Albany Symphony Orchestra

The Albany Symphony Orchestra is smack-dab in the middle of Key’s American Music Festival; this weekend the ASO will present two engagingly designed, complementary events.

First, tonight (Thursday) is Composing From the Inside Out. At the Arts Center of the Capital Region, you’ll be able to sample “lite fare” while hobnobbing with musical director David Alan Miller and composers George Tsontakis and Peter Child. Then, everyone will head over to the Troy Music Hall, where you’ll be able to “experience the interaction between composers, musicians and conductor.”

Then on Saturday, the ASO will present Casual Night at the Symphony. (Yes, wear your jeans, slackers.) You can enjoy the premieres of the new works by Child (an orchestral piece inspired by the current Dorothy Lathrop exhibit at the Albany Institute of History and Art) and Tsontakis (Violin Concerto No. 1, featuring Cho Liang Lin), as well as movie-composer-legend Bernard Herrmann’s Nocturne and Scherzo.

Composing From the Inside Out will be held tomorrow (Thursday, March 22) at 6:30 PM at the Arts Center of the Capital Region (265 River St., Troy) and the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall (2nd and State streets, Troy). Tickets are $20; call the ASO for reservations and information at 465-4755.

Casual Night at the Symphony is Saturday (March 24) at 8 PM at the Troy Music Hall. Tickets are $42, $34 and $21, and can be purchased from the box office at 273-0038.

Bedlam: Robert Darroll + Sean Reed

Bedlam, a term now used to describe a state of chaos, originally was the name of an insane asylum in 18th-century England, a circus-like environment where the wealthy would pay to enter and watch the residents act like . . . well, crazy people. This week, RPI’s Greene Gallery presents a multimedia installation by Robert Darroll and Sean Reed that, according to the fine folks at eMPAC, “draws us into the minds of five individuals planning their joint escape from Bedlam via multichannel sound and an amalgam of computer graphics, animation and video projected onto oversized screens.”

Plot your escape to Troy to catch Bedlam, which will be on view at the Greene Gallery (School of Architecture, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy) beginning Wednesday (March 28) through March 31, from 12:30 to 5 PM daily. An opening reception, featuring an appearance by Sean Reed, takes place on March 29 from 6 to 8 PM. For more information, call 276-3921 or visit www.empac.rpi.edu.

Lucinda Williams

It’s been almost 10 years since the release of Lucinda Williams’ breakthrough album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, but that was merely the beginning for the now-54-year-old Louisianan. She’s gone on to release another handful of excellent collections; her latest release, West, is the best-reviewed record of her long career. She’ll make two regional appearances this week, including a sold-out Egg concert on Tuesday, with support by critically acclaimed Ohio trio the Heartless Bastards.

Lucinda Williams, with guests the Heartless Bastards, will perform at the Calvin Theatre (19 King St., Northampton, Mass.) this Sunday (March 25) for an 8 PM show. Tickets are $30, $35 and $40. To purchase tickets, or for more information, call the box office at (413) 584-1444.

Williams and company will then bring their show to the Egg (Empire State Plaza, Albany) on Tuesday (March 27) at 7:30 PM. The Egg box office (473-1845) has confirmed that this show, as of press time, is sold out.