INTERVIEW: Grammy-winner David Alan Miller Talks Water Music New York
7/2 - 7/6 along the Erie Canal
Photos provided by Susan Bardack
“It's a matter of really expanding out the narrative, the story… We're not making a political statement in any way. We're really just making a bunch of celebrations of the idea of inclusion and the richness of the tapestry of New York State that I've been so struck by.”
The Albany Symphony has announced an extraordinary concert series in celebration of the Erie Canal Bicentennial. The symphony orchestra is partnering with the New York Power Authority, New York State Canal Corporation, and corporate sponsor M&T Bank to present the 2025 Water Music New York: More Voices Festival which will have a special emphasis on highlighting the past, present, and future of the Erie Canal.
I spoke with the orchestra’s two-time Grammy award-winning music director David Alan Miller about the series, which will take place over five days with five free events in five different canalside communities from July 2nd through 6th.
“They're very tailor made to the communities,” he told me, “but each one is celebrating a different aspect of our theme; the project is called Water Music New York: More Voices, and the more voices really are voices of underrepresented communities, not actually geographic communities.”
The series will kick off in Medina, NY on Wednesday, July 2nd with a celebration of environmentalism. Then, the series marches on to Utica where it will focus on the contributions of refugees and immigrants to that locale as well as the state at large. The third stop is Seneca Falls where the focus will be on the history of the women’s movement in New York State. The next stop will take the series to Fort Plain where there will be a celebration of the history of the local Mohawk tribe and the members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, which Miller said is incredibly rich but sometimes hidden. Finally, the series will culminate in Schuylerville with a celebration of Black history in the community that Solomon Northup, whose story inspired the book and movie 12 Years a Slave, called home.
Miller told me that the orchestra worked closely with the state canal corporation to celebrate specific areas of cultural significance and amplify that theme of inclusion and elevation of marginalized voices whose contributions to local (and national!) history often go underrepresented. He went the extra mile to match each installment with its own composer.
“I worked to identify five composers who I thought could capture the uniqueness of each of the parts of the project,” he explained. “In Fort Plain, our composer [Dawn Avery] is half Mohawk. Her father was a Mohawk steel worker in Brooklyn, and she's a wonderful composer and cellist.” He told me that Avery is widely connected to the whole Mohawk community in New York State and nationally, and that she will be bringing storytellers, smoke dancers, singers, and other traditional performers to participate in the day and in the piece.
Pictured: Dawn Avery
In Schuylerville, DBR (that’s Daniel Bernard Roumain) will bring a special tribute to Solomon Northup with plans for some unique community participation. “DBR, who's the child of Haitian immigrants and is also a violinist like Solomon Northup was,” Miller told me. “Daniel has written this amazing piece, kind of a reflection. It's called ‘Nightmares and Dreams of Solomon Northup’. In that piece, on the sixth and final day of the festival, we're inviting anybody who's ever been violin-curious or has ever played a violin to join us. There's a part of the piece where they’ll all create this little violin march inside our orchestra piece, so we're hoping to have 100 or so violinists.”
They have been lent about 50 instruments for the day via community partners and there will be workshops in the afternoon so that attendees can confidently join in on the premiere of this special piece. In Seneca Falls, Tanner Porter has written a piece all about local women’s history and will be joined by a local high school chorus for the performance.
“Very poignant and beautiful things… and as a deep student of history, I'm always amazed at how much is left out of what we're taught in school,” Miller explained. “I grew up in Los Angeles in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and I was taught about the Erie Canal, but I was taught a very simple version that had nothing to do with women or immigrants or people of color. So it's a matter of really expanding out the narrative. We're not really making a political statement in any way. We're just making a bunch of celebrations of the idea of inclusion and the richness of the tapestry of New York State that I've been so struck by.
“We've been so welcomed and embraced by all of these communities. There's never been any question about politicizing or representing one part of the community.”
He said that there was no greater example of that community support and embrace than in Utica. “This is a very mixed community where everyone in Utica appreciates the incredible strength that the immigrants and refugees that moved there have brought to the city; without their immigrant communities, the city would be practically non-existent.”
He explained that in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s, the city was in complete disrepair, and the influx of refugees and immigrants have really rebuilt the city. That kind of sentiment was present in every locale and with every community they sought to honor.
“I've been so struck at how positive and inclusive and welcoming all of these communities have been,” he told me. “The mayors, the chambers of commerce—everybody's just so happy that we're coming and bringing beautiful music and art and culture and history. Every day of the festival is like a multicultural arts festival.”
In addition to the performances by the Albany Symphony, there will also be activities like kayak trips, birding walks, nature walks, and unique food, beverages, and dance performances throughout the day at each location. “Each one is like this fabulous Fourth of July week celebration,” Miller said. “Each one culminating in the evening concert with a world premiere of a new piece at 8pm, with some of them followed by fireworks or drone presentations.”
While this year’s series will be the celebration of the bicentennial of the Erie Canal’s completion, Miller explained to me that the series has actually been mirroring the bicentennial of the canal’s entire construction. Starting in 2017 in Rome, NY where the first shovel was dug, and running through 2025 in places like Medina in Western New York, near Buffalo where the so-called wedding of the waters began—Governor DeWitt Clinton began there in his quest to sail down the canal all the way to New York Harbor in 1825. “We love amplifying these themes of New York state history, so that's why we're super excited to do it,” Miller told me.”All of these events are completely free, and we really encourage everybody to come for the whole afternoon, for the whole day. Every evening of the five evenings, the orchestra will take the stage and play a concert, the center of which will be completely different from the other concerts. We'll have in each community this very special created work by, for, and about the community”.
This Fourth of July Week, there may not be a better way to celebrate than by getting out there and indulging in all the ways diversity has contributed to our state and our country’s detailed tapestry of identity. With five events in five locations across the state in only five days, plus family friendly and culturally immersive experiences throughout each day, the 2025 Water Music New York: More Voices Festival will undoubtedly be one of the most unique experiences of this summer concert season.
For more information on the 2025 Water Music New York: More Voices Festival, visit them online at https://www.albanysymphony.com/2025-erie-canal-bicentennial-wmny
