Sure, Throwback Thursday usually means dorky high school pictures posted of you on FB. OK. Maybe not for you, who never had a geeky day in your life. But for the rest of us …
Let’s redefine this almost-the-weekend activity … Tonight, try elevating the meaning of “throwback Thursday” by checking out the final Buffalo Chamber Players at the AK concert of the 2015-2016 series. The series is a partnership between the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Buffalo Chamber Players, and tonight’s 8 o’clock program, “Unconventional Voices” takes a journey through the “alternative” side of chamber music.
The Chamber Players will feature uncommon instrument combinations in pieces by Haydn, Prokofiev and Pulitzer prize-winning composer Paul Moravec, who will attend the reception following the performance.
Further details and ticket information is available at the Albright-Knox website.
If the Chamber Players whet your appetite for exploring the arts of the past, you could try your hand at Victorian Dance. The Victorian Dance Workshop Saturday at the Buffalo-Niagara Heritage Village is a free event, where members of the Amherst Victorian Dance Society will teach 6 Victorian Dances, as well as highlights of Victorian Culture and etiquette. Reservations are encouraged, as is period dress. (Nothing brightens a Saturday like historically-accurate cosplay, IMHO )
The Victorian Era concluded in 1901, transitioning to the Edwardian Era … and here in Buffalo, 1901 marked the Pan-American Exposition which is the subject of The Buffalo History Museum and Forest Lawn Cemetery’s Trolley Tour Saturday. The tour begins at 10 a.m, and ranges from Forest Lawn’s Margaret L. Wendt Archive, to the Hotel at The Lafayette and its Pan-American Grill and Brewery (lunch included with the tour). Travelling then to the History Museum’s Resource Center for the interactive “The Spirit Still Lives” exhibit. The tour concludes back at the Wendt archive at 3 p.m.
Reservations are needed due to limited seating, and the tour includes the appearance of Nickel City Opera’s Valerian Ruminski dressed as President William McKinley. Ruminski’s presentation will be about the upcoming opera “SHOT!” by Persis Vehar, about the McKinley assassination in Buffalo in 1901 which will premiere at Shea’s theatre on June 10.
After McKinley succumbed to the gunshot wounds inflicted by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition, Theodore Roosevelt assumed the presidency in September of 1901. The Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site invites the young ones to begin a historical journey this weekend with Teddy Bear Story Hour Saturday from 2 to 3 p.m. Bring blankets, teddy bears and your 3- to 8-year-old to listen to Miles of Smiles: The Story of Roxey, the Long Island Railroad Dog. Snacks, a special gift and a family-oriented tour of the TR site are included in the $3 general admission price (free for TR Site members.)
So, stretch your throwback Thursday out across the weekend: Buffalo pretty much has this history thing well in hand.
Helen Bach is a returned WNY expatriate, now a Buffalo resident. She has 3 adult-sized kids, 1 wiggle-sized dog and a scintillating career dramatically unrelated to journalism.
All WNY is made possible thanks to coffee and sleep deprivation.
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