I wanna know a little bit about both of your backgrounds.

So let's start with you, Danny.

Give us a little bit about your creative background.

- So I've been primarily producing jazz festivals, concerts, and tours for about 35 years.

I grew up on Long Island, and I went to American University in DC.

And when I was there I worked at Blues Alley Jazz Club in Georgetown.

And from there, came back to New York, and wound up working for a very prominent music festival production company called Festival Productions Inc. And I was at Newport Jazz for a long time in New Orleans, and so many other festivals.

And for many years now, and still to this day, I've been producing the Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival up at SPAC.

But primarily, as I just said, my background really has been in jazz.

And I've been very lucky and fortunate all these years to be able to work with phenomenal artists, and in amazing venues all over the world.

- So you say you're mostly in jazz, like in the jazz?

- Yeah, I do R&B, soul, bluegrass, funk, Latin music.

People talk about jazz being part of this larger tree, and I think that there's a tremendous amount of truth to that.

And so as a presenter, I've never really been interested in defining the music.

It's really about celebrating the music, and all the great collaborations that exist, and all of the amazing rhythms that people bring to the music, and that we can then present on our stages, and have the audience really enjoy so many different styles.

So it's Jazz plus.

- I love that.

And do you play anything yourself?

- I used to play clarinet when I was a kid.

I was actually very good.

But I got into a big argument with my band teacher when I was a senior in high school and I quit.

- Oh, you're like, "I'm out."

(joyful laughing) - I'm out, and I regret that to this day.

- Oh, hey, you can always pick it back up, right?

- People say that, and I've tried.

I've tried to play guitar and piano over the years too, and I just haven't spent enough time trying to do it.

- One day.

- Your busy.

- What about you?

- In my retirement.

- Oh, there you go, in your retirement.

What about you, Isabel?

What's your creative background?

- I grew up in Brooklyn to artistic parents.

Both my parents are fine artists and craftspeople.

I started working for a nonprofit arts organization in New York City that was really at the beginning of international music programming.

And I got hooked on it, and ended up working there for 25 years.

And when I left there, I founded an organization called Global Fest, whose goal was to move international music into the center of the performing arts field.

And moved up to the Hudson Valley, and connected with Danny.

And yeah, so it's just been also over 30 years of producing concerts.

- Just like a creative path, never stopping.

And do you play any- - Never stopping.

- Right, I don't think you ever do as artists.

Do you play any instruments?

- I don't, I've tried.

I always think of myself as a good listener.

- There you go.

You're the muse.

(joyful laughing) So you both co-founded and co-run The Local Center for Arts and Culture.

So give us a little bit of background of like what that space is and how did it begin?

- The Local is in the heart of village of Saugerties.

And Saugerties is a very artistic and creative area, with probably thousands of people in creative fields, but it doesn't have a cultural center.

Didn't have cultural center.

And Danny and I had been working throughout the pandemic to bring different types of music to the area.

And opened up an organization called Hudson Valley Live.

And through Hudson Valley Live, we produced a bunch of events, and then found this incredible, gorgeous 1876 Dutch Chapel in the heart of the village.

And decided that we would try to turn it into a center for arts and culture.

- And what are some of the main services and creative focuses would you say it would have?

- Well, the venue opened up in September of 2023, so we just finished our first season to great success.

We did about 20 concerts.

We presented a really eclectic lineup of global music, jazz, some singer songwriters.

Our vision of it was to allow people to use it for all sorts of different purposes.

It's a really interesting space because it's one really sort of 40-foot by 30-foot open space.

We do have some rooms on the side, but it's just this open, beautiful, incredible hardwood floor space with this incredible stained glass and a really high elevated chapel ceiling.

- What has the community been saying?

Like, what's been their reaction?

- The enthusiasm, and the encouragement, and the happiness that people have of being there, and then telling us about it either after the concerts are over, or the next day, or running into people on the streets, has just been amazing.

Our aesthetic in being as welcoming as we possibly can, to being really mellow and sort of casual about the space in terms of people hanging out, general admission seating, we have a little bar, we let people come in an hour early, we let people hang afterwards.

The other thing that's really I think been such a massively positive part of the equation is the music.

Because the artists that we have booked have been fabulous.

They've loved playing there.

They've put on these incredible shows.

And they're really connected with the intimacy of the space, and with the audience.

And they're doing meet and greets.

They're signing, you know, vinyl and CDs after the shows.

They're chatting with people, they're taking pictures with people.

So it's this whole sort of integrated experience that we're all having together.

- The other thing I think is that we're booking things that are challenging people.

And I think that's really important for both of us, that we bringing things that you can't hear anywhere else in the area, or not a lot.

- Yeah, connecting through music truly.

- [Isabel] Yeah.

- So what's your spring program look like, March and beyond?

- We have a lot of programming going on, actually.

We're very excited about the spring season.

In March we're doing, and in April, a very eclectic lineup of jazz, some singer songwriters.

We have a lecture series that we're doing.

Really interesting expert people, particularly in the sciences.

And some programs for families and kids.

So again, the idea for us was just to try to really mix it up, and to do a lot of different things, and try to offer the audience a really wide variety of things to check out.

- Yeah, and I'm definitely going to have to stop by myself.

Thank you Danny, and thank you Isabel, for taking the time to sit and tell us about this current endeavor, and passion, and beautiful space for community today.

- Thank you so much for having us.