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When the Orchestra of Northern New York performs the world premiere of Escapades for Orchestra and Soprano Saxophone, it will have a special guest in the audience. World-renowned composer John Anthony Lennon will visit Clayton and Potsdam from the West Coast for this special concert.

Lennon has been commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Theatre Chamber Players, the Library of Congress, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, the National Endowment for the Arts Orchestral Consortium, the Fromm Foundation, the Kronos Quartet, and many other groups and institutions.

He has also been the recipient of numerous honors and prizes. In addition to the Rome Prize, he has received the Guggenheim, Friedheim, and Charles Ives Awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Lennon has held fellowships at Tanglewood, the Rockefeller Center at Bellagio, Villa Montalvo, Yaddo, the Bolgiasco Foundation, and the MacDowell Colony as a Norlin Foundation Fellow. Other residencies have been at the Valparaiso Foundation in Spain, the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland, and the Camargo Foundation in France.

Reared in Mill Valley, California, Lennon earned a Bachelor's degree in Literature under Jesuit study at the University of San Francisco. He holds a Master's degree and a Doctorate from the University of Michigan where he studied with Leslie Bassett, William Bolcom, and William Albright.

A professor of composition and theory at Emory University, he resides in San Rafael, California. His website is johnanthonylennon.com

The concert, conducted by Dr. Brian Doyle, also features works by Maurice Ravel, Carlos Simon, and Aaron Copland. Christopher Creviston, former faculty member of the Crane School of Music, will solo on soprano saxophone in the work by Lennon.

Tickets for the Saturday, September 2 concert at 7:30 pm at the Clayton Opera House may be purchased by calling 315-686-2200. Tickets for the Potsdam performance on Sunday, September 3 at 3 pm in Hosmer Hall, SUNY Potsdam can be obtained at onny.org or by calling 315-212-3440.

ONNY is sponsored, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature as well as the Northern New York Community Foundation.

The Orchestra of Northern New York is offering a first-time sale on general admission tickets during the month of August. Save fifteen percent off regular ticket prices.

Sale prices for adult tickets are $23; for seniors, military personnel and veterans, healthcare workers and first responders are $20.40, for college student tickets are $8.50; and for teens (13-17) $4.25

Season tickets are not being offered this year due to the changing purchasing habits of audience members. More people buy individual concert tickets than season subscriptions. To ensure that former season ticket holders receive the fifteen percent subscription discount, all general admission tickets for the year are available at the same savings during August.

Tickets may be purchased online at onny.org, by calling 315-212-3440, or at the door.

The 36th season opens September 2 with Dances and Escapades at 7:30 pm at the Clayton Opera House. Tickets may be purchased through the opera house by calling 315-686-2200. A second performance takes place Sunday, September 3 at 3 pm in Hosmer Hall, Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam.

The opening concert of the Season of Discovery will be conducted by Dr. Brian Doyle. Works by Maurice Ravel, Carlos Simon, and Aaron Copland will be featured. Christopher Creviston will solo in a world premiere for soprano saxophone written by John Anthony Lennon.

Christopher Creviston, “one of the world’s top saxophone artists” (Audiophile Audition), with “the personality and fingers of a first-rate soloist (American Record Guide), joins the Orchestra of Northern New York on Labor Day weekend to perform the world premiere of John Anthony Lennon’s Escapades, a concerto for soprano saxophone.

Performances are Saturday, September 2 at 7:30 pm at the Clayton Opera House and Sunday, September 3 at 7:30 pm in Hosmer Hall, SUNY Potsdam.

Creviston has played venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to Paisley Park and the Apollo Theater. As a soloist, and with the Capitol Quartet, Creviston has been featured with bands and orchestras across the U.S. including the Baltimore, Indianapolis, and National Symphony Orchestras. He has worked with many conductors, such as Andre Previn, Neeme Jarvi, and Randall Craig Fleischer, among others.

