Saratoga Performing Arts Center
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The Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) is an Amphitheater in Saratoga Springs, New York which presents summer festivals of all kinds of music (including classical concerts, jazz, and popular), dance, and opera, as well as a Wine & Food Festival. It opened on July 9, 1966, with a presentation of Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream by the New York City Ballet.
[edit] History
In early February 1961, Albany newspaperman Duane La Fleche noted a wire service report about a group hoping to entice the New York Philharmonic to make Stowe, Vermont its summer residence. La Fleche proposed that the group stay in New York State and perform in Saratoga Springs. Local civic, cultural, and legislative leaders, who had previously considered a Saratoga Arts Center an interesting possibility, began to design the facility. Within a week, they held their first meeting; within a month they were focusing on Saratoga Spa State Park as the site, had won the support of State Conservation Commissioner Harold Wilm, and begun discussions with both the New York Philharmonic and New York City Ballet.
By summer 1963, generous contributions from Rockefeller Brothers Fund and New York State supplemented community support to create Saratoga Performing Arts Center. In June 1964, Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller mounted a bulldozer to break the first yard of ground. More than 410 workdays followed: 300 workers clocked 136,000 hours to complete the 5,100-seat, 10-story amphitheatre (original layout of the venue did not include a festival lawn; the lawn, which holds 20,000, was added later).
Past presidents of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center include Margaretta "Happy" Rockefeller and Lillian Bostwick Phipps.
[edit] Present day performances
Today, SPAC hosts the New York City Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra every summer. This season, some of the world's finest classical music soloists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Gil Shaham, and Sarah Chang, are performing major concertos at this venue. The "Philly"'s most well-attended performance is its annual Tchaikovsky Spectacular, which includes the 1812 Overture and one or two well-known concertos.
A feature of each summer is the Freihofer Jazz Festival, co-produced with George Wein, which presents major and emerging jazz artists on two stages. Also, the Saratoga Chamber Music Festival, under the direction of Canadian violinist, Chantal Julliet, presents programs in the Spa Little Theatre. In 2006, the Composer-In-Residence is Bright Sheng. Opera performances are given by the Lake George Opera in the Spa Little Theatre.
SPAC is also a venue for popular music concerts, like John Mayer, Tom Petty, and others, which are booked exclusively by Live Nation, a leading concert promotion company. This venue is especially famous for its annual summer concerts of the Dave Matthews Band, mostly because it is well known that SPAC is one of Matthews' top 3 favorite venues in America.
Between the 2006 and 2007 seasons, the amphitheater will be undergoing an extensive renovation. One of the plans is to remove the old plastic chair seating.
SPAC is headed by Marcia White, who replaced president Herb Chesborough in 2005. Over 200 seasonal employees keep the venue running smoothly over the summer.Bearian 22:30, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
