Are you ready for summer? Looking for things to do in the Foxburg Area this summer? We have a full schedule of summer events and happenings for you, so to be ready Save the Dates. Allegheny Riverstone Center for the Arts will be holding their first Wulitzer Organ Concert of the 2012 season at Lincoln Hall on Saturday, May 19, featuring Ken Double and honoring a special member of the theatre organ community Paul Mckissick, whose tireless efforts saved and restored the Lincoln Hall Wulitzer. The concert starts at 7:00pm and price is $15.00 for adults, $10.00 for members and $5.00 for students. For ticket information, call 412-867-1816.

 Would you enjoy a night full of laughs and good food? The Allegheny Grille is hosting its second Comedy Night of the year on Saturday, May 26, 2012. Starting at 6:30pm this includes a buffet dinner, salad, desserts and non-alcoholic beverages. The comedy show starts at 7:30pm and features three performers, Trina Hess, Bill Boronkay and Doc Dixon. Price for this show is $30.00 per person in advance and $35.00 per person at the door. Call 724-659-5701 today to make your reservations.

Also don’t forget that the Foxburg Wine Cellars has live entertainment every Saturday and Sunday from 2pm-5pm throughout the summer. Enjoy free wine tasting and local talent.

Love to hear music from local entertainers? The Allegheny Grille will be featuring music from The River Nymphs on Tuesday May 22 from 6:00pm until 9:00pm. They will also have music from The Two of us on Tuesday May 15, Friday May 18(and open mic) and Tuesday May 29 6:00pm-9:00pm.

Want to enjoy all of this fun, a few drinks and not have to drive home? Call the Foxburg Inn Hotel 724-659-3116 to reserve your room. With beautiful views and a peaceful ambience, the Foxburg Inn Hotel is where charm and chance meet.

As a part of the local talent that will be performing for the Maple Syrup Festival, Isaac Cole, 12 and Mikayla Lynn McNany, 16 will be performing Country Gospel at 4:30-5:00 at The Foxburg Inn Hotel. Isaac has been performing for 8 years and Mikayla has been singing for 2 years. Last year Isaac finished recording his debut album in Nashville, Tennessee. Inspired and produced by four time Inspirational Country Music Male Vocalist of the Year, Tommy Brandt, Isaac has competed at The Inspirational Country Music talent contest. After the contest, Isaac’s family was contacted by many talent agents and promoters to pursue Isaac’s musical gift. Join the McNany children at The Foxburg Maple Syrup Festival and witness firsthand the many local talents our area has to offer.

Yeany and associates will also be giving various candy, cream and sugar making demonstrations throughout the day. See how maple sugar is made at the Allegheny Grille; watch them make maple cream at Divani Chocolate. Cool down with the ARCA members and watch how maple creamys are made, you will not be able to resist this frosty treat.

Maple Creamy

Watch how maple sugar and maple candies are made at The Allegheny Grille on the festival day. There will also be a maple cream making demonstration at Divani Chocolatier.

See you and your sweet tooth Saturday April 28 for the Foxburg Maple Syrup Festival!

To give birders more time to plan, we have changed the deadline for registration for Foxburg’s bird watching weekend from April 2, 2012 to April 21, 2012. The schedule of events are as follows:

On Saturday there will be an 8:00am birding tour and lunch at the historic Riverstone Estate in Foxburg (handicap accessible-cost is $20.00), a 5:00 pm buffet dinner at the Allegheny Grille followed by educational presentations by Seneca Rocks Audubon Society member Michael Leahy and keynote speaker Jason Hill. Cost of the dinner is $26.40.  The Riverstone Estate will be hosting an Owl Prowl at 8:00pm for a fee of $5.00.

On Sunday there will be an 8:00 am birding tour of Mount Zion/Piney Tract Important Bird Area near Sligo, PA.  This event is FREE.

Birders staying at the Foxburg Inn Hotel will receive special lodging rates. Tickets can be purchased by contacting the hotel at 724-659-3116. Also you may email Kirsten with any questions you may have at kwilliams@foxburginn.com.

Gayle Martin Henry

Sunday, April 1st, 2:00 PM

Allegheny RiverStone Center for the Arts is pleased to announce the performance on Sunday April 1st of indeed another recognized world class musician, the pianist Gayle Martin Henry. She comes to Foxburg and Lincoln Hall at 2:00 PM in the midst of a mid-western tour. ARCA appreciates the significance of the quality and beauty of sound she brings to the Allegheny Clarion Valley and is enthusiastic about her appearance as part of ARCA’s upcoming Spring concerts.

