Saratoga Festival

Saratoga Festival

June-August

The Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, New York, is the summer home of the New York City Ballet, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Spa Summer Theater. The festival held there every summer includes not only performances by these groups, but also a four-week summer school program for talented high school students interested in dance, orchestra and jazz studies, and theater. Ballet and orchestral performances take place in a partially enclosed amphitheater, and visitors often arrive a few hours early to picnic on the grass and enjoy the spacious grounds of the Saratoga Spa State Park, where the center is located.
The Saratoga Festival has seen a number of world premieres, among them the 1976 premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti's first symphony ( see Spoleto Festival USA) and the 1974 world premiere of the ballet, Coppelia . The summer theater performs both classical and contemporary plays in the center's 500-seat theater.

CONTACTS:
Saratoga Performing Arts Center
108 Ave. of The Pines
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
518-587-3330; fax: 518-584-0809
www.spac.org

SOURCES:
GdUSFest-1984, p. 130
MusFestAmer-1990, p. 110