Hoag completes first concert series with new one to start in March

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Dr. Lynn McGrath, a professor at the Eastman School of Music, performs a concert with her guitar on Saturday at Hoag Library. That concluded the first Hoag Music Series, which started in July and at least once a month featured musicians who hadn’t performed in Orleans County before.

Jim Doyle, an adult reference librarian at Hoag, worked out many of the details to bring in the performers who played the fingerstyle guitar, harp, African dance and drumming, Chinese Zither, “Pipa” and other instruments that don’t typically get highlighted in Orleans County.

The concerts have been free to the public with support from the Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council and Friends of Hoag Library.

About 50 people attended Saturday’s concert with Lynn McGrath.

The series will take a break and be back in March. Doyle is waiting to hear from GO Art! about funding for 2024.

Doyle said he is pleased by the turnout for the series in the first year.

“It’s about elevating the community and bringing in different music,” he said.

Many of the performers in the Hoag Music Series are graduates of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, which Doyle said is a world-level conservatory drawing top students from around the globe.