300 pack house for concert at Pratt Opera House

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 15 April 2024 at 9:41 am

Largest crowd in about a century fills the third floor of historic venue in Albion

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Musicians performed at the Pratt Opera House to a full house for the first time in likely a century on Sunday.

There were 22 musicians on stage in the “Live at the Pratt” event in an opera house built in 1882 at 118 North Main St.

Erin Moody closes out a 2 1/2-hour show with “American Pie” by Don McLean. Moody and 21 other musicians played to a capacity crowd.

The 300 people at the performance on Sunday was biggest crowd to attend an event at the Pratt since at least 1930, when the theater closed, a victim of the Great Depression and emergence of movie theaters. The Pratt building was built in 1882.

Michael Bonafede, co-owner of the Pratt with his wife Judith Koehler, welcomes the crowd to Sunday’s performance. Bonafede also played the drums for more than two hours on Sunday.

The husband and wife purchased the Pratt and Day building in 2005. They have put on a new roof and made a series of other interior and exterior improvements to the building, which has several tenants on the first and second floors.

Just in the past few weeks they added 235 chairs that they bought at an auction from Holley Central School, and last week purchased 43 sets of double-auditorium chairs from Wells College. Those seats date back to the 1800s, Koehler said.

The Pratt was sold out on Sunday for the concert in the historic opera house. This photo shows people waiting to enter the building on Main Street.

There was a concert last June in a “test run” to see how the musicians liked the acoustics. They loved them and most of that group was back performing on Sunday, offering their services for free.

“It’s a nice place to play,” said trumpeter Brian Wilkins. “The acoustics are great.”

Bonafede said the Pratt performance venue can be used to promote Albion and the many other historic resources in the community, form the downtown business district, Courthouse Square, Mount Albion Cemetery, Cobblestone Museum and Erie Canal – all of which are either on the National Register of Historic Places. (The Erie Canal and Cobblestone Museum also are designated National Historic Landmarks.)

“We want to create a sense of vibrancy here,” Bonafede said. “We have a lot of unique assets to offer folks.”

The musicians played rhythm and blues, and many rock and roll classics.

From left in front include Brian Wilkins on trumpet, Michael Bonafede on drums, John Borello on Stratocaster guitar and Rich Simbari on Fender P bass guitar.

Bonafede also played with two of his bandmates from Black Sheep. Larry (Rose) Crozier played the piano and Don Mancuso is on the guitar.

Black Sheep, with also included legendary lead singer Lou Gramm before he went to Foreigner. Black Sheep broke up in 1976. But before that they performed in front of tens of thousands of people.

Black Sheep recorded two albums for Capital Records and shared the stage with Kiss, Aerosmith, REO Speedwagon, and Hall and Oates.