This Month’s Featured Article

It’s March, and there are still four months before Independence Day brings the biggest America 250 celebration of them all, but if you haven’t started celebrating yet, now is the time. And this is the event: “Americana 250,” presented by the Northern Dutchess Symphony Orchestra at the Marriott Pavilion on the grounds of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. It’s taking place on Saturday, March 21, at 7:30 pm.

When I became aware of the program for this special concert, I had to learn more. It’s not your typical symphonic event, and it turns out that, for the Northern Dutchess Symphony Orchestra, nothing really is. In the best of ways.

“Americana 250” is much more than just beautiful music performed by the very talented orchestra led by its conductor and artistic director, Kathleen Beckmann. It is a multimedia tribute to colonial Hudson Valley life that will incorporate orchestral music, imagery, and spoken word.

There’s a pre-concert talk on what life was like for colonial soldiers by Neil Murray, an award-winning teacher from Pine Plains. Master Storyteller Jonathan Kruk will be on hand, telling the story of “The Origin of Yankee Doodle,” while the orchestra performs Fugue and Chorale on Yankee Doodle by American composer Virgil Thomson. Kruk also plans to tell the story of Sybil Ludington’s ride and a story about George Washington’s spectacles.

Orchestral programming will include Colonial Dances by Florence Price, Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, and a traditional colonial piece, The Girl I Left Behind, during the playing of which there will be images projected above the orchestra of various historical sites in the Hudson Valley, including the Beekman Arms, Hasbrouck House, and Van Wyck Homestead. 

But wait, there’s more!

Images telling the story of Daniel Nimham will be accompanied by a beautiful piece entitled Far From the Water, written by James DeMar, featuring the multi-talented musician Premik Tubbs performing on a Native American flute. Daniel Nimham was the last sachem of the Wappinger people and a respected Native American leader who fought for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. He is remembered for defending his people’s land rights and for dying in battle in 1778 alongside his son. A statue of him is in Fishkill.

If you want to stop reading right now and get tickets, go to ndsorchestra.org/americana 

About Kathleen and the NDSO

I’m 20 years late to the game, but I’m glad I made it! The Northern Dutchess Symphony Orchestra is celebrating its 20th anniversary season during 2025/2026, which is quite impressive. It was started by Kathleen Beckmann and “a bunch of us sitting around the kitchen table wondering if we could do something like this,” as she tells it. Kathleen has been at the helm since the beginning, and many of the musicians in the orchestra are also original members of the group.

Kathleen’s love of music was fostered by her mother, Mary Baxter, who was a music teacher in Vestal, NY, near Binghamton, where Kathleen grew up. Her mother was also on the board of the Binghamton Philharmonic and often brought Kathleen to rehearsals. An early lesson for her about how thinking outside the box for programming could be not only entertaining but also financially viable was driven home when her mother arranged for Captain Kangaroo to perform with the Binghamton Philharmonic. “It brought them from the red to the black,” she remembers. 

Another inspiration for her was the conductor of the Binghamton Philharmonic for many years, Fritz Wallenberg, who was also her cello teacher. Kathleen’s primary instruments are the piano and the violoncello. “Fritz was a gifted musician and teacher,” Kathleen recalls. “He also found ways to include his students when possible. For example, I got the opportunity to perform with the Binghamton Philharmonic as a high school student.”

Kathleen attended the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, earning a degree in music education. She was a public school music teacher at the Franklin D. Roosevelt High School in Hyde Park, where she was also the school’s orchestra director. Her passion has always been as an advocate of music education, and she served on the executive board for the National School Orchestra Association in New York State and was the editor for its publication, Orchestrations. 

“One of the things I’m most proud of,” she shares, “is that the NDSO is made up of musicians of all ages. Some are straight out of conservatory,” she continues, “while others have been playing with the NDSO for decades. It’s a great combo of young and old. The kindness and collaboration everyone brings to the music and performances are wonderful.” 

In reflecting on her decades with the NDSO, Kathleen says, “I’m struck by how the organization has grown from two small concerts to a season of six evening concerts and additionally two student concerts with third and fourth graders bused in from eight area school districts. In addition to the well-attended concerts by people of all ages, Kathleen reflects that, “Over the years, the programming has evolved to be less traditional with more variety.”

