Hudson River Museum Announces Summer 2018 Amphitheater Series

YONKERS, NY, June 22, 2018 — The Hudson River Museum is pleased to announce the 2018 Summer Amphitheater Series, with a dynamic mix of performances on Friday and Saturday evenings from July 6 – August 18. Now in its sixth year, this diverse selection of entertainment includes contemporary and traditional music, dance, drama, and magic, such as the Afro-Peruvian Ensemble—a perennial favorite— the Dynamic Rockers, NY Neo-Futurists, and Magic & Mind Reading with Benjamin Levy. The Museum continues its partnership with the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, who will perform Hamlet and The Sea-Maids Music.

All performances are FREE and begin at 8pm, with doors open at 7pm. The 400-seat outdoor Amphitheater boasts a stunning view of the Hudson River and the Palisades. The Museum will also offer free admission Friday and Saturdays from 5 – 8pm and free Planetarium shows at 7pm, Friday, July 6 through Saturday, September 1, sponsored by Entergy. Free parking is available.

The Amphitheater 2018 Series will be featured on the Museum’s website, as on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter using the hashtag #HRMAmphitheater

FULL SCHEDULE

Afro-Peruvian Ensemble
Friday, July 6, 8pm
An all-star band that brings rhythms of the Peruvian coast from uplifted festejos to contrapunto de Zapateo (tap dancing competition). Since 2012, the band has been spreading this unique musical tradition to audiences in the US and around the world.

Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: Hamlet
Saturday, July 7, 8pm
This haunting tragedy begs the devastating question: where should a young man turn when his father is killed, his mother remarries, and the life he knew has been taken from him? This 90-minute production brings an intimacy and immediacy to Shakespeare’s iconic story of murder and madness. Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (HVSF) is a critically acclaimed, professional, non-profit theater company, which aligns with the HRM’s vision to provide lucid, engaging, and highly inventive productions in unique environments. This program is sponsored by Mercy College.

Traditional Irish Music and Dance
Friday, July 13, 8pm
This NYC-based group will perform a 70 minute set of Irish traditional music and dance. Featured performers are Katie Linnane on fiddle, Cleek Schrey on hardanger fiddle, and Stuart Jackson on the uillean pipes.

FJK Dance
Saturday, July 14, 8pm
Untold, a new production by this contemporary dance company layers ancient Middle Eastern aesthetics with contemporary ballet and ballroom movements, while incorporating sculpture and graphic design. Founded by Fadi J. Khoury and Sevin Ceviker, FJK is dedicated to presenting a unique fusion of dance genres through its performances and supports a cross-cultural dialogue, infusing its works with positive images from many dance traditions.

Seratones
Friday, July 20, 8pm
The Seratones, who hail from Shreveport, Louisiana, serve up a combination of Southern musicality and garage rock ferocity. The city sits as a nexus roughly equidistant from Memphis soul, Mississippi Delta Blues, and New Orleans jazz, with Texas swing located just over the nearby state border. The band’s sound draws from those touch points and more, ranging from Black Sabbath’s Paranoid to Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue.

Benjamin Levy: Magic & Mind Reading
Saturday, July 21, 8pm
Benjamin Levy is a unique, multi-talented magician, memory expert and speaker, who is the favorite of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and has performed for President Obama and Muhammad Ali. His programs are memorable, entertaining, audience involving, highly personalized, sophisticated and filled with humor and a very special charm. This program is sponsored by SAX LLC.

American Pinup
Friday, July 27, 8pm
Hailing from Westchester County, New York, female-fronted, four-piece punk band, American Pinup has swiftly gained notoriety within the New York underground music scene and has become known for their energetic live performances and strong DIY-punk ethos. Their sound, however, extends well beyond the musical tenets of punk, recalling elements of such genres as rockabilly, surf, ska, and pop.

NY Neo-Futurists: The Infinite Wrench
Saturday, July 28, 8pm
The Infinite Wrench is a barrage of 30 original plays performed in random order—a theatrical race against an onstage clock set for one hour. Each play offers something different, be it funny, profound, elegant, disgusting, topical, irrelevant, terrifying, or a song; all are truthful and tackle the here-and-now, inspired by the lived experiences of the performers. The Infinite Wrench is the Neo-Futurists’ ongoing and ever-changing attempt to shift the conventions of live performance and speak to audiences including those unreached or unmoved by traditional theater.

Slavic Soul Party
Friday, August 3, 8pm
Balkan brass, funk grooves, Gypsy accordion, and jazz chops make Slavic Soul Party! NYC’s #1 brass band for Balkan Soul Gypsy Funk. “One of our all-time favorite NYC bands”—National Geographic Music.

Dynamic Rockers
Saturday, August 4, 8pm
Dynamic Rockers, the NYC hip hop group, returns to HRM to perform an original theater piece about the struggles of being a B-Boy or B-girl in today’s society, featuring break dancing mixed with other contemporary dance styles. This program is sponsored by Henry E. Niles Foundation.

Deni Bonet
Friday, August 10, 8pm
Deni Bonet is a NYC-based virtuoso electric violinist, singer, and songwriter. Whether fronting her own band of outstanding players, or collaborating with anyone from Cyndi Lauper to R.E.M. to Irish rocker Mundy, Deni has gained a reputation as one of the most exciting, dynamic, and entertaining performers on the live circuit.

Big Mamou
Saturday, August 11, 8pm
Big Mamou was formed in what could be described as a cosmic Cajun and country collision, when married couple Jim and Julianne Fenhagen met accordion player John Sherman. Their sound is a mashup of cajun, zydeco, and country music.

The Joey Berkley Band
Friday, August 17, 8pm
Joey Berkley, director of the Westchester Center for Jazz and Contemporary Music, and his band perform their unique funky sound rooted in the tradition of Miles, Monk, and Coltrane. This program is sponsored by Westchester Bank.

Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: The Sea-Maids Music
Saturday, August 18, 8pm
Devised & directed by Zachary Fine, this original 90-minute clown show, developed in collaboration with the actors of HVSF’s Conservatory Company, a young mermaid is the source of literary inspiration for Shakespeare himself, as well as for anyone and everyone who hears the call to make something beautiful out of nothing at all. This program is sponsored by Generation Yonkers.

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