Women & Music: Concert & Women's History Talk at the Ten Broeck Mansion

Music returns to Ten Broeck! Join us for music in the Ten Broeck Mansion Parlors, then head outdoors to our gardens at the peak of their summer splendor. Learn about women's creativity in an interdisciplinary program exploring early Albany through a creative lens. Experience an authentic experience of chamber music in a historic parlor setting, then proceed outdoors to the Ten Broeck Mansion gardens for a full concert performance. Free reception with refreshments to follow.

3:30 pm: Talk on women as shapers of culture in early Albany. Held in Ten Broeck Mansion Parlor. Concludes with performance of music by Amy Beach (1867-1944 ). Capacity limited , talk will move through Mansion, very limited seating. Please request in advance.

4:00 pm: Concert on grounds of Ten Broeck Mansion. Bring your own lawn chairs or blankets. Free reception to follow.

Join us for a special afternoon exploration of women, culture, history & music, connecting women's lives in the 19th century to women who are musicians of today.

Theme: "Subject to Change-Improvisational compositions"

Pianist Melinda Faylor and flutist Melanie Chirignan are classically trained musicians who take elements of classical pieces and reimagine them into improvised compositions. Join us for their EP release concert, featuring a music video by videographer Juan Luis Lopez Fons in a multimedia event. Q&A session to follow with the performing artists plus reception with free refreshments.

To make your visit enjoyable and safe for all:
1) Parking: please park in our Livingston Avenue lot (GPS address 138 Livingston Avenue)- free off-street parking. Our historic neighborhood has sidewalks for easy pedestrian access. See our website for information on public transportation.

2) Please bring your own lawn blanket or chairs and set them up before the performance on the grounds of the Ten Broeck Mansion. No chairs are provided.
3) Please wear comfortable shoes for walking on historic, sometimes uneven surfaces (no spike heels). Bags should be smaller than a backpack. Please no touching of historic museum collections during concert or talk.

4) No food or drink (other than water bottles) may be brought to the performance. Refreshments available after the performance. Smoking, vaping, and alcohol consumption are prohibited on the grounds of the Ten Broeck Mansion.

5) Very limited seating available in the Ten Broeck Mansion for those with ADA needs. Please contact us in advance with your request.

6) Advance registration required. Please be sure to cancel your registration if you are not able to attend so others may participate.

7) Your donation to our Education Center Fund is gratefully received to help us build a home for arts & culture at the Ten Broeck Mansion.

In case of rain, entire perfomance will be held in the Ten Broeck Mansion, limited to the first 35 people in attendance. Thank you for your understanding.

About the performing artists:

Flute player Melanie Chirignan is a chamber musician at her core. As a leader in premiering new music, she has been awarded grants from the Schenectady Community Arts Council, the Saratoga Community Arts Council, and the New York Women Composer's Seed Money Grant. She has worked with a multitude of composers, including Alex Ford's "Berus in the Woods" in collaboration with Electric City Puppets and Ralph Raymond Hays’ musicalization of the story "Keller's Heart" by John Gray. She has premiered music by Sean Pallatroni, Kary Contreras Galindo, Joshua Hummel, and made world premiere recordings of music for Masatora Goya's album, Dream Of Sailing, available on ITunes and Amazon; Nolan Stolz's Princess Ka'iulani, released on SCI/ Parma Recordings and "Latinos Ni de Aqui Ni de Alla'' on the Latin Heartbeat Orchestra album, El Regreso. Currently, she is recording an album of flute and guitar music by women composers with guitarist Scott Hill. As a member of the wind quintet Quintocracy, she premiered music for silent films and presented a program of music by women composers at SUNY PAC. Melanie has collaborated extensively with Stringwynde, jazz bass legend Nat Reeves, traditional Irish harpist Hailey Hewitt, Philadelphia Fife and Drum Corps, guitarist Oren Fader, pianist Max Caplan, and Alturas Duo. She has performed with: the New York Chamber Players Orchestra, Albany Pro Musica, Octavo Chamber Orchestra, Glens Falls Symphony Orchestra, Garden State Philharmonic, the Chelsea Symphony, Gateway Classical Music Society, S.E.M. Ensemble, and Hartt Independent Chamber Orchestra. As a soloist, Melanie has been featured with the Chelsea Symphony. A teaching artist at heart, she earned her Bachelor of Arts in music performance and music education, graduating magna cum laude from SUNY Fredonia and holds a Master of Music in flute performance from the Hartt School. She has taught general music, chorus and orchestra to students ranging from elementary school to conservatory and college. She was an adjunct faculty member at the College of Saint Rose and maintains a busy private teaching studio in Schenectady, NY. She is an artist in residence at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall.

