Past
Events
See some of the wonderful performances hosted at Stissing Center over the last few years.
Back to the Full Event list.
See some of the wonderful performances hosted at Stissing Center over the last few years.
Back to the Full Event list.
In Banning Hall
Charlie Chaplin’s beloved silent classic The Kid is a heartwarming blend of comedy and tenderness that delights audiences of all ages. This family-friendly gem follows Chaplin and an irrepressible child through laughter, mischief, and deep affection. Enjoy the film accompanied live by organ virtuoso Peter Krasinski, courtesy of the New York Theatre Organ Society.
In The Grace Note
A staged reading of the new original musical, The Maker and the Muse, follows a young, disillusioned writer who feels untethered from the present and longs for a time and place that felt more authentic, gritty, and alive. Let’s reimagine the past, rediscover the present and celebrate the timeless power of art together.
In Banning Hall
Matt Turk and C Lanzbom joined forces to form Deadgrass, a string band jamgrass adventure through Jerry Garcia’s musical world. Bassist Dave Richards, banjo player Kris Bauman and fiddler Kensuke Shoji complete this fine group of seasoned pros exploring the life works of Jerry Garcia on the instruments that first inspired him. Deadgrass celebrates and interprets the music of Jerry Garcia, drawing from Old & in the Way, JGB, Jerry’s Jug Band days and Grateful Dead.
In The Grace Note
Join Palestinian master musician Zafer Tawil and Rabbi Zachi Asher for a magical evening of old and new Arabic sounds, transportive trances and prayers and Sufi melodies to whirl us into enchantment.
In Banning Hall
Jungle Love - five-time Best of the Hudson Valley winners (2021–2025) - returns to Stissing Center for our Valentine’s Day Community Dance. More than a band, they’re an experience: six lifelong musicians delivering a high-energy journey through Classic Soul, R&B, Motown, Disco, and Funk from the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. For this special Valentine’s Day Community Dance, we remove all seating from the center of the auditorium so you can dance with your sweetheart, and your friends and neighbors, all night long.
In The Grace Note
Natalia Zukerman brings intimate storytelling and masterful musicianship to the stage, blending folk, blues, and Americana with wry humor and emotional clarity. Her warm voice and fluid guitar work create a space that feels both personal and expansive. A Zukerman concert is equal parts porch-side conversation and poetic journey — inviting, soulful, and deeply resonant.
In Banning Hall
Stand-up comedy has become a hilarious Stissing Center tradition, and this night delivers. Headliner Ophira Eisenberg (NPR, The Moth, Comedy Central) brings her sharp, fast, relatable wit, joined by Jenny Rubin, Shawn Hollenbach, and Will Purpura. Expect big laughs, punchlines that sneak up on you when you least expect them, and the kind of comedy night that reminds you why laughing together matters.
In Banning Hall
THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT
Stissing Center’s Season Launch Event, Spark!, offers a preview of our exciting 2026 season, and we are delighted to welcome our very special guest artist Rosanne Cash. A celebrated composer and singer-songwriter, Cash has earned four Grammy Awards and fourteen nominations. She is also the author of the acclaimed memoir Composed, a New York Times bestseller. A respected voice in American music history, she became the first female composer to receive the MacDowell Medal in 2021.
In 1983, comedian Richard Lewis and Nurit Koppel met in a bodega on Eighth Avenue — and they became instant best friends. Apologies Necessary is the story of that friendship, the love affair that blossomed from it and all the growing up they both had to do to reconnect decades later.
Windborne’s album “To Warm the Winter Hearth” smashed records and became the 5th most-backed album crowdfunder of all time! Now Windborne is bringing a full show of their favorite songs of the season to Stissing Center!
A joyful and heartfelt celebration of song, Windborne’s lush vocals and unique arrangements bring light to a dark time, as they draw on midwinter music from traditional, classical, and folk from the US, British isles and beyond. Unique from their typical show, the holiday spirit is accentuated with added instrumentation, from banjos and guitars, to Lithuanian Kanklės, and Irish bodhran.
Get in the holiday doodle spirit!
