Symphony and fireworks cap memorable day for Medina celebrating Erie Canal
Photos by Tom Rivers: Fireworks reflect in the Erie Canal on Tuesday after a performance by the Albany Symphony in Medina.
MEDINA – Wednesday was a historic day for Medina with a performance by the Albany Symphony in the Canal Basin followed by fireworks over the Erie Canal.
The concert included the debut of a composition written specifically for the concert in Medina celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Erie Canal.
The stage was set top next to the Erie Canal in Medina.
David Alan Miller conducts the symphony during Tuesday’s concert. The Grammy award-winning Miller has led the group since 1992.
The opening piece of the concert included 18 minutes of George Frideric Handel’s “Water Music.”
World-renowned, Brazilian American composer Clarice Assad wrote “Medina: A Portrait in Sound” for the event. The composition included taped remarks from Medina residents she met while visiting the community in March. They shared about their love for their hometown, the historic downtown, nature and wildlife, the Christmas decorations on Main Street, Medina Sandstone and cobblestone buildings, and the joy of seeing old friends when out for a walk.
Assad also shared sounds she recorded and were crowdsourced from the community. Some of those included church bells and wildlife, including a rooster crowing.
Assad’s world premiere piece was in seven parts: Home & Nature, Animals, Summer Nostalgia, Winter, Community Heritage, Cultural Diversity and Home & Nature.
Medina Mayor Marguerite Sherman welcomes the Albany Symphony. She thanked the NYS Canal Corp. and New York Power Authority for including Medina as one of five communities along the canal to host the concerts celebrating the bicentennial of the historic waterway.
The rest of the schedule includes: Utica on July 3, Seneca Falls on July 4, Fort Plain on July 5, and Schuylerville on July 6.
Each concert includes a world premiere of a new composition. The themes for the original compositions include environmental justice on July 2, immigrant communities on July 3, women’s rights on July 4, Indigenous stories on July 5, and Black experience on July 6.
Angelyn Chandler, vice president of NYPA, is next to Sherman. Chandler said the new commissioned music is an attempt to tell an “expanded narrative of the canal.”
“We think telling these stories is very important for all of us,” she said.
Chandler thanked Medina for hosting the concert and being part of the bicentennial celebration.
“Thank you for showing us what a canal community can look like and sound like,” she said.
Photo by Cindy Eibl: Two of the performers in the Albany Symphony have local connections. Dana Oakes is a trumpet player with the orchestra. He is the brother of Wendy Oakes Wilson and Darrel Oakes of Lyndonville.
Paula Oakes (center), wife of Dana Oakes, has been a member of the Albany Symphony’s first violin section since 1986.
Britt Hewitt, a soprano at left, and Devony Smith, a mezzo-soprano, sang an arrangement of pop hits, including “Uptown Funk” by Bruno Mars during the concert.
The two singers led off the concert by singing the national anthem, “Star Spangled Banner.”
About 1,000 people attended the concert, a rare event with a symphony performing in Orleans County.
A crowd filled the basin to see the symphony, which performed from a stage on the northside of the parking lot.
The calm water of the Erie Canal acted like mirror reflecting the fireworks on Tuesday night. The fireworks were let off with the threat of rain looming.