Gayle Martin Henry has had a distinguished career as a concert pianist, achieving international prominence as the sole American laureate of the sixth International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, and only the third American woman ever to reach the finals.

In reviewing her solo Alice Tully Hall concert at Lincoln Center, The New York Concert Review reported that she created “a truly magical atmosphere… and made this listener smile with pleasure.” Following her performance last October of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto with the Ridgefield Symphony, the critic Courtenay Cauble wrote, “Gayle Martin Henry has it all. The depth of feeling is always there…because she makes the music her own and then communicates it, as any real artist must learn to do. Her performance was both brilliant and moving, and always beautiful.”

She on occasion performs with the exciting concert oboist, Gerard Reuter, playing transcriptions of opera and songs ranging from Mozart to Sondheim to Wagner, and has toured with the Dorian Wind Quintet.

A native Texan, Gayle Martin Henry was one of the very last students of the famous pedagogue Mme. Rosina Lhevinne at the Juilliard School, where she was awarded the prestigious Josef Lhevinne Prize. She holds the M.A. degree from New York University.

Her lyrical and engaging program will include compositions of Debussy, Beethoven, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Chopin, and Villa-Lobos. Her spirited and subtle interpretation is expected to captivate all. Plan to attend for a refreshing Spring moment of the heart and soul.

Tickets are Adults $20.00, Members $ 15.00 and Students $10.00. Call 412-867-1816 to reserve tickets and assure a seat. For more ARCA news visit www.alleghenyriverstone.org.

The date for the Foxburg Maple Syrup Festival has been changed to April 28, 2012.

Join us in the beautiful downtown Foxburg for sweet treats, a hearty pancake breakfast and plenty of fun activities for all ages.

There will be demonstrations, games, food and entertainment. We will have a variety of maple products available for purchase from Yeany’s Maple. Mr. Dave Yeany has been a Maple Producer for 9 years and is located in downtown Marienville.

We are seeking Vendors for the Festival. Click Here for Vendor application. Deadline for registration is April 2, 2012.

Foxburg Winterfest

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow, is the chant one hears as Foxburg prepares to host its first WinterFest, Saturday February 4th. A big event of the day will be the Sled Dog Fun Race at RiverStone Farm. The race will begin the day’s activities, with the gates at RiverStone opening at 9:30 AM.

Race events will begin at 10:30 AM with the presentation of various dog breeds, types of sleds, and explanation of the race, showing the race course layout and the rules. Demonstrations of the “mushing” equipment, dog team protocol, and mush commands will be included. Introduction of the Mushers will round out pre race activities.

At 11:00 AM the race kicks off with a solo Skijorning exhibition and proceeds the first teams push off for the main event, The Dog Sled Relay Race. The relay race is a new, one of a kind event in the tri-state area. At least eight teams will be divided into two relay teams. The Red and Blue teams will each send off one team at a time to race the two mile course. The teams will be competing in the hook up area as well as on the racecourse to place first after the four heats. Spectators are urged to cheer on the teams. Following the end of the race, medals will be presented to the mushers.

A sled dog weight pulling demonstration will follow the relay race and end the day’s dog activities. If snow conditions permit horse drawn sleigh and bobsled rides will be available for a charge during the afternoon. Coffee, tea and hot chocolate with pastries will be sold to warm the mush watchers. At the end of race activities spectators will be invited to head downtown for lunch and other Winterfest activities including meet the mushers at the Allegheny Grille and Foxburg Pizza. Foxburg Wine Cellars will be holding a special you can take advantage of by downloading and printing this coupon!

It is important to remember there must be snow (2″ to 3″ on the ground) or conditions suitable for packed snow on the course. Bare brown ground means no mush and there is no snow date to reschedule.

Sled Dog Race

There is NO gate admission charge, and there is plenty of free parking. Again gates open at 9:30 AM. For more details, call 412-867-1816.

Noah Bendix Balgley: Photo courtesy Robin Rombach/Post-Gazette

Noah Bendix-Balgley is 27-years-old and just four weeks in his new job as Concertmaster for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Allegheny RiverStone Center for the Arts is pleased to announce that on Saturday night October 22nd at 7:00 PM Mr. Bendix-Balgley will join the Pittsburgh Symphony Chamber Players in the Grand Concert of The October MusicFest at historic Lincoln Hall. This year the third annual classical music festival will feature music of German composers and promises to be the high point of the fall season.

