This summer the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) will open for its 42nd season to offer people in Saratoga Springs and throughout the Northeast the opportunity to view some of the world’s top performing artists.

SPAC, which was originally created out of a need for a premier summer arts venue in Upstate New York, has been offering world class performing arts since former New York City Ballet Orchestra Conductor Robert Irving raised his baton and sent the first notes of music reverberating throughout the center’s amphitheatre over four decades ago. Today, the center hosts a diverse array of classical and non-classical performances, including summer residences for the New York City Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

SPAC will kick off its 2008 season in May with an extended season program which was first introduced two years ago in an attempt to broaden the center’s programming and lengthen the season. In 2008, the extended programming will include the Martha Graham Dance Company, Grammy-nominated pop/folk singer Suzanne Vega, Colombian jazz harpist Edmar Castaneda and Tony-nominated jazz vocalist Ann Hampton Callaway.

In July, the New York City Ballet will return to celebrate its 40th year of summer residence at the venue. Each year the ballet returns to SPAC for a three-week series of performances. This season the ballet will celebrate acclaimed American choreographer Jerome Robbins, who spent more than 40 years with the ballet company. The group will honor Robbins by showcasing some of his most influential works including “West Side Story Suite,” “The Concert” and “Afternoon of a faun; I’m old fashioned.”

The Philadelphia Orchestra will also return to SPAC to honor over forty years of summer residence at the center. Among the highlights of the orchestra’s 2008 summer season include a guest conducting appearance by Marin Alsop, music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Jeff Tyzik who will present scores from classic family films like “The Wizard of Oz” and “Superman.” The orchestra will also showcase several epic works, including Gustav Holst’s “The Planets,” Leos Janacek’s “Sinfonietta” and Richard Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra” and “An Alpine Symphony.”

Aside from the center’s long-running summer residences, this year’s line-up will also feature the ever popular Freihofer’s Jazz Festival in June, the Saratoga Chamber Music Festival in August, the 8th annual Saratoga Wine & Food Festival in September and compelling performances by the Lake George Opera at the Spa Little Theatre in July.

The Live Nation concert series will also return this season to offer concert goers an array of live rock and pop music concerts from some of the biggest names in rock. Legendary artists performing this year include The Police, Rush and the Dave Matthews Band among others. Live Nation has yet to release the full line-up.

Over the past forty-two years SPAC has been offering a wide array of performing arts to the community. The inspiration for the center came from an article written in February of 1961 by Albany newspaperman Duane La Fleche, who had read on a wire service report that the New York Philharmonic was being courted by Stowe, Vermont to make it the group’s summer residence.

“It seems very wrong that that a New York orchestra should have to look outside the state for a summer residence,” La Fleche wrote. “Wouldn’t the State Reservation at Saratoga Springs make a nice location?”

Within a week local civic, cultural and legislative leaders, who had previously considered building a Saratoga Arts Center, launched into action. The group chose Spa State Park as the site for the future venue. By the summer of 1963, funds for the future center’s creation were allocated through a wide range of community support and the Rockefeller Brothers fund which ensured the center would be built.

By the time plans had been finalized to build the amphitheatre, the New York Philharmonic was out of the picture, but the New York City Ballet’s co-founders George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein were on board and would help to define the structure of the center’s amphitheatre and its future artistic programming.

The amphitheatre, which holds 5,100 people, was designed in the shape of a natural, curved bowl and is surrounded by the beauty of towering pines and vast lawns. The original site did not feature the festival lawn, which was later added and holds an additional 20,000, including six large screens that give fans the experience of a front-row seat.

Over the years, the center has offered people of all ages the opportunity to come and experience world class performances and the sheer beauty of the venue and Spa State Park. Today, the venue has endured over four decades of live performances and its rich tradition adds yet another feature to the city’s character.

“With a dynamic combination of diverse, world-class programming, brilliant artists, creative promotion, and of course, our magnificent setting in the Saratoga Spa State Park, Saratoga Performing Arts Center is set to offer its guests a stunning array of opportunities – and memories – in 2008. I invite everyone to join us to experience the extraordinary ‘Magic of SPAC,” stated Marcia White, President of SPAC, in a press release.

Order forms for SPAC’s 2008 season are now available on SPAC’s website. Tickets purchased by May 1 receive a 10 percent discount. Information on SPAC programming, its seat sponsorship campaign, membership and special events can be found on SPAC’s website at: www.spac.org