Stissing Center Weekend: Percussion Upstairs, Songwriters Downstairs

Friday, November 6, and Saturday, November 7, 7:30pm | Pine Plains, NY

The Stissing Center in Pine Plains has two very different concerts this weekend, in two very different rooms. On Friday night, songwriters Holly Miranda and Amber Rubarth play The Grace Note, the lounge downstairs. On Saturday, the Burritt Percussion Group takes over Banning Hall upstairs. Both start at 7:30pm.

Friday’s show suits the downstairs room, which the Stissing Center describes as "intimate and high-fidelity." Miranda is a songwriter and producer from Detroit who arrived on the New York scene in the late 1990s. She co-founded The Jealous Girlfriends in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in the early 2000s, then released a debut solo album, The Magician’s Private Library, on XL Recordings in 2010. She has also worked with Lou Reed, Karen O, Kelis, Lesley Gore, and Tegan and Sara.

Rubarth, who lives in the Hudson Valley, won the grand prize in NPR’s Mountain Stage contest. Her songs have taken her from Carnegie Hall to Glastonbury, and she has opened for Emmylou Harris, Richie Havens, Ralph Stanley, and Kenny Loggins. She made her acting debut in the feature film American Folk, wrote music for the documentaries Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work and Desert Runners, and co-produced a double album for the documentary Fantastic Fungi. Her latest album, Cover Crop, is made up of 15 cover songs that she recorded herself at her cottage in the woods.

On Saturday, the show moves upstairs to the hall. Michael Burritt, a percussionist, composer, and educator who chairs the winds, brass, and percussion department at the Eastman School of Music, founded the Burritt Percussion Group. Its members are his former students, who now work as performers, teachers, soloists, and chamber musicians. The program pairs Burritt’s own compositions with pieces that have shaped modern percussion, moving between driving rhythm and quieter, more melodic passages.

Stissing Center for Arts & Culture, 2950 Church Street, Pine Plains, NY. Tickets at thestissingcenter.org or 518-771-3339.