The fourth First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival (Thursday, September 17 – Saturday, September 26) announced its complete lineup this week at its annual BIG REVEAL at The Little Theatre. The 2015 Fringe will include more than 500 performances and events (up from 2014’s 380) featuring all genres of art in 25+ venues in downtown Rochester, with more than 120 of them offered free of charge. The full schedule is available and all tickets are on sale as of now at RochesterFringe.com …
The Atlantic Cities blog recently posted a map of U.S. cities with the highest concentration of musicians per capita. It probably surprised many people to see that Rochester ranked #9, immediately behind cities like Las Vegas, Portland, and New Orleans. But Rochester has a long history of music making. Remember Cab Calloway, Chuck Mangione, Eastman School of Music, the House of Guitars… We even have our own Rockin Rochester U.S.A. surf tune. Amazing!
The story of the Rochester Subway is not complete without at least mentioning Rochester’s deep-rooted hip hop culture. If you’re less than familiar with Rochester, I assure you, this shizzle is fo’ real. The “Flower City” has street cred, and our abandoned subway tunnel has long been used as a canvas to show off some of our best underground talent…
“The organ [at Christ Church, Rochester NY] is a unique instrument, not only because of its lovely sound, but also because it is a nearly exact copy of a late Baroque organ built by Adam Gottlob Casparini of East Prussia in 1776. The original stands in the Holy Ghost Church in Vilnius, Lithuania. There is no other contemporary organ quite like the one at Christ Church.” These were the remarks of Guy Gugliotta, writer for the New York Times in a recent editorial entitled New Pipe Organ Sounds Echo of Age of Bach.
My brother-in-law who lives in Delaware spotted the article in the NY Times and immediately sent an email to tell me he found another reason to come and visit us in Rochester—to which I wittily replied, “Like you need another reason?” But he was truly impressed—as was I. Having walked past the Christ Church on East Avenue a zillion times before, I’m embarrassed to say I had no idea there was such a local treasure inside. So last week, my family and I decided to break tradition and attend a 10 o’clock Christmas Eve service just so we could witness the Craighead-Saunders Pipe Organ first hand. My brother-in-law was so jealous…
Get Email Updates...
Stay up-to-date on Rochester-related stories, artifacts, and ideas that you won't find in the mainstream news.
Totally free, never spammy, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
After the Erie Canal was rerouted south of downtown Rochester, the Rochester
Industrial & Rapid Transit Railway (the “subway”) was built in
its place as a link between the five different railroads and interurban trolley
lines that served the Rochester area. As the industrial landscape of Rochester
changed, and highways replaced the railroads, the Rochester subway gradually
became a relic of a bygone era. In 1956 the subway was abandoned and much of
its route was converted into Interstate 490 — built to connect Rochester
with the New York State Thruway (I-90). Read more about the history of the Rochester Subway.
RochesterSubway.com exists to help spark
public dialogue around how we can better connect the neighborhoods of Rochester
NY, surrounding communities, and their cultural offerings. Rochester’s
future is written in her past. Let's rediscover it.
![Rochester Fringe Festival [IMAGE: RochesterFringe.com]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/rochester-fringe-festival-2015-01.jpg)
…![A Sibleyd's department store window display featuring a mannequin seated at a piano, a second piano, a saxophone and an accordion. (1940). [IMAGE: Rochester Public Library]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/rochester-sibleys-window-instruments.jpg)
![\"RochesterSubway.com\"](\"https://rochestersubway.com/images/pixel_white.gif\"){kind=tracking}
