High School Matinees
Performances that relate to school curriculum
2022-23 Performances for H.S. Student Groups
Legacy + Lineage + Liberation - Sept. 21
Described by THE NEW YORK TIMES as “...triple-threat performers who dance, sing and act with a sometimes searing sense of truthfulness,” Urban Bush Women is a groundbreaking ensemble seeking to bring untold and under-told histories and stories to light through dance.
Tacones y Manos Calientes - Sept. 29 & 30
Strumming guitar, clicking castanets and stomping feet! In celebration of National Hispanic Heritage month, virtuoso guitarist Maria Zemantauski performs from her rhythmically driven repertoire. She is joined by “La Nina,” a native of Colombia who studied flamenco in Spain.
Life Hacks: Classical Music Edition - Oct. 25
Join the Capital Trio in an exploration of the different tools in the classical composer’s toolbox for creating music that moves from joyful to desperate to exhilarated to lost, all while maintaining motivic unity and cohesion in classical forms.
The Latehomecomer - Nov. 4
This Literature to Life stage adaptation of Kao Kalia Yang’s memoir of the same name begins with her birth in the Ban Vinai Refugee camp in Thailand and eventual emigration to the United States.
ChoreoPhysics - Nov. 9
This program is the product of a collaboration between an artist and a scientist. For an entire semester, Professor Keith Earle of the UAlbany Physics Department and choreographer Ellen Sinopoli focused on a communion of the arts and sciences studying side by side the principles of physics and modern dance.
a lover letter to Brian, Lesley, and Michelle - Feb. 8 & 9
This immersive film uses dance, theatre and text to further the discussion around #BLACKLIVESMATTER and events pertaining to race relations in America.
White Rabbit, Red Rabbit - March 27
A wild, utterly original play about contemporary Iran is presented to celebrate World Theater Day. Twenty-nine years old and forbidden to leave his country, playwright Nassim Soleimanpour distills the experience of an entire generation born amidst the hardship of the Iran-Iraq war.
Pang! - April 20 & 21
Based on the oral histories of working-class families living below the poverty level and hungering for change, this triptych of live radio plays explores the challenges of contemporary life in America – from hunger to gun violence to foreclosure to anti-immigrant bias.
Reservations and Other Information
- For 22-23, admission is free to all performances and reservations are required. To make a reservation for your school group or for additional details, contact Kim Engel at 518-442-5738 or [email protected].
- Resource materials are generally available approximately one month in advance of the shows. Directions and bus information are provided upon reservation.
- Guided campus, Performing Arts Center and Art Museum tours as well as other activities like departmental meetings, class observations and lunch in the Campus Center are possible when your group is on campus. More information will be provided with your reservation.
- Home school students and parents are welcome.
Past High School Matinee Performances
The City Without Jews
The screening of this 1924 silent film by Austrian director H.K. Breslauer is accompanied with live original music composed and performed by world-renowned klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals and celebrated silent film pianist Donald Sosin. Based on the dystopian book by Hugo Bettauer, it is a chilling premonition of the Holocaust.
Flamenco Vivo
In celebration of National Hispanic Heritage month, America’s premier Spanish dance company presents Tablao Flamenco, a highly improvisational program offering an up-close opportunity to experience the dynamic interplay between flamenco song and dance.
Blind Visionaries
Exploring the nature of sight and blindness, light and dark…and what it means to truly see, this multi-disciplinary program features images created by the blind and visually impaired photographers of the Seeing with Photography Collective and original jazz music performed live by the Daniel Kelly Trio.
Snapshot of America 2022
The Copland Ensemble performs a program of works by women, people of color and young composers featuring selections by Dvorak, Gershwin, Scott Lee and Florence Price. Performing on a wide range of instrumentation, the ensemble is comprised of faculty and graduate students from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College.
ChoreoPhysics
This program is the product of a collaboration between an artist and a scientist. For an entire semester, Professor Keith Earle of the UAlbany Physics Department and choreographer Ellen Sinopoli focused on a communion of the arts and sciences studying side by side the principles of physics and modern dance.