Join us for a merry evening of music, munchies, and one-of-a-kind art by local legends and celebrity creators. Bid on festive doodles that make perfect gifts, all to support The Stissing Center’s arts and community programs. Let’s draw together for a great cause!
Get ready to sleigh the season at Holiday Trivia Night at Stissing Center! Hosted by the always-entertaining Alec Sisco, this festive evening will test your knowledge of holiday pop culture, from classic TV specials and iconic movies to quirky holiday traditions.
Join us for a memorable night of folk music with the legendary Kingston Trio! Get ready to tap your feet and sing along to their iconic hits like "Tom Dooley" and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” Folk legends reborn—keeping the timeless sound alive for a new generation.
Pine Plains’ own--Heather Dell’Amore--returns to The Stissing Center with her newest work IS THE FOOD GOOD?
Featuring stories about identity, aerobics, fad diets and incensed chefs, the play follows a woman desperate to break her habits with disordered eating, desperate to finally feed her soul. Performed as a Play in Development, with author Q&A to follow.
Join us for an evening of film and music as Director Will Chase premieres his award winning film Coming Home: The Guggenheim Grotto Back in Ireland to our Upstate friends and neighbors.
The forty-five minute film will be followed by an acoustic set of some of the band’s fan favorites.
Director and self proclaimed super-fan Will Chase goes to Ireland to film the Irish duo The Guggenheim Grotto (Mick Lynch and Kevin May) as they perform for the first time in a decade, and possibly last time ever. A love letter to a brotherhood that has spanned decades through many ups and downs, the film becomes an homage to the duo’s body of work and to the nostalgia that holds for so many, especially each other.
SUGAR SKULL! A Día de Muertos Musical Adventure is a vibrant bilingual show for young audiences and families that celebrates the rich music, dance, and traditions of Mexico.
Twelve-year-old Vita Flores can’t understand why her family plans a big party for the dead—until a lively candy skeleton named Sugar Skull springs to life and whisks her on a magical journey through the heart of Día de Muertos.
Along the way, Vita dances with ancestors, sings with a mysterious sorceress, escapes playful tricksters, and meets the elegant Catrina Calavera. This colorful, high-energy production blends authentic regional music and dance with an uplifting story about family, memory, and the joy of honoring those who came before us.
Perfect for audiences of all ages, SUGAR SKULL! is an unforgettable adventure into the sights, sounds, and spirit of Mexican folklore.
Wall Street Opera’s Christopher Sánchez, a Dominican operatic baritone, collaborates with Award-winning Cuban pianist and composer Dayramir Gonzales in an evening of musical fusion.
An evening of dance, poetry, and piano featuring choreographer Catherine Tharin’s In the Wake of Yes—a multimedia performance with film, music, and spoken word. Poet Alison Granucci explores themes of the natural world, joined by pianist Igor Ferreira, who also performs a solo piece. A rich collaboration of local talent.
Join us for the Pine Plains Festival of Short Films—two nights, two unique programs, filmmaker Q&As, and more. It’s a showcase, a celebration, and a fundraiser to upgrade film screening equipment at Stissing Center and revive the tradition of showing movies in Pine Plains.
Join us for the Pine Plains Festival of Short Films—two nights, two unique programs, filmmaker Q&As, and more. It’s a showcase, a celebration, and a fundraiser to upgrade film screening equipment at Stissing Center and revive the tradition of showing movies in Pine Plains.
Clarion Concerts proudly presents an extraordinary evening with Cuban-American cellist Dr. Tommy Mesa and Argentine bandoneón master JP Jofre, two world-class artists whose collaboration brings together the soulful resonance of the cello with the fiery elegance of the bandoneón.
Step into the shadows with Dracula, Theatre on the Road’s flagship production, adapted from the iconic 1927 Broadway script by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston. Revived with chilling elegance and thrilling drama, this haunting tale follows the mysterious illness of young Lucy Seward and the dark forces believed to be behind it—Count Dracula himself.
