired by hometown hero and comedy legend Lucille Ball.

Puzzle historian Anne Williams says jigsaw puzzles not only provide a low tech alternative to screen time, they allow people to create order out of chaos at a time when some may feel a lack of control over other parts of their lives.

Over 100 wooden jigsaw puzzle collectors and enthusiasts from around the U.S. will gather in Rochester over the next few days for a Puzzle Parley.

The Corn Hill Arts Festival is this coming weekend and it marks a milestone. 

It's the 50th year of the event.

Its humble beginning was August 23, 1969. The neighborhood wasn't even known as Corn Hill back then; it was Rochester's Old Third Ward, once one of the city's wealthiest neighborhoods.

In the summer of 1969, it was the target of Urban Renewal efforts. Nine hundred homes had already been demolished.