In demand as a recitalist and clinician, he performs regularly with the Capitol Quartet, and in duos with pianist Hannah Gruber Creviston, guitarist Zoren Fader, and harpist Frances Duffy.

He has appeared in concert with many great jazz artists, and worked with pop performers Crystal Gale, Ben Vereen, Maureen McGovern. Crane alum Lisa Vroman, and Bob Hope, to name a few.

Dr. Creviston currently serves on the faculty at Arizona State University. He has held positions at the Crane School of Music, the Greenwich House of Arts (NYC), the University of Windsor (Canada) and the University of Michigan.

Tickets for the Clayton concert can be purchased by calling 315-686-2200. Tickets for the Potsdam concert can be obtained online at onny.org or by phone at 315-212-3440.

ONNY is supported, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

When the Orchestra of Northern New York opens its 36th season on September 2, it will celebrate a Season of Discovery. With a world premiere, four new guest conductors, two of whom are finalists for the position of ONNY’s next Music Director, and a money-back guarantee for first-time concertgoers, ONNY is sure to delight long-time audience members and newcomers.

The season begins September 2 at the Clayton Opera House with Dances and Escapades, conducted by Dr. Brian Doyle, the Director of Bands at the Crane School of Music since 2006. He also conducts the Crane Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band, as well as teaches courses in conducting.

The program he selected includes Ma Mere l’Oye (the Mother Goose Suite) by Maurice Ravel; Breathe by Carlos Simon, and Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland.

A special work premiering for the first time anywhere is Escapades, by John Anthony Lennon. Performing the soprano saxophone solo is former Crane School of Music professor Christopher Creviston, who is joining the Orchestra from Arizona.

The second performance of Dances and Escapades takes place Sunday, September 3 at 3 pm in Hosmer Hall, SUNY Potsdam.

The fall concert features Michael Colburn as conductor, one of the two finalists for the Music Director position. Colburn is the former Director of “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band. He also was the leader of its Chamber Orchestra, in which he conducted musicians primarily in performances at the White House.

He has programmed Felix Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture (Fingal’s Cave), George Walker’s Lyric for Strings, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol, and Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations.

Performances are Saturday, October 28 at 7:30 pm in Hosmer Hall and Sunday, October 29 at 3 pm in First Presbyterian Church, Watertown.

ONNY encourages the public to celebrate Holiday in Brass, which welcomes a 23-piece brass and percussion ensemble to the stage. Dr. James Madeja, a retired Crane School of Music professor of trumpet as well as a former member of the Potsdam Brass Quintet, will conduct.

Works range from Fisher Tull’s Variations on an Advent Hymn, Valerie Coleman’s Umoja: The First Day of Kwanzaa, and Festive Sounds of Hanukkah arranged by Bill Holcome and Bill Holcombe, Jr. Christmas Fanfare for Brass and Percussion, Suite of Carols for Brass Choir, and Christmas Toons  are just a few of the many other works to be performed.

Performances are Saturday, December 16 at 7:30 pm in Hosmer Hall, SUNY Potsdam, and Sunday, December 17 at 3 pm in First Presbyterian Church, Watertown.

The April concert introduces the second finalist for the position of ONNY Music Director. Adrian Slywotzky is currently Director of Orchestras at the Crane School of Music. He is a prizewinner of the Atlantic Coast International Conducting Competition in Portugal in 2016 and the Audite International Conducting Competition in Poland in 2017. For three years he was the Associate Director of Orchestraas at the University of Michigan.

His program choices are titled Visions and Reflections and include: The Abduction from the Seraglio by Amadeus Mozart; Crystal Gazing by Dolores White; Le Tombeau de Couperin by Maurice Ravel; and Symphony No. 2 by Jean Sibelius.

Performances are Saturday, April 27, 2024 at 7:30 pm in Hosmer Hall, and Sunday, April 28 at 3 pm in First Presbyterian Church, Watertown.

The final concert of the season is An American Salute, a rousing program of American music such as Liberty Bell March by John Philip Sousa, Cuban Overture by George Gershwin, selections from The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers, and The Cowboys by John Williams, among several others.