SOLD OUT!! Pairing Wine with Comedians
Sip, swirl, and giggle at The Grapes of Laughs—a comedy and wine pairing show hosted by Ophira Eisenberg (NPR, The Moth), and featuring Michael Ian Black (Wet Hot American Summer, The State, Stella), hometown favorite Rachel Lenihan, plus Jenny J Rubin (NYC, Egremont Barn). A fantastic lineup of laughs!
Each comic’s set is matched with the perfect wine, blending bold reds, crisp whites, and big laughs for a night that’s part stand-up, part sommelier, all fun. 4 comics, 4 wines, all perfectly paired.
Presented with wine partner Fulton & Forbes Wine & Spirits, Ancram.
Martha Spencer is a singer-songwriter, mountain musician and dancer from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. She grew up in the musical Spencer family and learned to play several instruments (guitar, fiddle, banjo, bass, dulcimer, mandolin) and flatfoot/clog at a young age.
Stissing Center welcomes back NPR’s Selected Shorts, presented by Symphony Space. It’s a live celebration of storytelling, where acclaimed actors bring unforgettable fiction to life on stage and on air. We are delighted to feature Jessica Hecht, Santino Fontana and Cindy Cheung for this exciting afternoon of stories.
Grammy® nominees R. Carlos Nakai and Will Clipman make their Stissing Center debut with a powerful blend of Native American flute and global percussion. Their longtime collaboration creates a rich, meditative sound rooted in tradition and connection to the natural world. Performed on earth-based instruments, their music invites listeners into a shared space of rhythm, reflection, and cultural harmony.
Join us for Stissing Center’s Harvest Sunset Celebration an unforgettable evening at Globe Hill in Pine Plains, with panoramic views of the Catskills, Berkshires, and Taconics. Savor a harvest-themed dinner by The Farmer’s Wife and enjoy soulful music from beloved Hudson Valley artists Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, with opening act Long Steel Rail. It’s a joyful way to bid farewell to summer while supporting Stissing Center’s mission to bring world-class arts programming to our rural community.
Pianist Terrence Wilson makes his Stissing Center debut with an exciting program including:
Brahms: Three Intermezzi, Op. 117 – Intimate and lyrical works Brahms called “lullabies to my sorrows,” revealing his most personal voice.
Rachmaninoff: Études Tableaux, Op. 39 (complete) – Nine vivid études, rarely performed as a complete set, filled with passion, color, and virtuosity.
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition – A musical gallery walk, culminating in the majestic “Great Gate of Kiev.”
An esteemed faculty member of the Bard College Conservatory of Music, Terrence Wilson was named “one of the biggest pianistic talents to have emerged in this country in the last 25 years” by the Baltimore Sun.
Not content singing the pirate song that has been passed down for generations, Paulette the Pirate Princess, along with her dog Waffle, set off on a worldwide, musical journey searching for her own song. With an original book and music by Scott Test, "Pirate Song" showcases eight beautiful new songs that rival any Broadway musical and features a cast of hand-crafted puppets. Get ready to set sail on a musical journey like never before as "Pirate Song" takes the stage with its unparalleled blend of storytelling, music, and puppetry!
The Little Nine Partners Historical Society of Pine Plains, NY, presents WIDOW’S WEEDS, written by Dyan Wapnick and directed by Robert Lyons, in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
WIDOW’S WEEDS tells the compelling true story of Mary Ingalls, who in 1842 at 84 years of age applied for her husband Elihu Ingalls’ pension under the Pension Act of 1836, which extended pension benefits to Revolutionary War widows for the first time. Elihu had served in the NY militia and died in 1823 without ever receiving a pension. Unfortunately, nearly all of his service papersand proof of their marriage were lost, and Mary had to rely on oral testimonies to support her application.
“The project proposed by the Little Nine Partners Historical Society was among the most innovative we received,” said Dutchess County Historian Will Tatum, “This play brings a vital type of primary source record to life, places a spotlight on the experience of Revolutionary War
Veterans’ widows, and explores the lingering impact of our struggle for independence on our rural landscape. I look forward to personally attending the production.”
Paid for in part by Dutchess County.
