Activities for Students of All Ages

Educational Performances & Activities

at the Hall

The Troy Savings Bank Music Hall is committed to supporting arts education in our schools and throughout our community. By offering free and discounted performances for students, outreach opportunities with artists and masterclasses, we help to leverage our creative assets to make a difference in the lives of children and adults of all ages.

2024-2025 Student Activities & Performances

Thursday, March 27, 2025

11AM

Frida Kahlo and the Bravest Niña in el Mundo

 Composer: Joe Illick, Librettist: Mark Campbell

Program Date: Thursday, March 27, 2025

Program Time: Doors Open: 10:30a, Performance: 11:00a-12:00p

• 45 minute program with 5-10 minute Q&A at the end

Short Summary: Frida Kahlo and the Bravest Niña in el Mundo is an interactive children’s opera composed by Joe Illick with libretto written by Mark Campbell. The story is about Mariana, a young girl living in Mexico City in the late 1940s. Mariana’s family encourages her to have her portrait painted by the renowned artist, Frida Kahlo. Mariana is initially frightened, but is emboldened and charmed by Kahlo, the animals in her household including a monkey, a parrot and a dog, and a visit by the exuberant artist Diego Rivera. As Mariana sits for her portrait, she learns all about Frida’s life, and begins to understand the meaning of bravery.

The opera is appropriate for ages 5-11. 

TICKETS ARE FREE FOR THE MONTH OF DECEMBER

REGISTER HERE

Open Rehearsal with Albany Symphony

 Daniel Roumain + Beethoven’s Pastoral 

Thursday, January 9th, 2025 7:00 PM 

Open Rehearsals with the Albany Symphony offer an exclusive insight into the world of orchestral music today. What is the orchestral rehearsal process and how do so many different instruments and musicians work together? The rehearsal room vibrates with creative potential. 

At January’s open rehearsal, not only will you hear how Beethoven’s famous “Pastoral” symphony comes together, but you will also have the chance to see spoken word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph and composer Daniel Bernard Roumain work with David Alan Miller and the orchestra to bring their work Forgiveness (premiered by the Albany Symphony in 2023) back to the concert hall.  
 

 7:00pm – Refreshments  

7:30pm - Rehearsal begins 

10:00pm - Rehearsal Concludes* 

*Attendees are welcome to leave quietly at any time. 

Register HERE

Artist-in-Residence

Hana van der Kolk

Premiere Performance

and we keep

Wednesday, February 19, 2025

7:00p

And we keep is a song, a dance, and a ceremony devised specifically for the historic Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. Featuring six performers, And we keep calls audience participants into intimacy with the spirit of place and moment through a care-fully crafted tapestry of sound, words, movement, and visual elements. The roughly hour-long performance acts as a prayer for the resuscitation of our imaginations and a humble recognition of our interconnectivity.  

TICKETS: Sliding Scale (pay what you will) $8-$30 Available AT THE DOOR ONLY. No person turned away for lack of funds.

Workshops with Hana

some ways to keep

Workshop 1: Sunday, February 2, 2025 2:30p—4:00p
Workshop 2: Wednesday, February 12, 2025 7:00p—8:30p

In these public workshops we will do an accessible, physical warm up, learn and practice some modes for creating altars/arrangements with found objects on our own and together, explore simple songs and ways of improvising with sound as a group, and engage in movement-based practices that bring all of the elements of the workshop together. Through our collaborative work, we will awaken enchantment and become more intimate with ourselves, one another, and the energy of the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. These workshops are open to anyone and will be adaptable to all bodies. No previous dance or performance experience is necessary. You can take one of the workshops or both; they will be related to one another and different from one another. Wear layers of clothing that you are comfortable moving in and bring a notebook if you like (paper and pens also provided).

TICKETS: Sliding Scale (pay what you will) $5-$30 Available AT THE DOOR ONLY.

About Hana

Hana van der Kolk is a queer dancer, artist, and facilitator of ritual, embodied learning, and celebration living on unceded Mohican, Mohawk, and Haudenosauneelands, colonially known as the Hudson Valley, New York. Hana is provoked by their interest in care, contradiction, complexity/simplicity, joy/grief, reckoning, eros, and humans’ porous, interconnected, and messy natures. Hana spends time looking for and creating bridges through dance, performance, pedagogy, language, celebration, and personal and collective restoration and transformation. In this process, they create performances, organize events, design and lead workshops, offer counseling & sex and gender expansion work, write, and make videos. Hana sees their work—which is always collaborative—as a conduit for knowing/unknowing what is here and now, for remembering and practicing intimacy at many proximities.

Hana has worked internationally as a teacher and facilitator, performer, and artist for many years. They have a background in Euro-American contemporary dance, somatic practices, and performance art, and are further influenced by Min Tanaka’s experimental dance practices, Black & queer social dance, and Buddhist thought and practice, which they have been a student of for over twenty years. Hana completed an MFA in Dance from UCLA in 2008 and a practice-based PhD in Art at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2022. Their dissertation focused on queer friendship, telepathy, and embodied technologies for re-enchantment and recovery from the delusion of separateness. Hana was based in Troy, NY for almost a decade and is indebted to the city where they learned to coalition build; to be messy, joyful, resistant, together and separate, with and through our bodies, with and through parties, protests, potlucks, city council meetings, dance class, open hours at the community bike shop, and more.

Hana currently collaborates with Angela Beallor and Elizabeth Press on FlagSSS Day and other public processions and rituals mostly in Troy, Erica Dawn Lyle on The Stamina of Utopia, Sondra Loring on We Already Are, Lea Keiffer on Strange Nature, and Adam Tinkle and others on Club SPA spa.  Dori Midnight, Tomislav Feller, Erin Sickler, Eli Nixon, margit galanter, Julia Handschuh, and Lailye Weidman are also frequent collaborators and thought partners. Among Hana’s teachers are Deborah Hay, Debra Bluth, Ashon Crawley, Jennifer Monson, Simone Forti, Barbara Carrellas, d. Sabela grimes, Sara Jane Stoner, Mala Kline, Richard Schwartz, Thanissara and Kittisaro, and Pascal Auclair. They also wish to acknowledge teachers they have never met in person including Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Bayo Akomolafe, Gloria Anzaldúa, Audre Lorde, Min Tanaka, Paul Preciado, Pauline Oliveros, Silvia Federici, Karen Barad, and many others.

Student Pricing to Mainstage Performances

Interested in bringing your class to a mainstage performance at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall! Many of our shows throughout the season have exclusive student pricing:

Ordering Tickets:

• Call or email Jessica Bowen, Director of Education & Outreach with your request.
• (518) 479-9623 or jessica@troymusichall.org

Payment

• Payment is accepted by check, major credit card or BOCES purchase order and is due no later than 14 days in advance of each show. Reservations not paid by the 14-day deadline will be canceled.

Changes and cancellations

• No refunds or exchanges will be made after the 14-day deadline.
• We cannot guarantee seating for additional students if the show is sold out, but will accommodate as best we can to ensure all students have a seat at the show!
•  Please be sure to reserve seating for all teachers and chaperones in addition to students.
• If your school district is closed or dismisses early due to weather, a credit will be issued to your account for the cost of your tickets. Communication regarding cancellation must be received by our box office prior to the performance.

ADA Accommodations

• Please advise the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall of accessible seating needs when the order is place so we can make arrangements prior to your arrival.

Interested in learning more about educational opportunities for your students?

Please Contact Jessica Bowen, Director of Education & Outreach at jessica@troymusichall.org or call (518) 629 - 4016.