The program will be conducted by Michael Colburn.

Performances are slated for Tuesday, July 2 at 8 pm in Watertown’s Thompson Park, the ever-popular free Concert in the Park; Wednesday, July 3 at 7:30 pm in Hosmer Hall; and a free concert on Thursday, July 4 at 7 pm at Thousand Island Park on Wellesley Island.

Tickets may be purchased online at onny.org or by phone at 315-212-3440.

First-time concertgoers are promised a money back guarantee. If not completely satisfied with their initial ONNY musical experiences, they will receive a full refund.

ONNY is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization designated by the IRS as a charitable entity, with donations tax-deductible.

Its major sponsors are the New York State Council on the Arts, the Northern New York Community Foundation, SUNY Potsdam, and the Crane School of Music.

Paul Meyers, “one of the most eloquent jazz guitarists since Kenny Burrell,” (NY Times) will perform The Great American Songbook on Thursday, July 13 at 7 pm in the Childwold Memorial Presbyterian Church, Childwold, and Friday, July 14 at 7 pm in the Potsdam Presbyterian Church. These free concerts are part of an outreach initiative of the Orchestra of Northern New York and  The Secret Sits Pro Musica Ensembles, Gull Pond, NY and Athens, GA.

Meyers has been a busy freelancer, sideman, and bandleader in and around New York City since 1980. For several years, Paul performed and recorded with his quartet featuring Frank Wess, until Mr. Wess’ passing. A very active player in New York’s vibrant Brazilian jazz scene, Paul leads his own Brazilian jazz group, World on a String. He has performed and/or recorded with a long list of jazz greats including Wynton Marsalis. He has four solo guitar CDs. Meyers’ remarkable talent has taken him to Japan, Hong Kong, Spain, Brazil, England, Greece, among many other countries.

He earned his Master of Music degree in jazz guitar from the Manhattan School of Music and a Bachelor of Music with honors from the New England Conservatory. In 1990/91, Paul received a Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts for jazz composition.

Meyers is on the faculty of William Paterson University (since 1988), New Jersey City University (since 1993), and at SUNY Purchase (since 2019).

The Potsdam Brass Quintet will kick off this year’s Summer Chamber Music Series on July 1 with a Classy, Brassy Ice Cream Social. Festivities begin at 1 pm at the Childwold Memorial Presbyterian Church. Bring your lawn chairs and enjoy great music with cake and ice cream as an outreach initiative of the Orchestra of Northern New York and The Secret Sits Pro Musica Ensembles, Gull Pond, NY and Athens, GA.

The quintet celebrates its 55th Anniversary this year. It has performed in concert throughout much of the U.S. and Canada, including performances at New York’s Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

The series includes four more concerts to be presented on Thursdays and Fridays at Childwold and the Potsdam Presbyterian Church respectively. These performances begin at 7 pm, are free, and open to the public.

Adirondika Pro Musica, a gifted chamber quartet playing light classical works, will be joined by marimbaist Sebastian Buhts. APM members are Kenneth Andrews (flute), Liesl Doty (violin), Scott Woolweaver (viola), and Karen Kaderavek   (cello). They perform July 6 and 7.

Mr. Andrews is an accomplished flutist who has performed with the Montreal Symphony, and as Principal or Artist in Residence with several other orchestras and festivals. He recently concluded his 35-year tenure as Music Director of the Orchestra of Northern New York.

Hailed for her “magnetic presence,” Liesl Doty has performed at The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Zankel Hall, and many other venues. She is a faculty member at the Crane School of Music.

Paul Meyers, “one of the most eloquent jazz guitarists,” according to the NY Times, will present The Great American Songbook on July 13 and 14. Mr. Meyers’ remarkable talent has taken him to Japan, Hong Kong, Spain, Brazil, England, Greece, among many other countries. He is very active in New York’s vibrant Brazilian jazz scene. In this performance, he will present favorites from the great American songbook.

