Cover Story
RIT’s new digital media center brings the future to the classroom
MAGIC has existed for about five years already, but with the opening of the new center, students working in film, animation, game development, and other digital media studies got a serious upgrade in their classroom environment and amenities.
Spaull plans meeting of arts groups
City Council member Elaine Spaull is convening a meeting of Rochester arts organizations on Friday, open to anyone who wants to attend. The broad purpose, she said this morning, is to discuss their needs and the contribution of the arts to the area’s quality of life, using a recent report as a starting point. The…
Mayor Warren seeks public’s comments on Rochester school district
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren is planning a series of meetings seeking the public’s opinion about the Rochester school district and how parents and others “believe City Hall can help Rochester’s children succeed.”
Lowengard returns as interim superintendent for Rochester district
Daniel Lowengard, the interim superintendent who led city schools following the departure of former superintendent Bolgen Vargas, is returning to the district for a second time as interim. Linda Cimusz will be his chief of staff. Lowengard and Cimusz will start on February 1, 2019. Lowengard was hired to temporarily take over for Vargas in…
City receivership schools show improvement
All nine city schools that were placed in receivership after they were identified as “struggling” and “persistently struggling” made significant improvement during the 2017-2018 school year, according to the State Education Department. The schools include: East Upper, East Lower, School 17, James Monroe High School, School 9, School 45, School 3, Northeast College High School,…
Cobbs Hill Village fight continues
As one lawsuit awaits a decision, a second suit has been filed with the State Supreme Court to stop redevelopment of the Cobbs Hill Village Apartments on Norris Drive next to the popular city park. The latest legal action was taken by a coalition of the apartments’ tenants, neighborhood associations, and activist groups against the…
Henrietta hopes to modernizing its zoning
Henrietta is an evolving suburb, though that may not be apparent to the people who live outside of the community. Its commercial corridors – which are often hypocritically mocked by the very people who flock to them – are an ever-changing mix of big-box stores, restaurants, car dealerships and service garages, and office complexes. Marketplace…
Rochester’s arts support: beyond a big-show theater
Representatives of some of Rochester’s arts organizations will be meeting next week to reignite a discussion they’ve been having for years: creating an endowment or some other kind of ongoing arts funding. Elaine Spaull, who chairs City Council’s Arts and Culture Committee, is convening the meeting, which is scheduled for December 14. The big arts…
DANCE | Garth Fagan Home Season
The internationally acclaimed Garth Fagan Dance is presenting its 2018 Home Season in time for the holidays. Presented in six performances this week, the program will will feature two Rochester premiers: Garth Fagan’s “The North Star,” a celebration of the life of 19th century abolitionist, orator, author, and Rochester icon Frederick Douglass on the bicentennial…
FESTIVAL | Native American Winter Arts Festival
Friends of Ganondagan will this week present the annual Native American Winter Arts Festival, featuring goods made by local artisans, hourly raffles, storytelling, food tastings, and traditional Iroquois Social Dancing by the Allegany River Indian Dancers (pictured). Food samples will include Iroquois White Corn, which is part of a larger project to return the heirloom…
FILM | TEDxRochester ‘Showing Up’
TEDxRochester, an independently organized local TED talk event, is this week presenting “Showing Up,” a screening of a selection of the most inspiring talks from TEDWomen 2018. The annual screening is celebration of women challenging and rising up in a diverse array of fields including business, technology, art, and politics, presented by pioneers, professionals, and…
HOLIDAY | Holidays at the Market
The Rochester Public Market has held Holidays at the Market for the past 25 years. There are just two Sundays left this season to attend the free event, which features opportunities to shop for trees, wreaths, garlands, and other decorations; winter clothing, arts and crafts, and local wines, honey, baked goods, and more. Santa Claus…
THEATER | Puppet-Infused ‘A Christmas Carol’
The New York State Puppet Festival debuted this past summer in Perry, New York, and is back for a winter performance this week with its production of “A Christmas Carol.” Presented in collaboration with Shake on the Lake, the professional theatre company based in Silver Lake, the show features two actors. Scrooge is played by…
BLUES ROCK | Catl
Guitarist Jamie Fleming and drummer Sarah Kirkpatrick of Toronto band Catl are touring in support of their fifth studio album, “Bide My Time Until I Die.” Catl sounds like a mix between The White Stripes and The Black Keys, infused with layers of country and punk. Kirkpatrick howls over her drums with a bad-girl attitude…