Mikhail Istomin the director of the Chamber Player is delighted to have Noah Bendix-Balgley join the Players for this concert….“he will add to the sweetness of the music, and I know he will be impressed with the intimate feel and wonderful acoustics of Lincoln Hall.” The German theme also has significance for Noah, was living in Munich, at the time he accepted the position of concertmaster.

According to Andrew Druckenbrod, of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette…”High on the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s wish list for a new concertmaster was a violinist who could lead the group forward while connecting to its illustrious past. No one envisioned the violinist also would connect to his own past in a remarkable way. It turns out the American violinist is not the first in his family to play in the group
Mr. Bendix-Balgley discovered his great-grandfather, Samuel J. Leventhal, played in the PSO under Victor Herbert, “He played under Brahms in Leipzig, Germany, and joined the PSO as a 20-year-old in 1900.”For the orchestra and music director steeped in the Austro-German tradition, it was welcome news and the Pittsburgh Symphony is very pleased with their choice. Orchestras often hire young concertmasters as they expect the person to stay for many years.
As reported by Mr. Druckenbrod, Mr. Manfred Honeck, the PSO music director said, “It goes without saying that a player for this position has to be technically brilliant, Mr. Bendix-Balgley intonation is very clear, his tone is rich and very expressive, but he never gets carried away. He is certainly one of the best of his generation.”
Leadership is as crucial a quality for a successful concertmaster as musicianship. “He is the artistic spokesman for the orchestra outside, and inside [the group], he must be the leader and be well-respected,” Mr. Honeck said during the search. “He must be a fantastic player and a charismatic personality that people will follow.”
Druckenbrod continued n “Concertmasters not only tune orchestras before performances and play solos within compositions, they do anything from establishing conformity in strings bowing direction to upholding artistic quality in all sections with other principal musicians.”
“The concertmaster connects the conductor to the orchestra,” said Mr. Bendix-Balgley, who will move to the region. “I really try, with my bow use and body movement, to bring out the music and what the conductor is looking for.”
Mr. Bendix-Balgley was a dark horse late entry for the position. Mr. Honeck’s violinist son Matthias brought him to the attention of the orchestra well into the search.”He was an unknown to us, but on further research appeared interesting, so he was invited to audition where he exceeded all expectations,” Mr. Honeck said.”It is not that he was hiding, but that his star hadn’t risen yet and our paths intersected at the right time,” said Robert Moir, the PSO’s vice president of artistic planning. It is ARCA’s hope that he will be happy to return time and again to perform at Lincoln Hall. Tickets are still available, and can be secured by calling 412-867-1816. Adults are $20.00 and students $10.00. Visit ARCA’s website www.alleghenyriverstone.org for other upcoming events

Pittsburgh Chamber Players

This seems appropriate, for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has just returned from a triumphant tour. They played twelve sold out concerts in the music capitals of Europe including Paris, London, Vienna, and performances in Lithuania, and Lucerne, Switzerland. Their final concert after Bonn Germany was at Musikfest Berlin. The Berlin concert took on special significance for it was a commemorative concert on September 11th.

Pittsburgh Chamber Players at Lincoln Hall

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck said they are humbled to be part of the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks:

The tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks has a very serious meaning for all the people of the world. For the people of Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania, it has a special significance, as one of the four attacking planes was brought down by its passengers in a field not far from Pittsburgh. These brave passengers sacrificed their lives so that others would not die. To them and to all of the victims of 9/11 the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra dedicates this worldwide streaming of Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 5 from the Berlin Philharmonie.

The Chamber Players returned from their tour along the rivers of Europe inspired to bring sublime music to Foxburg along the Allegheny. The Festival Grand Concert will be Saturday, October 22nd at 7:00 PM in the acoustically refined Lincoln Hall. The program will include Franz Scubert’s String Trio in B-flat, Felix Mendelssohn, String Quartet in D major, and Johannes Brahms, Piano Quintet in F minor. This promises to be the premier music event of the fall season.

In addition ARCA will bring the October Classical MusicFest to the Allegheny Clarion Valley School District schools with companion classical music enrichment programs on October 19 and 21st. Grand Concert tickets are adults $20.00 and students $10.00. Tickets can be reserved by calling 412-867-1816.

Also ARCA reminds the Allegheny Clarion community of two events in November, an Art Opening and Reception at the Red Brick Gallery Saturday, November 5th, from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM, and Poetry and Jazz at Lincoln Hall Sunday, November 6th, at 2:00 PM. Visit www.alleghenyriverstone.org for more information and December events.