Upbeat on the Roof Returns July 11
Tang’s popular summer concert series invites music lovers to picnic on the lawn
SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY — The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College announces the twenty-third season of its popular summer concert series, Upbeat on the Roof, which will run each Thursday from July 11 through August 15. Also returning this season are art-making activity kits for kids, called Crafts on the Grass.
The musical acts this season include returning favorites, rising stars, and award-winners of the vibrant Capital Region music scene, as well as a new collaboration with The Orchard Project, a theater and performance incubator in residence at Skidmore. Visitors are invited to bring blankets, camping chairs, food, and drink to picnic on the lawn. Craft kits will be available at 5:30 pm; concerts begin at 6 pm.
The Lineup
July 11: Future of Broadway — Contemporary showtunes from works-in-progress, presented in conjunction with The Orchard Project
July 18: Great Mutations — Indie rock
July 25: Dust Bowl Faeries — Dark cabaret
August 1: Drank the Gold — Contemporary traditional Irish and American tunes
August 8: Dan Carr and the Cure for Asthma — Indie rock
August 15: Reese Fulmer & The Carriage House Band — Americana
Before each concert, Tang museum educators will offer Crafts on the Grass: art-making kits for kids starting at 5:30 pm. A different kit with a craft project will be available each week. All projects are suitable for children aged 5 and up, with adult supervision. Materials will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.
The Tang galleries will be open before and after the concerts. In the case of inclement weather, the art-making activities and concerts will be held inside the museum.
Admission is free. For more information, please call the Visitors Services Desk at 518-580-8080 or visit https://tang.skidmore.edu/visit.
About the Performers
July 11: Future of Broadway
The Orchard Project’s summer residency at Skidmore College includes nurturing new works for musical theater with an eye on Broadway. This special Upbeat on the Roof performance features selections from project-in-residence Safety Not Guaranteed, a theatrical version of the 2012 feature film, with music by Guster’s Ryan Miller and Nick Blaemire, that will have a major New York City production this fall; and from composers-in-residence Jesse J. Sanchez, Anna DeNoia, and others.
The Orchard Project is a preeminent artistic development laboratory and accelerator for creators of performance and dramatic stories, in residence each summer in Saratoga Springs. Works developed at OP have gone on to production on Broadway and the West End, and independent theaters worldwide. Projects from the Orchard Project’s Performance, Episodic and Audio labs have also gone on to be produced, optioned, and/or developed with outlets such as HBO, Amazon Prime, Audible, Universal Pictures, and more.
July 18: Great Mutations
Great Mutations is a Troy, New York-based rock band that plays melodic, literate songs about love, work, and death. Since their formation in 2012, they have released four studio albums, including their most recent LP, Gifted Kids, in April, and a live album of their first Upbeat on the Roof performance in 2017. Band members are singer and guitarist Matthew Thouin, bassist Mitchell Masterson, drummer Ian White, and guitarist Tommy Krebs.
July 25: Dust Bowl Faeries
Celebrating their tenth year in 2024, Dust Bowl Faeries perform a faerie-tale medley of dark cabaret and gothic polka music, infused with a dose of witchcraft and a dusting of woodland magic. The accordion driven freak-folk ensemble hails from the New York Hudson Valley and draws inspiration from circus music, murder ballads and Eastern European folk songs. Singing saw, piano accordion, lap-steel, electric bass, percussion, and acoustic guitar combine to create the Dust Bowl Faeries otherworldly sound. Founded by Ryder Cooley (“faerie queen”) and her taxidermy spirit animal, Hazel the Ram, Dust Bowl Faeries includes Jon B. Woodin (“rocket faerie”), Jude Roberts (“hobbit faerie”), Rubie LaRue (“feisty faerie”), and Andrew Stein (“time faerie”).
August 1: Drank the Gold
Drank the Gold, fiddler Oona Grady and multi-instrumentalist James Gascoyne, was named the Folk/Traditional Artist of the Year in 2023 at the Capital Region Thomas Edison Music Awards. The duo plays and sings North Atlantic dance tunes and folk songs. Both steeped in music from an early age, they have been performing together since 2015. Their 2019 album, Sipped The Silver, simultaneously features Grady's deep Irish fiddle roots; Gascoyne's compositional talents; and their shared passion for digging deep into traditional music and finding something new to say.
August 8: Dan Carr and the Cure for Asthma
The band in their own words: “Deep within the piney hills of Albany, New York, lurks a gaggle of obnoxious strummers, bangers, and sangers on an epic plot to take over all of Albany. Their music is so incredibly catchy, it will brainwash and destroy all the evil doers in Albany AND Troy. Rock, Country, distortion, they have it all. Tori, Juliana, Gabe, Joe, Sam, and Dan won’t stop ever.”
August 15: Reese Fulmer & The Carriage House Band
Cutting his teeth as the house manager at the iconic Saratoga Springs listening room Caffe Lena, Reese Fulmer has emerged a “songwriter with a poet’s sensibility rich with great storytelling, imagery and a healthy dose of irony.” The 2023 and 2024 Americana Artist of the Year at the Thomas Edison Music Awards, Reese and his band are among the fastest rising groups in the Capital Region. The band is as much a concept as it is a performing entity: a fluid and evolving group of top tier regional musicians who add their creativity and vision to Reese's original music, both on stage and in the studio. This unique approach offers constant inspiration and new discoveries, often realized in real time during a show, and allows for flexibility to fit the environment of any venue or setting. The Carriage House Band has appeared in duo, trio, quartet, 5- and 6-piece format, and has featured artists including Chris Carey, James Gascoyne, Andy Arnold, Connor Dunn, Dustin DeLuke, Julia Alsarraf, JP Hubbs, Orion Kribs, Bobby Kendall, Chris Bloniarz, Matt Griffin, Connor Armbruster, Paul Guay, Sara Milonovich, Jimi Woodul, Katie Weissman, and Joe Woodul.
More informaton is available at https://tang.skidmore.edu/calendar/category/20-upbeat-on-the-roof.
About the Tang Teaching Museum
The Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College is a pioneer of interdisciplinary exploration and learning. A cultural anchor of New York’s Capital Region, the Tang’s approach has become a model for college and university art museums across the country—with exhibition programs that bring together visual and performing arts with interdisciplinary ideas from history, economics, biology, dance, and physics, to name just a few. The Tang has one of the most rigorous faculty-engagement initiatives in the nation, and a robust publication and touring exhibition program that extends the museum’s reach far beyond its walls. The Tang Teaching Museum’s award-winning building, designed by architect Antoine Predock, serves as a visual metaphor for the convergence of art and ideas. The Tang is proud to be a Blue Star Museum member, supporting active military and their families with free admission from May 18 through September 2. The Museum is open to the public Tuesday–Sunday, noon–5 pm, with extended hours until 9 pm Thursday.