Beyond the Traditional

Kathleen says she is a “Google queen,” which is how she brings her ideas of how to expand more traditional programming into something she hopes is more interesting and, for everyone, more fun. “I decided to branch out,” she says, “and although I do include classical ‘favorites,’ that piece is not the focus of the concert. For example, we performed a concerto for Japanese koto and orchestra in April of 2024. It was written by Daron Hagen, a world-class composer who lives in Rhinebeck. I paired it with Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty Suite. Last April,” she continues, “the NDSO did the New York state premiere of a piece for theater organ – which is different from a traditional organ – and orchestra, called Once Upon A Castle. The piece was written by Michael Daugherty and our performance was the New York State premier of the piece. I paired the organ concerto with a silent movie starring Buster Keaton, and the orchestra and organ accompanied the movie. We also performed traditional orchestral music on that program, including Handel’s water music.” 

When Kathleen is thinking of a particular program, she searches out various musical genres that complement each other. This may seem like a lot more work, and it probably is, but for Kathleen, “It is a lot more fun than just doing an overture, a concerto and then a symphony for the second half of a show,” she says, adding, “I also enjoy the educational process. What can I learn and, more importantly, what can the audience learn? I love it when an audience member comes up after the concert to share that they never knew or heard of a particular piece before.”

Americana 250 & more

Kathleeen had lots to work with in coming up with the program for Americana 250. 

“The Hudson Valley was an important location for the Revolutionary War,” she notes, “and with the National 250th celebration, it made sense to make the concert about the Hudson Valley.” Kathleen came to the Hudson Valley with her husband in the 1970s, so she has plenty of contacts who she could plumb for extra inspiration and assistance, including the Dutchess County Historical Society. She knew that others steeped in this history would bring the kind of magic she was looking for. They include the master storyteller, Jonathan Kruk; the Native American flutist, Premik Tubbs; and a high school social studies teacher, Neil Murray, who will get the stories started with the pre-concert talk titled, “A Revolutionary War Soldier Comes to Life.” (Check out these performers’ impressive bios on the NDSO website.)

When I spoke with Kathleen for this article, she was in the Hudson Valley to conduct the NDSO’s first concert of 2026, “Epic Movie Scores,” which took place on January 24. 

Kathleen lives in Fort Lauderdale now, where she can enjoy being near her grandchildren and where, she admits, “the weather is pretty nice, too.” She had come up just a few days ahead of the performance and had already had a rehearsal. Getting the show performance ready in just a few days is a testament to the orchestra and all who are involved with it. “It’s a professional group,” Kathleen says, “they know the drill.” They know the program and have the music well ahead of schedule. “Typically, we do three rehearsals before the show. Everyone comes prepared. It’s amazing how quickly we can go from 0 to 100,” she says with true pride in her voice. 

What was on the program for “Epic Movie Scores”? Arrangements from Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, The Great Escape, and Dances with Wolves, among others, concluding with a medley from James Bond movies. The audience was treated to the featured performers Jiayi He on harmonica of all things, and violinist Marka Young. 

In June, the NDSO will present “The Beatles, Elvis, and Beyond,” which will not only tap into the wonderful music of the time, but will include the guest artist Gene DiNapoli. For those who don’t know (yet!), DiNapoli is one of the top Elvis tribute artists in the country, and he’s been at it for over 20 years. Fun!! 

Kathleen knows that the Hudson Valley is rich in the arts, with plenty of great options for people every weekend to go to an art gallery, concert, play, or show. Her hope for the NDSO is that it will continue to have broad appeal and be right up there in people’s plans. “Everyone should feel excited about attending our concerts,” she says. 

I know I am very excited to attend “Americana 250,” and “The Beatles, Elvis, and Beyond” sounds really fun, too. And it’s always nice to be on the grounds of the Culinary Institute of America. Thank you to the NDSO and the CIA. I’ll see you at the concert. •

To learn more about the Northern Dutchess Symphony Orchestra, visit the website at ndsorchestra.org. You can also follow the orchestra on Facebook, Instagram, and X.