News & Updates

Rivertowns’ residents have come to look forward to events in their communities that bring the arts to life. On the first Saturday in June, music fills the air from venues all over, both inside and outdoors.

RiverArts today announced that its 7th annual RiverArts Music Tour will take place on Saturday June 4, 2022, from noon – 9pm throughout the Rivertown villages of Dobbs Ferry, Hastings-on-Hudson, Irvington, and Tarrytown. This years’ Music Tour will feature 270 musicians!

RiverArts will present a two-part concert series next weekend, belatedly honoring the 250th birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven. The event, on April 30 and May 1 at the Irvington Presbyterian Church, features cellist Peter Seidenberg and pianist Hui-Mei Lin, who have toured as a duo throughout the U.S., playing at universities and concert halls.

African American spirituals are a part of our collective culture, but their roots and true meanings are not universally known, even within the African American community.

Yolanda F. Johnson, who is working to build understanding of the genre, will share her expertise on the subject during “A Spirituals Experience,” a special event this Saturday, April 2, presented by RiverArts at First Baptist Church in Tarrytown, where Johnson is the music director.

Yolanda F. Johnson to Perform “A Spirituals Experience” in Tarrytown. This program, which is part-lecture, part-recital, first premiered in Harlem in February 2011 for Black History Month. Yolanda offers unique insight on traditional spirituals and illuminates their hidden meaning through performance and conversation. RiverArts’ Producer, Marie-Louise Miller, leads a conversation with Yolanda. There will be an opportunity to take audience questions.

From the imagination of writer Melanie Hoopes of Hastings comes “Kindness Committee,” a new play that explores the question, “What do those people in the audience really think about?”
Presented by RiverArts, the play will be performed on Friday, March 18 and Saturday, March 19 at 7 p.m., at South Presbyterian Church in Dobbs Ferry.

Top 5 Art Pick of the week by ArtsWestchester: Can music be translated? If it’s a song, the words can be translated from the original language. But one might think that a note is a note, and it can’t be changed without altering the composition. Well, a musical translation is exactly what the audience will experience at the world premiere of a new arrangement of Richard Strauss’s Last Four Songs at St. Barnabas Church in Ardsley on March 6.

RiverArts is bringing back its “Salon Sundays” tours of local artists’ studios, starting with virtual visits and then transitioning to in-person. The series, featuring artists who have participated in the annual RiverArts Studio Tour, allows visitors to view their work and learn about their techniques and creative process. The series producer is photographer Jeff Dietz, a former resident of Tarrytown and board member of RiverArts, who now lives in Beacon.

Set at a concert on a cold winter night, Kindness Committee sneaks us into the minds of seven audience members connected by varying degrees to one another. All of them peel away layers of their past as they reach for a sustainable present.