Mersey, McGuinn and momentum: A big year at Canandaigua's Fort Hill Performing Arts Center

L. David Wheeler, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
·5 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

CANANDAIGUA — Sueann Townsend has heard it a few times, ever since Fort Hill Performing Arts Center announced it was bringing singer-guitarist Roger McGuinn to Canandaigua this September.

“’The real Roger McGuinn? From the Byrds Roger McGuinn?’” FHPAC executive director Townsend recounted, with a chuckle. “My biggest thing right now is, I think people seem to be a little bit shocked or not really sure that we’re attracting the caliber of artists that we are now.”

It’s indeed the real Roger McGuinn coming to the 20 Fort Hill Ave. venue on Sept. 24 – the McGuinn who with Gene Clark founded the seminal folk-rock band behind such classic songs as “Eight Miles High” and their famous arrangements of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” and Pete Seeger’s “Turn! Turn! Turn!” But people might be excused for a touch of confusion — Fort Hill has booked and continues to book multiple tribute acts, including a return performance this Saturday by The Mersey Beatles, a Liverpool, U.K.-based tribute to the Fab Four.

Roger McGuinn performs at the 47th annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Awards Gala in New York in 2016. McGuinn, co-founder of The Byrds, will perform Sept. 24 at Fort Hill Performing Arts Center in Canandaigua. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Roger McGuinn performs at the 47th annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Awards Gala in New York in 2016. McGuinn, co-founder of The Byrds, will perform Sept. 24 at Fort Hill Performing Arts Center in Canandaigua. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Then there’s the other matter: FHPAC is just a little over two years old now — opening shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered performing arts venues in March 2020 — and a number of months of those two years were spent closed to the public. Even after reopening, Fort Hill management — Townsend, facilities manager Gordon Estey, a board of directors and various staff — have needed to keep one eye trained on the twists and turns that COVID-19 transmission data takes, mindful of the need to pivot if new strains take a dangerous turn.

The 427-seat venue has picked up momentum in the long-distance run toward its goal of being a premiere area showcase for music, dance, theater and other performing arts (as well as visual arts, with exhibits housed in its lobby). It has hosted such regional arts institutions as the Finger Lakes Concert Band, Rochester City Ballet, Finger Lakes Symphony Orchestra and Gap Mangione & The New Big Band, as well as an Easter-weekend performance of the music of “Jesus Christ Superstar.” But even as its profile has raised, there remains a sense in which FHPAC is among Canandaigua’s best-kept secrets.

So what’s Townsend’s message for the community?

“We are here; we are viable. We are attracting larger artists – and we’re still here to service the local arts groups,” she said. “We are slowly developing the reputation for being a place for higher-caliber musicians to perform.”

Fort Hill Performing Arts Center, FHPAC, was once an addition to the 1907 Canandaigua Academy High School. The east side of the building became Fort Hill Apartments. The west end was turned into FHPAC and opened in January 2020.
Fort Hill Performing Arts Center, FHPAC, was once an addition to the 1907 Canandaigua Academy High School. The east side of the building became Fort Hill Apartments. The west end was turned into FHPAC and opened in January 2020.

That goes beyond McGuinn: Fort Hill will host the multiple-Grammy-nominated progressive bluegrass band Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen on May 21; nationally known comedian Earl David Reed is slated for June 17; and and Mary Fahl, former lead singer of the chamber-pop-rock group October Project, is scheduled for Oct. 1. FHPAC has partnered with Fanatics Pub in Lima for the Fahl concert, and Townsend said the two are working to finalize an appearance by jazz guitarist Stanley Jordan presenting an evening of his takes on Jimi Hendrix songs.

Those shows are interwoven into a performance schedule that includes:

  • The May 7 show by The Mersey Beatles, a return engagement but with a new show flow, costumes and video content.

  • A return appearance by Rochester City Ballet on May 14-15, presenting RCB artistic director Robert Gardner’s “Firebird” among other pieces.

  • Rochester rock/R&B band Teagan & The Tweeds in concert May 25, in the last “F-PAC Wednesday” local-musician show for the time being. That series is going dormant for awhile, Townsend said.

  • Finger Lakes Community Band, directed by Greg Kane, performing June 5.

  • A double bill June 17 featuring the music of Cool Club and The Lipker Sisters and the comedy of Earl David Reed.

  • Soprano Cree Carrico from Finger Lakes Opera performing July 30 in a program featuring the giants of musical theater (Sondheim, Rodgers & Hammerstein, etc.).

  • Multiple musical tribute acts are booked, including Grand Illusion (Styx tribute), Sept. 17; High Noon (Lynyrd Skynyrd and Southern rock), Oct. 8; Bennie and the Rest (Elton John), Oct. 29; The Regular Crowd (Billy Joel), Nov. 12; The Seven Wonders (Fleetwood Mac) in a return performance, Nov. 19.

  • Bloomfield Rotary’s annual holiday show, this time a live radio drama production of “A Christmas Carol,” Dec. 2 and 3.

  • Dasha Kelly Hamilton’s one-woman theatrical performance, “Makin’ Cake,” on Feb. 24.

Sueann Townsend is the executive director of the Fort Hill Performing Arts Center.
Sueann Townsend is the executive director of the Fort Hill Performing Arts Center.

Townsend and colleagues continue to work on building and strengthening partnerships — the tie with Fanatics, for instance, which she said is hoped to yield a blues festival next year – and planning for the future. Townsend said she’s hopeful that the Dasha Kelly Hamilton show will help put Fort Hill on the map as a theatrical-production venue (a so-far missing piece of the puzzle, she acknowledged), and has been looking into possible collaborations with area theater entities.

Like all performance venues, Fort Hill still has to contend with a continuing pandemic —and the early months of the year brought an unwelcome spate of déjà vu, thanks to the omicron spike. “It pretty much shut us down again in January and February,” Townsend said. “... We had artists who actually had COVID so had to cancel, and as the numbers went up people were less inclined to come out to a big performance.” Certain tours had to be canceled; the “Makin’ Cake” show originally was scheduled for early 2022.

“We joked when we reopened on the 19th of February with the Finger Lakes Symphony that this is the third reopening,” Townsend said. “We have to keep a sense of humor about it all.”

L. David Wheeler
L. David Wheeler

The May 7 performance by The Mersey Beatles starts at 7 p.m. at Fort Hill Performing Arts Center, 20 Fort Hill Ave., Canandaigua. Tickets range from $25 and $35 orchestra seating to $45 mezzanine and may be obtained at the box office or fhpac.thundertix.com. For information about other upcoming shows, or to buy tickets, go to fhpac.org.

Talk to us

FRONT-ROW SEAT is a column that showcases the area’s art, music, theater, film and general all-around creative scene. If you’re a musician with an upcoming live online performance or album release; or if you have any information in the arts/entertainment sphere to report, please send your information to L. David Wheeler at dwheeler@messengerpostmedia.com.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Fort Hill Performing Arts Center in Canandaigua has big year