Original and traditional songs and tunes from the Adirondacks will be presented by Peggy Lynn (guitar and vocals) and Dan Duggan (hammered dulcimer). They appear August 10 and 11.

Peggy Lynn, who poet Maurice Kenny calls “the voice of the mountains,” is widely recognized for her soulful songwriting and vocal versatility. She is known for ballads of strong women, children’s songs about nature, and bluesy songs of love and life.

Dan Duggan is known nationally for his wizardry on hammered dulcimer and flat-picking guitar. He is a recipient of the National Hammered Dulcimer Championship. A true multi-instrumentalist, Dan has an array of recordings and can be heard on Paul Simon’s CD “You’re the One,” (October 2000).

Rounding out the series will be Donald George (tenor) and Margaret Chalker (mezzo-soprano) with Broadway Memories & Light Opera. Both are members of the Crane School of Music Voice faculty. Performances are August 31 and September 1.

Following a national search, The Orchestra of Northern New York’s Music Director Search Committee has selected three finalists for the position that became vacant when founding Music Director and Conductor Kenneth Andrews announced last year his retirement after 35 years, effective this July 1.

Timothy L. Savage, Search Committee Chair and ONNY’s immediate past president of the Board of Directors, says, “The search has been conducted with careful deliberation at every step in the process. We were fortunate to have a deep pool of well-qualified candidates for the position. And I am delighted to announce the three finalists who will guest conduct in the 2023-2024 season. They are Michael Colburn of St. Albans, VT, Dr. Adrian Slywotzky of Potsdam, and Dr. Rachel Waddell of Rochester.”

Among his many accomplishments, for eighteen years Mr. Colburn directed the Marine Chamber Orchestra in State Dinners at the White House, in annual White House performances for Kennedy Center Honors receptions, and for two Kennedy Center concerts commemorating September 11.  He also conducted the Marine Band for President Obama’s two inaugurations and President George W. Bush’s second inauguration.

Mr. Colburn will program and conduct the fall concert slated for October 28 and 29 in Potsdam and Watertown, respectively.

Prior to coming to Potsdam, he was the Associate Director of Orchestras at the University of Michigan for three years. He has worked with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, Cornell Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, and the New Haven Chamber Orchestra, among others. He also was a Teaching Fellow with the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra.

Dr. Slywotzky will program and conduct the winter concert scheduled for January 27 and 28, 2024 in Potsdam and Watertown, respectively.

Dr. Waddell will program and conduct the spring concert set for April 27 and 28 in Potsdam and Watertown, respectively.

Musicians and audience members will have the opportunity to provide feedback to the Music Director Search Committee about each candidate before it makes its final selection in May 2024. Receptions will be held for ONNY supporters and musicians to informally meet the candidates when they are in town to conduct their concert.

The remaining three ONNY concerts in the 2023-2024 season will also be guest conducted by individuals yet to be named.

Two members of the Orchestra of Northern New York will be the featured guest speakers for the Pre-Concert Conversation when ONNY presents its Brahms Symphony No. 1 concert on April 29 at 7:30 pm in Hosmer Hall, SUNY Potsdam and on April 30 at 3 pm in the First Presbyterian Church, Watertown. The Pre-Concert Conversation begins 45 minutes before each program.

Dr. Nelly Maude Case of Los Alamos, New Mexico, is traveling to the North Country from New Mexico to perform one last time under the baton of Maestro Kenneth Andrews in his final classical concert. Dr. Erin Brooks, a member of the Crane School of Music faculty, joins her. Both women play viola and are noted musicologists, persons who conduct the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Maestro Andrews will pose questions about the two noted female composers whose works will be performed in this spring concert.

The program opens with the energetic and rhythmically riveting Sixth Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, composed by Joan Tower, considered by many to be one of the most important composers living today. She was awarded the 2020 Composer of the Year by Musical America.  ONNY is excited to present Charles V. Guy, the Orchestra’s principal tubist, in Jennifer Higdon’s Tuba Concerto (2018). Higdon is also one of the most sought-after American composers of our day. ONNY’s performance will be the New York State premiere of this work.

