PREVIEW: Zankel Concert Series presents Flore Laurentienne
11/08 at Arthur Zankel Music Center at Skidmore, Saratoga Springs
“There aren’t many places in the Capital where you can see a full orchestra, a harpist, and an exiled Tibetan nomad all in the same performance calendar…”
It’s no secret the sheer quantity of live music performances the Capital Region has to offer on a weekly basis. But what very well might be a secret is the eclectic nature of some of these performances.
One of the hidden gems this Fall has taken place at the Arthur Zankel Music Center at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs. The venue’s mission is to provide a vibrant and inclusive space for musical exploration and performance, and boy have they succeeded this year, introducing two new unique series. The film-based SUSTAIN was a curated slate of documentaries that provided insights into influential musicians, filmed across the globe. SURROUND was a slate of intimate performances where the audience was seated right on stage with the artist, making for a powerful night of storytelling and music. Both are expected to return in the Spring.
Tenzin Choegyal at Zankel’s SURROUND series. Photo by Kiki Vassilakis.
Tomorrow night, Zankel is presenting Flore Laurentienne, a Canadian instrumental project led by composer Mathieu David Gagnon. His vast orchestral arrangements performed through string sections and analog synths are sure to fill the acoustically rich venue, providing audience members with a memorable, atypical performance.
Gagnon is said to challenge himself to extract beauty from simplicity in homage to the changing faces of natural landscapes. He does so through the vivid instrumentation of a 15-piece string orchestra, along with an array of 1960s and 1970s synthesizers. It’s an innately ambitious project which forges the composer’s distinctive path in the expansion of classical music archetypes.
The Arthur Zankel Music Center has been broadening our artistic horizons all season long, and tomorrow’s performance is sure to be no different. There aren’t many places in the Capital where you can see a full orchestra, a harpist, and an exiled Tibetan nomad all in the same performance calendar so if you haven’t had a chance to enjoy one of these shows yet this year, be sure to keep an eye out for their Spring 2025 lineup announcement.
Tickets are still available for tomorrow night’s Flore Laurentienne performance, and they can be purchased by visiting https://www.tix.com/ticket-sales/zankel/7074/event/1390018. For more information on the Zankel performance series, click here.
