The historic Hudson Opera House announces a Summer 2026 season that moves from the performance hall to the Hudson River — and from Pride Month premieres to a 250th birthday reckoning with the nation's origins.
A still from "Ghost Dance for America," Photo by Karl Nussbaum.
Hudson Hall has announced its Summer 2026 season, a program that runs June through August and ranges from Baroque music on the Hudson River to an immersive installation confronting the violent origins of the United States. The schedule is filled with Pride Month premieres, a Frederic Church bicentennial, and a 20-year-old jazz workshop in between.
Before the season opens, Hudson Hall holds its annual fundraiser on May 16, honoring Elena Mosley of Operation Unite NY and Steven Johnson and Walter Sudol of the Second Ward Foundation. The evening features performances by choreographer-in-residence Bobbi Jene Smith and jazz duo Vuyo Sotashe and Chris Pattishall, with a highlight being countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen and ensemble Ruckus performing an excerpt from Handel's “Deidamia,” the opera Hudson Hall will stage in full in 2027, directed by R.B. Schlather.
The season's fresh air centerpiece is three sunset concerts aboard the Schooner Apollonia, departing Henry Hudson Riverfront Park as part of the ongoing “Handel on the Hudson” series. Each evening pairs a vocalist with musicians from Ruckus: soprano Meredith Wohlgemuth and keyboardist Elliot Figg on June 6, bass-baritone Douglas Ray Williams and Figg on July 11, and singer Fiona Gillespie with guitarist Paul Morton on August 8. The series functions as an extended preview of Deidamia, with each sail drawing on the seafaring themes at the heart of that production. Tickets are $60 per-concert.
June brings two very different Pride Month programs. On June 18, Rich "Trixie" Volo, founder of Hudson's Pride Parade and author of the widely-read local events guide Trixie's List, launches his debut novel, The Gay Boat: Italy, a comic and tender story set aboard an all-gay Mediterranean cruise. The launch event is free to attend.
On June 20, composer Matthew Aucoin, a 2018 MacArthur Fellow whose work has been commissioned by the Met and Carnegie Hall, joins bass-baritone William Socolof for the regional premiere of The Inner Core, a song cycle tracing a queer relationship from adolescence through early adulthood. Aucoin performs at the piano himself; the Hudson presentation includes two newly completed songs ($30–$55).
The season opens on June 4 with a free screening of Language in Landscape: The Art of Frederic Church, a short documentary produced with The Olana Partnership and WMHT to mark the painter's 200th birthday. A conversation follows with Olana Partnership president Sean Sawyer, Met curator emerita Elizabeth Kornhauser, and Victoria Johnson, author of the new Church biography Glorious Country.
The most ambitious work of the summer may be Karl Nussbaum's “Ghost Dance for America, 1890,” a large-scale immersive video and light installation occupying Hudson Hall's performance hall during Upstate Art Weekend, June 25–July 5. Nussbaum, whose work has been shown at Sundance, the Hirshhorn, and Lincoln Center, draws on early cinematic techniques to examine the founding violence of the United States in its 250th anniversary year. He gives a free artist talk on June 28.
Also during Upstate Art Weekend, Hudson-based painter and sculptor Reginald Madison opens “Caravan,” a solo show of new and recent work curated by September Gallery. Built from salvaged materials through an improvisational process shaped by his deep engagement with jazz, the exhibition runs July 18 through October 11.
The summer ends with two community mainstays. On July 25, Midsummer Swing! brings a beginner Lindy Hop lesson and live dancing with swing band Eight to the Bar to Hudson Hall in partnership with Got2Lindy Dance Studios ($37). On August 9, the Hudson Jazz Workshop marks its 20th anniversary with a free concert led by pianist Armen Donelian and saxophonist Marc Mommaas, with guitarist Steve Cardenas joining as a special guest.
Hudson Hall is located at 327 Warren Street, Hudson. Tickets and reservations at hudsonhall.org.
