JD Balloni’s band the Petty Thieves is back at the Morgan Opera House for the first time in five years! Hard to believe. For those of you who don’t know the band well, their focus is the music of Tom Petty as well as that of the artists he has performed with and those who influenced him.

The band is a product of the Auburn Public Theater’s open mic nights and the many musicians who appear there regularly. Sam Pruyn, a transplant from Long Island, started appearing at the APT in September 2016, where he met Loren Miller (among others) who had a Sunday Morning Jam every week. Sam and Loren started doing a duo set together and subsequently heard JD Balloni performing Tom Petty material at the open mic night. The three started doing Tom Petty and related artists’ songs at the open mic nights to enthusiastic response. Eliott “Oz” Vanderveer, who was playing bass with Loren Miller in their classic rock band Rockinspiel and finally, Rich Howard, a drummer from Auburn, were asked to join.

Petty Thieves will play a set of influences and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album tracks and obscurities, followed by a set of hit songs. All are welcome. There is no cover charge, however contributions (to the band and the Opera House) are encouraged.

See you there, and welcome back!

Aurora’s very own Matt Haenlin brings his band, Little House Blues, to the Morgan Opera House, Saturday, July 29th at 8pm. The concert is free, but donations are welcome.

Based in Massachussetts, the band draws much of its inpsiration from the Chicago blues scene of the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s – iconic figures like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, James Cotton, Louis Jordan, John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson inform the spirit of their music. They interpret a range of standards from that period, honoring the inventors of the genre. But, they also play originals and covers of a few more contemporary surprises in a way that tries to sustain the essence of the blues: a good time, danceable antidote, however fleeting, to the feelings of self-doubt, weariness and despair so undeniably a part of everyday life, that are the blues as such.

Little House Blues is a collaboration of Bill Blatner on blues harp and vocals, Matt Haenlin on electric guitar, Nina Rossi on electric bass and Ben Sears on drums. They started jamming in the fall of 2017 and liked the chemistry so much that they just kept going, building a repertoire and beginning to perform publicly about a year later.
Featured in the band are: Bill Blatner, a journeyman blues harp player and singer who also performs with Blue Shade. Ace guitarist Matt Haenlin, co-founder of the band Cart Blanch, that enjoyed a huge following in Central New York and Boston in the 90’s and 2000’s. Fans of the band, She Said, will recognize local artist, musician and writer Nina Rossi holding down the groove on bass. Ben Sears is best known for his remarkable work as a painter and fine artist, bringing the same focus, professionalism and creativity to his drum work with Little House Blues.

Written and performed by Anna Marck and directed by D.B. Schroeder, “Women of the Watch, Keepers of the Light,” is an uplifting 45-minutes of music, laughter, and simple honest storytelling. Hosted by the Aurora Free Library

POSTPONED~POSTPONED!

This event will be re-scheduled for a later date.

Meet a Founding Mother of the United States! The Morgan Opera House premiers a staged reading of “The Fairer Sex” written by Stephen Cedars. Saturday, September 30 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, October 1 at 2 pm. Mercy Otis Warren is renowned as one of the principal activists and writers in the years leading up to the American Revolution. This original play is set in the early 1800s, as a conversation among her, and John and Abagail Adams, with visits from their youthful selves popping up throughout. The play is likewise sprinkled with appearances by George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and sundry other characters, who provide all manner of commentary on what she did to further the revolutionary cause. Directed by Susan Forbes, a past Chair of the Wells College Theater Department, the play will be a staged reading featuring members of the community. The performances are free, but a $10 donation is suggested.

Open Cast Call is September 25th at 6:30pm. 2 rehearsals that week. Tech rehearsal Fri Sept 29.

As a tribute to his wife, Gloria, George Peter started the Gloria Ann Barnell Peter playwright competition which solicits original works by playwrights, selects the best scripts and then presents them to our audiences. The Peter family has generously continued this tradition. For more information, call 315-364-5347.

POSTPONED~POSTPONED!

This event will be be re-scheduled for a later date.

Meet a Founding Mother of the United States! The Morgan Opera House premiers a staged reading of “The Fairer Sex” written by Stephen Cedars. Saturday, September 30 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, October 1 at 2 pm. Mercy Otis Warren is renowned as one of the principal activists and writers in the years leading up to the American Revolution. This original play is set in the early 1800s, as a conversation among her, and John and Abagail Adams, with visits from their youthful selves popping up throughout. The play is likewise sprinkled with appearances by George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and sundry other characters, who provide all manner of commentary on what she did to further the revolutionary cause. Directed by Susan Forbes, a past Chair of the Wells College Theater Department, the play will be a staged reading featuring members of the community. The performances are free, but a $10 donation is suggested.

Open Cast Call is September 25th at 6:30pm. 2 rehearsals that week. Tech rehearsal Fri Sept 29.