Dr. Nelly Maude Case is a Professor Emerita of the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, where she taught courses in music history, theory, and women in music for 25 years.

She served as organist and bell choir director at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Canton from 1989-2016, and played viola in the Orchestra of Northern New York from 1991-2016.

She also published biographies of two Crane icons: Worry Early: the Life of Brock McElheran in 2006, and Helen Hosmer: The Spirit of Crane in 2011.

Since retiring to Los Alamos, New Mexico, she has served as organist and choirmaster at Trinity on the Hill (Episcopal Church), taught music appreciation at the University of New Mexico, and played violin and viola in the Los Alamos and Roswell Symphonies. In her spare time, she plays bridge and engages in political activism.

Dr. Erin Brooks is Associate Professor of Musicology at tSUNY Potsdam. Her research interests include opera, film, video games, gender and sexuality, disability, listening, and trauma studies.

She earned her Ph.D. in Musicology from Washington University in St. Louis, where her dissertation analyzed French actress Sarah Bernhardt’s role in fin-de-siécle musical culture. Erin has published multiple articles on opera and film music; her most recent article, appearing in the April 2023 issue of Nineteenth-Century Music Review, illuminates connections between sound, war, and trauma during the Franco-Prussian War. She has presented her research at multiple national and international conferences, and is a founding co-chair of the American Musicological Society Study Group on Music, Sound, and Trauma. She is currently working on a monograph on the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts, as well as a research project on sound and the polio epidemic.

Dr. Brooks teaches courses on a wide variety of topics; she has taught seminars on music, gender, and sexuality at SUNY Potsdam, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and UCLA. 

In addition to ONNY, she is a member of the Carriage House string quartet and has also appeared with the St. Lawrence University String Orchestra and the Northern Lights Choir. Before moving to New York, she played viola, Baroque viola, and viola da gamba in ensembles in Arkansas, Missouri, California, and Wisconsin. 

For more information about the Brahms Symphony No. 1 program, visit onny.org where one can also purchase tickets online.

POTSDAM – When Charles V. Guy isn’t teaching classes at SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music or performing with a host of musical ensembles, he makes time to volunteer with the Orchestra of Northern New York, the North Country’s only professional year-round regional symphony orchestra now celebrating its 35th season.

He is ONNY’s players’ liaison, representing any musician concerns to management and the Board of Directors, of which he is a member. He also chairs the Programming Committee and serves on the Personnel and Music Director Search Committees.

Next month, he will solo in the New York State premiere of Tuba Concerto by renowned 21st century composer Jennifer Higdon when ONNY performs its spring concert, Brahms Symphony No. 1, on April 29 and 30 in Potsdam and Watertown respectively.

Guy is Professor of Tuba and Euphonium at the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. He performs with the Potsdam Brass Quintet, and as principal tuba with the Orchestra of Northern New York and Northern Symphonic Winds. Annually, he performs with the Tuba Bach Tuba-Euphonium Quartet at the Tuba Bach Chamber Music Festival in Big Rapids, Michigan.

Dedicated to the development of young students, Dr. Guy teaches at the Crane Youth Music Camp and has taught at Interlochen Arts Camp, New England Music Camp, and Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. He has also developed a video series of tutorials aimed at empowering music educators with tools to teach beginning tubists. 

Before joining the Crane faculty, Charles held a similar position at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music and performed with the Lawrence Brass, the Oshkosh Symphony, and the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra.  As a soloist, he has performed at many International and Regional Tuba and Euphonium Association conferences, the Army Band Tuba-Euphonium workshop, and many university recitals. In 1999, he won the prestigious Leonard Falcone Festival artist division solo tuba competition and has served the festival as an adjudicator on several occasions. He has also presented numerous master classes and clinics for music educators and tuba-euphonium students at the New York State School Music Association, New York State Band Directors Association, Texas Music Educators Association conventions, and in public schools. 

