Opening Night at ChappPac with Cyrille Aimée

Opening Night at ChappPac with Cyrille Aimée: The new Chappaqua Performing Arts Center (ChappPac) at Chappaqua Crossing opened to a sold-out crowd for French jazz singer Cyrille Aimée on Saturday night. Stephen Sondheim tapped Aimée for his Encore Series at City Center after she won the Sarah Vaughn International Jazz Competition in 2012. She made her first area appearance at Caramoor’s Rosen House Music Room last year and returned to the ABC towns, here, for ChappPac’s grand opening.

Aimée performed an eclectic repertoire of originals, American standards, pop and World Music with a four-piece band of trumpet, piano, bass and drums. Highlights of the evening include her jazz arrangements of Lerner and Loewe’s “I Could Have Danced All Night” from My Fair Lady, Lennon and McCartney’s “Blackbird” and Tito Puente’s “Oye Como Va”.

The driving “horse” behind ChappPac?

ChappPac manager and owner of Standing Ovations Studios in Armonk, John Fanelli opened the evening with an unintended comedic moment when he introduced New Castle Town Councilwoman Lisa Katz as the “driving horse” (force) behind the Arts Center. Lisa, who also chairs the New Castle Arts & Culture Committee saved, what was then the Wallace Auditorium on the Reader’s Digest Campus, from demolition and oversaw it’s acquisition by the Town of New Castle. “Did you just call me a horse?” she asked when she took the mic. Good times, as they say.

ChappPac has planned 11 more events for fall including music, theatre, comedy, movies and family entertainment. Here’s the full lineup:

Tim Kubart & The Space Cadets, ChappPac, Sun, 10/8: 2pm: Awarded a Grammy for Best Children’s Album, Tim Kubart is the host of the popular preschool program Sunny Side Up, on NBC Universal’s Sprout Channel. He is also known as the “Tambourine Guy” from the international touring group Postmodern Jukebox. Tim Kubart & The Space Cadets deliver a family friendly dance party for all ages. (480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua; 914.458-5143)

Sō Percussion, ChappPac, Sat, 10/14: 8pm: This groundbreaking percussion quartet, known for their use of exotic instruments like the glockenspiel, bowed marimba and aluminum pipes, was praised by The New Yorker for their “exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam.” Sō’s repertoire includes 20th century “classics” by John Cage and Steve Reich and original works. (480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua; 914.458.5143)

Soulshine: An Allman Brothers Experience, Fri, 10/20: 8pm: Macon, GA’s resident Allman Brothers tribute band amps up in 10514 with the brother’s best, including “Ramblin’ Man”, “One Way Out”, “Whippin’ Post”, “Melissa” and mucho mas more. (480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua; 914.458.5143)

Rocky Horror Picture Show, Fri, 10/27: 8pm: “It’s astounding, time is fleeting, madness takes it’s toll…” Try to keep control when Riff-Raff and Magenta come to 10514 (home of 12,741 Brad & Janet’s) with their Time Warp tutorial. WARNING: It may be just a step to the left, and then a step to the right, “but it’s the pelvic thru-ust that really drives you insa-a-a-a-ane!” Just in time for Halloween. This we gotta see! (480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua; 914.458.5143)

Echoes of Sinatra, ChappPac, Sat, 10/28: 8pm: Take a musical journey through time, tracing the career and life of Frank Sinatra. This fast-paced performance featuring juicy gossip, insider stories and classic songs from tribute artist Steven Kazlauskas and his Tony T. Orchestra, serves up a Big Band experience with “elegant” Vegas style dancers. (480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua; 914.458.5143)

Matt Schofield, ChappPac, Thurs, 11/2: 8pm: British Blues Hall of Famer, Matt Schofield was named “Guitarist of the Year” three years running at the British Blues Awards, Schofield’s melodic style blends influences from players like Robben Ford, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King. (480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua; 914.458.5143)

ChappPac Gala, Sat, 11/4: 8pm: Fundraising event sponsored by Friends of the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center. Program details to be announced soon. Guess who? . (480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua; 914.458.5143)

The Greatest Pirate Story Never Told, Sat, ChappPac: 11/11: 2pm: A crew of misfit pirates have only one chance to get their treasure; by performing the greatest pirate epic ever seen on stage! However, when half their script is missing, the audience helps fill in the blanks and laugh along as they IMPROVISE a brand new musical adventure based on your suggestions! Kids ages 5 and up. (480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua; 914.458.5143)

What Fresh Hell Live! ChappPac: Fri, 12/1: 8pm: Comedians Margaret Ables and Amy Wilson bring their hit parenting podcast What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood to a live audience. Ables and Wilson combine their twenty-year friendship, their comic sensibilities and their usually completely opposite approaches to parenting, for a ‘Mom’s Night Out’ full of games, laughs, and maybe even a little parenting advice. (480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua; 914.458.5143)

Ragtag Theatre’s Cinderella, ChappPac: Sat, 12/9: 2pm: This adaptation is performed in the street theater style known as Commedia dell’arte with larger-than-life characters, colorful song and dance numbers, and a message on self-worth for kids. Broadway World wrote that this winner of the 2016 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Family Show is “Perfect for all ages and people attending, with or without kids in tow.” (480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua; 914.458.5143)

ELF, ChappPac: Sun, 12/17: 2pm: Embrace your inner elf at this screening of the 2003 Christmas fantasy comedy about one of Santa’s elves who discovers he’s a human and treks to NYC to find his biological father. Directed by Jon Favreau and starring Will Ferrell James Caan, Zooey Deschanel and Bob Newhart, Elf has become a holiday classic and inspired the hit 2010 Broadway musical, Elf: The Musical. (480 Bedford Road, Chappaqua; 914.458.5143)

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