INDIE ROCK | The Front Bottoms
A fun, anthemic trio from New Jersey, The Front Bottoms have a sound that has matured over the years, yet still has that nostalgic and youthful pop-punk vibes that originally put them on the map. Innocent yet simultaneously suggestive, its music is full of catchy melodies and high-energy instrumentals with lyrics about love and partying.…
FUTURE FOLK | Odetta Hartman
Never before have traditional folk and electronic music come together as they do in Odetta Hartman’s music. Hartman has a flexible voice that can stretch from low, jazzy tones to bright and angelic sighs. With a spectral mix ranging from acoustic banjos to electronic synth textures underneath, the music blends future folk with psychedelia, blues,…
CLASSICAL | RPO’s ‘Brandenburg Concerto No. 4’
Johann Sebastian Bach’s six Brandenburg Concertos are among the best-known pieces in classical music, but they don’t often appear on symphony orchestra programs. The fourth in the series makes a welcome appearance on the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s concert this Sunday afternoon. Handling the Bachian filigree in this lighter-than-air work are RPO flutists Rebecca Gilbert and…
ROCK | ‘Two Tanks Tonight’
This Friday, Rochester rock band Violet Mary presents the fourth annual “Two Tanks Tonight,” a music-filled fundraising event to benefit the Ugandan Water Project. All proceeds from the cover charge goes directly toward the establishment of two rainwater collection systems, in order to provide, clean, sustainable drinking water for schoolchildren in Uganda. Hosted at Lovin’…
ROOTS ROCK | Donna The Buffalo
Donna The Buffalo is an Americana-folk band that has bridged generational gaps across the country with its timeless originals since 1989. Hailing from Upstate New York, Donna The Buffalo blends roots music with hints of country, blues, and rock. After five, long years since its previous release, the band is finally touring behind its eighth…
Feedback 12/5
Send comments to themail@rochester-citynews.com, or post them on our website, rochestercitynewspaper.com, our Facebook page, or our Twitter feed, @roccitynews. We edit selections for publication in print. Put children’s interests first On the recent report assessing the problems in the Rochester school district: As someone who grew up in the sit-still-and-listen 50’s, I still have a…
Urban Action 12/5
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) Disinvesting in Rochester The 540WestMain Communiversity and Visual Studies Workshop will present “How to Kill a City: Demolition and Divestment in Rochester,” on Saturday, December 8. The film-centered workshop draws on films from…
2019 Rochester Jazz Festival names George Benson and Steve Gadd Band as headliners
The 2019 CGI Rochester International Jazz Festival, taking place June 21 through 29, has announced its first headliners: George Benson and Steve Gadd Band.
A new superintendent for OUR Schools
Many parents and community members desperately want an authentic partnership with the Rochester school district.
Album review: ‘Somnium’
Walrus Junction ‘Somnium’ Self-released facebook.com/WalrusJunction From the opening seconds of “Somnium,” the upbeat energy of the music clings to you like a welcome scent. Walrus Junction makes the kind of well-crafted, melodic rock that might be easy to discredit as pop pleansantries, but the subtle intelligence of the songs makes them hard to forget. With…
Theater review: ‘The Legend of Georgia McBride’
Theatrical productions aren’t generally written about Florida. The Sunshine State, with its gators and gulf coast, doesn’t set the stage for a production in quite the same way a cosmopolitan city or the Midwest does. But for Matthew Lopez’s 2015 play “The Legend of Georgia McBride,” a small town Florida setting somehow works perfectly.
Film preview: ‘At Eternity’s Gate’
At its best, Schnabel’s film immerses us in van Gogh’s occasionally scattered perspective. It succeeds at doing what some biopics don’t accomplish: giving us a glimpse into the process of a true artist at work.
Best of bakeries holiday treats
We asked the top four bakeries from the 2018 Best of Rochester readers’ poll what treats each of them will offer this season, and how to place holiday orders on time.
Album review: ‘Purblind’
Hinkley ‘Purblind’ Self-released hinkleysounds.com Hinkley’s latest, full-length offering, “Purblind,” is an enigmatic album that evokes the homespun warmth of folk and Americana without belonging to either genre. What we get instead are sophisticated rock songs featuring simple, charming vocal melodies and full, harmonic textures in the guitars and keyboards; Will Veeder’s voice frequently recalls that…
‘Mozart in France’ concert highlights chamber music rarities
The Society for Chamber Music in Rochester is known for putting together captivating programs. For next weekend’s concert, which takes place on Sunday, December 16 at the Performance Hall at Hochstein, SCMR does it again, with a program called “Mozart in France.”