www.MelanieChirignan.org
Melinda Faylor, a native of New York City, received her BM from the Oberlin Conservatory and her MM in piano performance from the Manhattan School of Music. She has worked extensively with electronics and has performed original electroacoustic music at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, Hofstra University (NY), the Performance Garage (PA), the Firehouse Space (NY), Spectrum (NY), Grounds for Sculpture (NJ), Andrea Clearfield’s Salon (PA), the Home Audio series (NY), the Park Church Co-op (NY), the Brooklyn Public Library and the North Brooklyn Arts Festival. In 2018 Ms. Faylor was an artist in residence at the Cannery in South Penobscot, ME for work on her Kulintang, piano and electronics project. Ms Faylor has travelled throughout Australia and South East Asia: to study Gamelan in Bali, and to perform concerts in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. She has been a member of Cultures in Harmony, a NY based NPO that encourages cultural dialogue across boundaries through the use of music. She has travelled with CIH to the Philippines to give master classes and concerts at several institutions including the Cultural Center of the Philippines. As a collaborative artist, Ms. Faylor has worked extensively with dance. Her long time interest in John Cage, in particular his aleatoric practices, led her to co-create several scores for music and dance with Loren Groenendaal and the Vervet Dance Company of Philadelphia, PA. As a chamber musician, Ms. Faylor has performed with the Mimesis Ensemble, Ensemble 212, Tenth Intervention, the Curiosity Cabinet, and for composers Joe Diebes, Sugar Vendil and Charles Waters. She has performed the interdisciplinary work of others at the NYC International Fringe Festival, the Great Hall at Cooper Union, National Sawdust, the Stone, the Stone at the New School, Knockdown Center, the Joyce Theater, Dixon Place, Roulette, Issue Project Room, and the Target Margin Theater. In addition to her work as performer/composer, Ms Faylor has produced and co-produced several concert series, including Semi-Composed: Metamorphosis (2017) with the Vervet Dance Company; Burning Pianos: the Firehouse Space Two Piano Festival (2014); Get Your Gamel-on! with pianist Manon Hutton-DeWys (2011-2012) and a NYC-wide John Cage festival in honor of the composer’s Centennial (2012). She has been featured on the Airborne Event on WFMU, alongside percussionist and collaborator Frederick Trumpy, for their work on reviving the John Cage radio play The City Wears a Slouch Hat. Additional radio segments include appearances on DZFE (Manilla, Philippines) and 3MBS (Melbourne, Australia).Current projects include a solo electroacoustic album, her interdisciplinary theater piece MeMeMeMe, and a setting of Christina Newhard’s Sari Sari Storybooks collection (Filipino children’s books) to music. MeMeMeMe is a series of generative performances in four parts, building upon experiments with meme and emoji language through parlor games and emoji tarot card divination. Ms Faylor is the pianist for the Garden Players in Forest Hills, Queens.

melindafaylor.com

Arts Thrive and Grow has been funded by New York State, Kathy Hochul, Governor. We thank Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins for her extraordinary commitment and leadership, and our elected officials who represent our grantmaking region: Senators Jake Ashby and Neil D. Breslin; Assemblymembers Scott H. Bendett, Patricia Fahy, John T. McDonald III, Angelo Santabarbara, Phil Steck, and Mary Beth Walsh.

Free educational programs made possible in part with funding by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and : thank you.

Images below: Melanie Chirignan and Melinda Faylor, courtesy of the artists.

Hester Van Zandt Hanford (1806-1826) by Samuel Lovett Waldo (1783-1861). Loan courtesy of the Albany Institute of History and Art.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Albany County Historical Association, 9 Ten Broeck Place, Albany, United States