As a tribute to his wife, Gloria, George Peter started the Gloria Ann Barnell Peter playwright competition which solicits original works by playwrights, selects the best scripts and then presents them to our audiences. The Peter family has generously continued this tradition. For more information, call 315-364-5347.

Returning to the opera house after 13 years!

Donations welcomed—$20 suggested.

The musical partnership between consummate performer Alasdair Fraser, “the Michael Jordan of Scottish fiddling,” and brilliant Californian cellist, Natalie Haas, spans the full spectrum between intimate chamber music and ecstatic dance energy. Over the last 16 years of creating a buzz at festivals and concert halls across the world, they have truly set the standard for fiddle and cello in traditional music. They continue to thrill audiences internationally with their virtuosic playing, their near-telepathic understanding, and thejoyful spontaneity and sheer physical presence of their music.

Fraser has a concert and recording career spanning over 30 years, with a long list of awards, accolades, radio and television credits, and feature performances on top movie soundtracks (Last of the Mohicans, Titanic, etc.). In 2011, he was inducted into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame. Haas, a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, is one of the most sought after cellists in traditional music today. She has performed and recorded with a who’s who of the fiddle world including Mark O’Connor, Natalie MacMaster, Irish supergroups Solas and Altan, Liz Carroll, Dirk Powell, Brittany Haas, Darol Anger, Jeremy Kittel, Hanneke Cassel, Laura Cortese, and many more.

This seemingly unlikely pairing of fiddle and cello is the fulfillment of a long-standing musical dream for Fraser. His search eventually led him to find a cellist who could help return the cello to its historical role at the rhythmic heart of Scottish dance music, where it stood for hundreds of years before being relegated to the orchestra. The duo’s debut recording, Fire & Grace, won the coveted the Scots Trad Music “Album of the Year” award, the Scottish equivalent of a Grammy. Since its release, the two have gone on to record three more critically acclaimed albums that blend a profound understanding of the Scottish tradition with cutting-edge string explorations. In additional to performing, they both have motivated generations of string players through their teaching at fiddle camps across the globe.

The Morgan Opera House proudly announces the return of the Skaneateles String Quintet, Sunday October 29^th  at 4 pm. This stellar ensemble features Yoojin Lee and Laura Smith, violins; Hee Jung Yang and Willie Ford-Smith, violas;  Lindsay Groves, cello. Special guest Gerald Wolf on harmonium.  They will perform selections from the well-loved repertoire of Mozart and Brahms:

Mozart, Quintet in G minor, K. 516
Dvorak, Op 47
Brahms, Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 111

Free, $20 Suggested donation

This event originally scheduled for Sunday, October 8th, has now been re-scheduled for Sunday, November 5th.

Local author Tom Wilber will discuss his book, “Vanishing Point: The Search for a B-25 Bomber Crew Lost on the WWII Home Front”. Hosted by the Book Lover’s Ball committee.

The beloved klezmer music returns to the Morgan Opera House on Saturday, Nov. 18th at 7:30PM. Though the Klezmer Kings dissolved, many of them live on in CUKE! Cornell University Klezmer Ensemble. They will play several genres of klezmer music: American klezmer from New York and Philadelphia of the 1910s and 1920s; the repertoire of New York clarinetist Dave Tarras from the late 1930s to mid-1940s; and Russian (Ukraine/Belarus) klezmer from pre-revolutionary times. Led by Ryan Zawel, trombonist and past member of the Joel Rubin Jewish Music Ensemble and Klezmer Kings. CUKE is a student organization of Cornell University, but also includes staff and community members. True to klezmer tradition, they play an eclectic collection of instruments and will appear at MOH playing violins, viola, clarinet, mandolin, cello, trombone, sousaphone, piano, and drum set. Be prepared to enjoy the variety and vigor of their performance.

The concert is free but a donation of $10 to benefit the Morgan Opera House would be appreciated.

Klezmer was originally the ritual and celebratory music of the Yiddish-speaking Jews of Eastern Europe, where it developed over the course of many centuries. Brought to North America with the Jewish immigration wave from Russia and other Eastern European countries during the period 1881-1924, a modern klezmer tradition developed in the urban centers, particularly in New York City, although it subsequently went into a decline due to the forces of acculturation and assimilation. Since the 1970s, a dynamic revival of this tradition has been taking place. It has since become one of the most visible transnational music and culture movements involving many thousands of participants on five continents. The recent popularity of klezmer music has brought it far from its roots in medieval minstrel and Jewish ritual and into the sphere of mainstream culture, reaching as far as “Sex and the City.” It has inspired parallel developments in jazz/improvised music, such as the Radical Jewish Culture movement in New York’s Downtown Scene, as well as spawning a new genre of klezmer-influenced art music compositions by composers such as Golijov and Schoenfield.