Skip to main content

in the good old summertime, american songs of the gilded age

Sembrich Summer Festival: In the Good Old Summertime

As the success of HBO's "The Gilded Age" shows, the final decades of the 19th century in America continue to fascinate the public.

When and where

Date and time

Sunday, Jul 13, 2025
7:00 PM

Address

The Sembrich (Outdoors), 4800 Lake Shore Drive Bolton Landing, NY 12814

Cost

$45

About this event

As the success of HBO's "The Gilded Age" shows, the final decades of the 19th century in America continue to fascinate the public.

The age of the robber barons was also the peak of the middle-class parlor piano and vaudeville, and saw a flowering of tragic ballads, naïve love lyrics, theater songs and pictures of city life, as well as the first stirrings of Tin Pan Alley.

In this concert, Vermont-based chamber chorus Counterpoint will lead a tour of this repertory, in sparkling a cappella arrangements that show off what critics have praised as the ensemble's “clarity, skill” and “sophisticated musical expressiveness."

The program ranges from the evergreen songs of Stephen Foster ("Beautiful Dreamer") to Bowery waltzes ("The Sidewalks of New York") and from sentimental classics like "Home Sweet Home" to comic numbers such as "You'll Have to Put a Nightie on Aphrodite."

In addition, pianist Michael Clement will join the chorus for an opus by American Romantic composer Amy Marcy Beach and selections from the opera Treemonisha by Scott Joplin, the Father of Ragtime.

Counterpoint was founded in 2000 by legendary choral conductor and arranger Robert De Cormier. Now directed by Nathaniel G. Lew, the ensemble performs throughout Vermont and surrounding regions, and has released seven CDs with Albany Records and five more independently.

A lakeside reception will follow.


Event times and information subject to change and not guaranteed.

Did we miss one? Did one of these places close? Send us a note!