Happening This Weekend

This Saturday, July 30, the Hudson Festival Orchestra (HFO) presents Hudson in Concert: A Community Celebration.

The free event takes place from 4:00 to 9:00 p.m. in Henry Hudson Riverfront Park. Gwen Gould, founder and artistic director of HFO, says of the event, "I believe that music and culture can bridge divides and build community. I envision this as an annual musical event bringing area residents together through a live musical celebration of our shared American and diverse cultural heritages in a glorious natural setting on the Hudson River!"

The program for the afternoon and evening is in two parts. At 4:00 p.m., there will be "Opening Acts" in the gazebo, which will include: 

• Trio Candela playing lively traditional Latin music from around world
• Bangladeshi Songs sung by Haroon and Valina Rashid
• Tony Kieraldo, pianist and composer, performing his Hudson Ragtime Piano Suite

At 7:00 p.m., the Hudson Festival Orchestra takes center stage, performing under a large tent on the lawn. A full professional orchestra of fifty-five players and several guest artists will perform such cultural favorites as American hoedown, gospel, Latin music, Cuban danzon, Argentine tango, ragtime, Indian classical music, and more. Concert goers are invited to bring a drum or hand instrument and join a rousing community drum circle led by Kuumba Dance & Drum Academy/Operation Unite to provide a dramatic introduction to the orchestra's opening selection: Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man."

During the intermission, children are invited to join "The Teddy Bears' Picnic" parade, following a larger-than-life teddy bear (a brave volunteer in a bear costume) to a picnic blanket where there will be treats for all.

To express solidarity with Ukraine, the second half of the concert will begin with the Ukrainian National Anthem. Click here to see the entire program for Saturday's Hudson in Concert event.  

The Hudson Festival Orchestra is supported in part by CREATE Council on the Arts, Alexander & Marjorie Hover Foundation, Bank of Greene County Charitable Foundation, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Broadway Cares, Churchtown Dairy, Columbia County Tourism, Columbia Memorial Hospital, Francis Greenburger Charitable Fund, HRBT Foundation, Hudson Business Coalition, Hudson Hall, J. M. Kaplan Fund, The Spark of Hudson, and corporate and individual donors from across the region.