BIG SCREEN, BIG SOUND ...surrounded by people who love music just as much as you do

The Music Fan Series was launched during the July 4th weekend of 2014 when John Wackman helped organize the Music Invasion Weekend. The program consisted of A Hard Day’s Night, Stop Making Sense, The Last Waltz, and Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me. To complement the event, the Rosendale lobby hosted an art exhibition titled: “50 Years of Classic LP Covers,” drawn from the collections of fans across the Mid-Hudson Valley.

Since then, a committee of music and film lovers has been curating the Music Fan Series at Rosendale Theatre, programming more than 75 films for appreciative audiences. We are widening that mission to include live concerts.

UPCOMING

We are always looking to bring new talent on board!

If you have music or film industry connections, or are just an obsessive lover of music, please join our band! Use our volunteer form and let us know what you’d like to do.

Join the Discussion on Facebook!

This group invites you to post film discussions, movie suggestions, announcements of upcoming events, and any topic related to music and film.

The Music Fan Series is a subcommittee of Rosendale Theatre Programming.
These dedicated music lovers work hard to keep the beat going.
They market and plan screenings and concerts for all to enjoy. Join the party!

ABOUT our Co-Producers:

Joyce Sprafkin is our booker. As a retired professor and clinical psychologist at Stony Brook Medical School, she uses her research, administrative, and clinical skills to search far and wide to find the distributors that can deliver the films that the committee chooses. Joyce attended Beatles’ concerts at both Forest Hills Tennis Stadium and at Shea Stadium!

Jay Kahn   His career has been involved in marketing and sales within the pro sound, consumer electronics and music industries in the New York and national markets. He enjoys most music genres and has played drums in a band in the famed Greenwich Village of the 1960s.

Ted Folke: The  primary goal of Ted’s professional life has been the promotion of international understanding and capacity building through  film and video production, and the high light of his professional career was serving as Chief, Video Unit with MONUSCO, the UN Mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo , from 2007-2012. (For all Ted’s work in the DRC, please see http:://YouTube.com/MONUCVIDEO.) In 2014, Ted returned to teach Film and Media Studies at SUNY/FIT, and completed work on a doctoral dissertation titled DOCUMENTARY IN THE AGE OF NEW MEDIA:THREE CASE STUDIES for The Department of Film Studies of Sweden’s University of Lund.

Jay Blotcher: The High Falls-based veteran writer and publicist helps promote MFS screenings. His manic love of music is genetic; his grandfather Harry Paul was a longtime publicist for the Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals. From 1986 through 2014, Blotcher was a music journalist, reviewing concerts and interviewing artists for New York City and Hudson Valley media. Blotcher obsessively maintains a list of all 450-plus concerts he has attended since 1976.   

Fatima Deen loves music of all kinds. She has been a contributing member of the Music Fan Series since the original 2014 Music Invasion Weekend.    

Mike Jurkovic’s poetry, prose and music reviews have been published globally but with little reportable income. Full-length collections include AmericanMental, (Luchador Press 2020) Blue Fan Whirring, (Nirala Press, 2018); President, Calling All Poets, now in its 22nd year, Beacon, New Paltz, Poughkeepsie. A 2016 Pushcart nominee, his CD reviews appear online at All About Jazz and Lightwood. New Jazz Excursions can be heard on alternating Saturdays 10am-12pm on WIOX 91.3FM, Roxbury, NY. He hopes to again host his Tuesday night Jazz Sanctuary, 7-10pm WOOC 105.3 FM, Troy, NY. He loves Emily most of all.

Rob Norris is best known as the bassist for The Bongos–the founding fathers of the ’80’s Hoboken indie-music scene. He also plays with Blue Paradox, East Of Venus, Tulula!, Living With Elephants, and OmU (who twice toured in Cuba). Over the years Rob has played with Donovan, Damo Suzuki (Can), The B-52’s, Garth Hudson (Band), Steve Holley (Wings), Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Group), David Johansen (NY Dolls), Marshall Crenshaw and Moby–as well as members of R.E.M., The Feelies, Yo La Tengo, Throbbing Gristle, Television, Osibisa and The Velvet Underground. He has played in hundreds of venues from San Francisco to New York to London to Berlin and appears on dozens of recordings. Rob’s solo CD “Morning Becomes Electric” is available at all online digital outlets. He has also been a holistic healer for over twenty-five years, with a private practice in New York’s Hudson Valley.

Laurie Giardino: She’s been with the Collective since it started. She brings her life experiences as a music lover, collaborator, garlic worshiper, vagabond, and keeper of the archives to the Music Fan Committee. While coming of age in 1975, she saw her first concert: The Allman Brothers Band and Muddy Waters at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, New Jersey.  

Snapper Earl: I have been lucky enough to be friendly with con-men, ne’er do wells, thieves, and poseurs most of my life and also non-musicians. In spite of this experience I have found myself as a member of bands since the ‘60s, and attending many concerts- quite a few of them turning out to be historical for their venue, content or sheer size. While I play Harmonica in The Sidemen Blues Band, I really enjoy all kinds of music and find it necessary for my well being.

John K. Wackman December 1, 1951 - January 8, 2021. The ongoing work of the Music Fan Series is dedicated to our late founder, John Wackman, who began programming the series in July of 2014. John, an accomplished TV writer and producer, died unexpectedly in January of 2021. A guiding light in our community, he loved music and saw it as a great unifier. We continue the Music Fan Series in his honor.
Local record collectors curated an exhibit in the Rosendale lobby titled: “50 Years of Classic LP Covers.” John Wackman on the left, in the orange shirt, is the founder of the Music Fan Film Series.
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