A performance at a café on a Friday night isn’t an uncommon experience, but a primary school isn’t typically where the nightlife is found.
Lights were dim and the coffee was hot as family and friends gathered at Brown School in Schenectady on Friday, Oct. 12, for an open mic night featuring musical performances from students, alumni and the community. The event marked the first official open mic after an earlier test run at the school’s new Galleria Art & Music Café. The space has served as the music instruction room, but modest renovations transformed it into a new venue.
Mary Salvatore, a Schenectady resident and music teacher at the private school, launched the idea to create a music café to offer a new musical learning experience. More than a decade ago, Salvatore started the school’s guitar program and thought the café would be the next step for the growing program. Every student takes guitar lessons with her in fourth and fifth grade, with the option to continue their study.
There was an array of musical styles performed Friday by a host of performers, ranging from budding young musicians to college students. Not just guitarists graced the open mic, as performers arrived with violins, ukulele, vibraphone, marimba, piano and their own vocals in tow.
William Smith played a rendition of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on piano. Mitchell Rigley played Green Day’s “Good Riddance” on guitar. There were more classical songs, too, such as Albert Qi playing “Gavotte” by Georg Philipp Telemann.
Rigley attended Brown, but is in middle school now at the The Doane Stuart School in Rensselaer. Getting the chance to perform in front of former classmates was a welcome experience for him.
“It is really cool, because it gets a bunch of young people to actually be able to perform in front of crowds,” Rigley said. “A bunch of my friends still go here and it is really cool to see them, because I don’t get to see them a lot.”
Rigley, of Schenectady, played “Good Riddance” because it was the first song he ever learned, with Salvatore as his teacher. Outside of the pilot program, Rigley said he hadn’t played in front of a crowd.
Salvatore said it is important to connect to people outside the school and offer the community a new opportunity. Reaching younger musicians learning an instrument is what spurred her original idea.
“My vision was to mainly have a place for (young musicians) to come to and something that wasn’t intimidating to them,” Salvatore said.
For children, or even older musicians, performing at a commercial café or other venue might be a daunting experience, but the school’s space allows for a “contained” environment, she said.
“A couple of performers who will be in the room in upcoming months said a lot of places don’t have this opportunity anymore,” she said.
The smaller room, as compared to a school auditorium, allows for a more intimate setting, too.
“Our first concert was a jazz trio and … we were so close to them,” Salvatore said. “It does give you that intimacy with the musicians.”
Performers are requesting Friday evenings to perform at the café, so different music is performed about every week. The school also collects nonperishable food items at the performances for donation to local food pantries.
The project is going “much better” than Salvatore first imagined. After some families heard about the school’s ambition, they donated funds, supplies and time. Jim Faddegon, of Faddegon’s Building and Remodeling, donated paint and his time to give the walls a fresh coat.
There is still some more work to be done at the café, Salvatore said, such as building a new stage.
“We have a little bit of renovation to do,” she said.
Brown School is located on Corlaer Avenue in Schenectady and instructs students through eighth grade.
