Music History on Tap for Saratoga Benefit

Saratoga Springs, NY (May 30, 2012) –  Two Yaddo artists – composer Nathan Barr and author Will Hermes – will entertain friends and supporters at our June 19th Summer Benefit with a lively exchange about the New York City music scene in the mid-1970s, the subject of Hermes’s latest book, Love Goes to Buildings On Fire: Five Years in New York City That Changed Music Forever (November 2011).

Hermes is a senior critic for Rolling Stone and a longtime contributor to NPR’s “All Things Considered.” His work turns up periodically in The New York Times, and he also has written for Spin, the Village Voice, The Believer, GQ, Details, Salon, City Pages, the Windy City Times, and many other publications. He co-edited SPIN: 20 Years of Alternative Music (2006) with Sia Michel, and his writing was included in Da Capo Best Music Writing 2006 and Da Capo Best Music Writing 2007.

Barr has scored all four seasons of HBO’s Emmy-winning series True Blood, and he is currently at work on Season 5. He has composed music for more than 30 feature films in addition to his television experience. This year, Barr is writing original music for Lionsgate’s upcoming comedy The Wedding, starring Robert De Niro and Diane Keaton. He also scored IFC Films’ The Ledge, which premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Other credits include: 20th Century Fox’s Shutter, Warner Brothers’ The Dukes of Hazzard, and Film for Thought’s Hood To Coast. In addition to writing his compositions, Barr performs all of the instruments heard in much of his work, and he is skilled in many styles and genres ranging from orchestral to rock.

A discussion about music is particularly fitting this year as we celebrate an important milestone in 20th century American music – the 80th anniversary of the first of the Yaddo Festivals of American Music and the 60th anniversary of the final program in the history-making series. In all, nine festivals were presented at Yaddo between 1932 and 1952, featuring works by 137 composers, 18 of which went on to win Pulitzer Prizes, including nine of the first 11 composers ever awarded the music prize.

Thanks to the generosity of the Capital Region community and the efforts of the organizing committee, the event expenses are traditionally kept to a minimum, allowing more than 90 percent of the benefit proceeds to go directly to Yaddo’s artists’ residency program. Committee chairs are Tamie Ehinger, Cynthia D. Hollowood, and Anne Palamountain. A special feature of this year’s fundraiser will be a silent auction, open to everyone in attendance and offering a select group of unique items, including dinner for 10 in the Yaddo Mansion, a Yaddo Stakes package at Saratoga Race Course, a one-week vacation in France with wine tastings from the barrel and a private wine cellar tour, dinner theater parties at The Mansion at Saratoga, and much more.

The 2012 Yaddo Summer benefit will be held Tuesday, June 19th, in the Music Room of the Yaddo Mansion. Doors open at 7:30 p.m., the program begins at 8 p.m., and a party will follow the performance. Silent auction bids will be accepted prior to the program and up until 10 p.m.

 Individual reservations are $150 (Patron), $175 (Special Patron), and $200 (Honorary Patron). Sponsorships with special incentives, including an invitation to a pre-event cocktail reception in a private area of the Yaddo Mansion, start at $600. Click here to see the sponsorship benefits.

All reservations are now sold out.

For additional information, contact Lynn Farenell (lfarenell@yaddo.org or 518.584.0746).