He has commissioned several works for solo tuba and tuba in chamber settings, including the Potsdam Brass Quintet’s most recent collaboration with Anthony Plog on a piece entitled Polychromes in celebration of the group's 50th Anniversary.

His orchestral experience includes performances with the Syracuse Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Michigan Opera Theatre, and Midland Symphony Orchestras. He has published articles and reviews in the International Tuba and Euphonium Association Journal and has been recorded on the Madstop, Mark and Bernel Labels.  He was the co-chair of the Performance Department at the Crane School of Music. 

Dr. Guy earned both his Masters of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from Michigan State University, and a Bachelor of Music Performance degree from the University of Akron.  When not teaching or performing, he enjoys time with his wife, Lorie, and two boys, Ethan and Miles. 

Charles is a Buffet Crampon USA Artist/Clinician and performs exclusively on Melton Meinl Weston.

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Soren Krantz, 17, recently took top honors in the 17th Annual James and Katherine Andrews Young Artist Competition, sponsored by the Orchestra of Northern New York. He performed the first movement of Edvard Grieg’s Concerto in A Minor for Piano, Op. 16., winning the first place prize of $500 and the opportunity to solo with ONNY at its April 29th concert in Hosmer Hall, SUNY Potsdam.

Soren earned the first-place prize of $500 and the opportunity to solo with ONNY at its April 29th concert in Hosmer Hall, SUNY Potsdam.

In Soren’s home, he and all his older siblings play piano, taught by their mother. At age 14, he switched to his current teacher, John Spradling. Two years ago, he took third place in the senior division of Central New York AMT’s advanced piano competition.

Homeschooled since kindergarten, Soren will graduate high school this May through taking college courses at the local community college. In addition to his studies and piano playing, he enjoys basketball, chess, solving Rubik’s cubes, and being outdoors in all weather.

Soren is the son of Sabine and Alex Krantz, Syracuse.

Eric Lee, 14, who first studied violin under the Suzuki method when he was in kindergarten,

placed second, winning the $300 cash prize. He performed Max Bruch’s Concerto No. 1 in G Minor for Violin.

A student of Peter Rovit of Dewitt, Eric began playing in the Symphoria Youth Orchestra at age 10. Since then, he has participated in the Symphoria String Orchestra, the Repertory Youth Orchestra and the Young Artist Orchestra. He is an experienced concertmaster, having led three All-County and All-State orchestras as well as the High School Music Camp at Ithaca College.

An avid skier who also holds a black belt in Miori-style Martial Arts, Eric enjoys chess, playing golf, watching sports, and participating in fantasy football and basketball leagues with his friends. He graduated Salutatorian from his 8th grade class at Christian Brothers Academy of Syracuse.  

Eric is the son of Kelly and Young Lee, Manlius.

Third place went to flutist Andrea Iqbal, 15, a sophomore at Cicero-North Syracuse High School. She performed Charles Griffes’ Poem for Flute and Orchestra, earning the $150 prize.

Andrea has been in two All-County bands and a member of her high school’s marching band for four years. As the marching band’s flute soloist this past year, she was featured on local radio station, WCNY. She also participates in her school’s Symphonic Band and the Junior and Senior High School pit orchestras.

Outside of school, she performs with the Symphoria Youth Orchestra and plays tennis. In December 2022, Andrea was her school’s Music Student of the Month. Last year, she received an Excellence in Band award.

Andrea is the daughter of Guillermina Ortega and Robert Iqbal, North Syracuse

Violist Kari Maxian, 17, a senior at Manlius Pebble High School was awarded Honorable Mention and a $75 cash prize. A student of Arvilla Wendland for the past eight years, Kari has been principal viola in the Symphoria Youth Orchestra for the last two years. In 2022, she won the Civic Morning Musicals concerto competition, and her quartet won “Best Syracuse Area Ensemble” in the Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music competition.

Kari also enjoys piano, soccer, and science, hoping to study conservation biology in college.

She is the daughter of Jeffrey Winston and Tina Maxian, Cazenovia.