February 18, 2026 – Stone Ridge, NY – On Wednesday, March 4, at 7:30 p.m. the music ensembles of SUNY Ulster will perform a concert to honor the memory of Lee Herrington. Herrington was a dedicated musician and mentor, the former band director at SUNY Ulster, a longtime Rondout Valley music teacher, and the former director of the Kingston local American Federation of Musicians Concert Band. The event will be held in the Quimby Theater, Vanderlyn Hall on the Stone Ridge campus. A snow date is scheduled for Thursday, March 5, 2026.
This annual memorial concert will have multiple performances with various combinations of groups that include SUNY Ulster college students, faculty, and staff members, SUNY Ulster Collegian students from Ulster County high schools, Ulster County community members, advanced high school and middle school students from Ulster County, and music educators from Ulster, Orange, and Dutchess counties.
Musical groups include the College Chorus, directed by Janet Gehres with accompanist Edward Leavitt; the College/Community Band, directed by Carla Newsome; the Percussion and African Music Ensembles, directed by Paul Chambers; and the String Ensemble, directed by Anastasia Solberg.
The College Chorus will perform music from the Renaissance, The Patriotic Hymn “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”, and a wonderful arrangement of the well-known spiritual, “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel”. The College/Community Band will be performing Kaleidoscopic Dances by Joshua Trentatdue, Selections from The Greatest Showman as arranged by Paul Murtha, and Havana Nights by Randall Standridge. The Percussion Ensemble will perform a variety of contemporary works alongside traditional percussion music from Mexico and Uganda. Traditional drumming rhythms and songs from Guinea and Nigeria will be performed by the African Music Ensemble and after a several year hiatus, we happily welcome the String Ensemble back to SUNY Ulster.
This event is free and open to the public, donations are gratefully accepted. For more information, contact Janet Gehres at gehresj@sunyulster.edu.
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