Arts and leisure digest

Pine Island Kool Classic Car show hosts fish fry tonight Pine Island - The Pine Island Summer Fest Kool Classic Car Show will host a fish fry on Friday, July 15, from 5 to 8 p.m. at the PLAV Hall. Tickets are $14 for adults, $12 for seniors 55 and over; and $6 for children. Advance tickets sales only; call Diane at 845-651-2489 or 845-258-1410. Take out available. The fish will be provided by Tastefully British. Firefighters honored Sunday at Museum Village Monroe - On Sunday, July 17, Museum Village will have a day of family fun, food and music in honor local firefighters. Held on the village green this is an opportunity for the community to celebrate the men and women who serve in the county’s villages and towns. Hosted by the South Blooming Grove Fire Department, everyone is invited to honor the fire departments throughout Orange County as they show off some of the prize equipment - both old and new. Guests will be able to watch competitive fire drills and learn how first responders protect the community. The afternoon will be packed with live music, food and games for everyone - sack races, bucket brigade, egg and spoon races and more. There will also be a children’s poster contest and an adult photo contest. The event runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults with children 12 and under admitted free. All first Responders and active duty men and women in our armed services will be admitted free with their ID and their immediate families will receive half-price admission. Museum Village is located at 1010 Route 17M in Monroe. For more information on Firefighters’ Day, contact Michael Sosler, general manager for business operations, at msosler@museumvillage.org or 782-8248 ext. 28, on the Web at www.museumvillage.org and on Facebook and Twitter. Music Under the Stars continues Sunday evening West Point — The West Point Band’s Jazz Knights will continue its Music Under the Stars concert series with a performance entitled “Play it Again” on Sunday, July 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the Trophy Point Amphitheatre on the campus of the United States Military Academy. This concert is a first for the Jazz Knights, featuring various selections, each one played twice. The first arrangement of each tune will be the standard, recognizable version that most will know, and the second will be a rewritten version that is a “not-so-standard” take. These tunes include the standard “Skylark,” as arranged by Jerry Nowak, rearranged by master arranger Bob Brookmeyer; “Sing Sing Sing,” classically arranged by Dave Wolpe and rearranged by another master arranger, Jim McNeely; and Duke Ellington’s “Cottontail,” arranged by the Duke himself, and rearranged by Air Force arranger Alan Baylock. As always, the concert is free and open to the public. For concert information, cancellations and updates, call the 24-hour hotline at 938-2617 or visit www.westpointband.com. Downed Lands Historical Society gets down and dirty Thursday with geology program Pine Island — The Drowned Lands Historical Society in Pine Island will hold a discussion of the interesting geology in the Black Dirt region at a gathering in the Pine Island Park on Thursday, July 21. Anyone interested - and particularly children with rock collections - are invited to bring their rocks and minerals for identification by graduate geologist Brian Pahucki. A minerals collector, he will talk about the “amazing geological history and interesting minerals in the Pine Island area.” The event will be held from 6.30 to 8.30 p.m. at the pavilion in the Pine Island Park on Treasure Lane. At a similar event held by the society last summer, the public was shown outstanding collections of local fossils and arrowheads, as well as antique agricultural tools and artifacts. For more information contact John Ruszkiewicz, president of the Drowned Lands Historical Society at 258-4359 or jronion@msn.com. Summer Pops at Downing Park in Newburgh showcases 'An American Salute’ on July 23 Newburgh — The Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra will present its free “Summer Pops At Downing — An American Salute,” on Saturday, July 23, at 4 p.m. at Downing Park in Newburgh. Conducting is Rick Regan, the orchestra’s principal trombonist, who teaches brass and percussion and conducts the Monroe-Woodbury High School’s Wind Ensemble. The event includes participation from “Mini Maestros,” children in the audience who are invited to take a turn at conducting the orchestra in the Washington Post March following a brief lesson. Also participating is soprano Jody Weatherstone, a frequent guest soloist with the Classic Choral Society. She is the soprano soloist at St. Mary’s church in Tuxedo Park and maintains a private voice studio in Warwick. Weatherstone is currently collaborating with jazz pianist and composer Richard Kimball on a program of works by Barber, Bernstein, and Kimball to be performed in October at the Lycian Theatre in Sugar Loaf. Additionally, bass-baritone Erich Tusch will also appear. Tusch has performed with the Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra as “the bass soloist 9” and at the 2010 Summer Pops concert. Most recently, he appeared as the bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah at West Point. He is also director of music for St. Patrick’s Church in Highland Mills, where he conducts the adult and youth choirs and its youth orchestra. Guests should bring lawn chairs or blankets. Call 913-7157 or go visit www.newburghsymphony.org for more information. Chamber music series continues on July 24 at Pacem in Terris in Warwick Warwick — The chamber music concert series at Pacem in Terris continues on Sunday, July 24, at 5 p.m., with Ensemble ACJW, featuring Owen Dalby, violin, Meena Bhasin, viola, Saeunn Thorsteinsdottir, cello and James Austin Smith, oboe. The program will open with the “String Trio in B-flat major, D 471,” by Franz Schubert, followed by two pieces by Benjamin Britten: selections from “Six Metamorphoses after Ovid, Op. 49,” and “Phantasy Quartet for Oboe and Strings, Op. 2.” The concert will continue with “Sonata for Violin and Cello” by Maurice Ravel, and will conclude with “Quartet for Oboe and Strings in F Major, K 370,” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Pacem in Terris is located at 96 Covered Bridge Road, in Warwick. No reservations possible. Tickets go on sale at 4 p.m. rain or shine. Suggested donation, $10. 'If it sounds good, it is good:’ Free jazz and swing concert inTuxedo on July 30 Tuxedo — The Tuxedo Performing Arts Group will present a free community concert and picnic, featuring Reflections Jazz and Swing Orchestra, on Saturday, July 30, at 5 p.m. at Powerhouse Park (behind the commuter lot). This event is sponsored by the performing arts group, through the generosity of its sponsors, as part of its program of four concerts a year in varying styles and differing venues within the community. Reflections is a traditional big band (17 pieces and vocalist) that plays a wide variety of popular music, including hits of the 30s and 40s right up to compositions by contemporary composers. Rain date is Sunday, July 31, same time and place.