In 2016, four days into her retirement, Elizabeth Sobol was relaxing in Miami Beach when she received a call from a recruiter wondering if she would be interested in becoming the new CEO of Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Though she had never been, Sobol remembered the venue, less than 200 miles north of Manhattan, from her days managing the careers of world-renowned musicians in NYC.
At first, Sobol was dismissive of the notion of leaving the beach for Upstate New York. But a friend urged her to see Saratoga Springs for herself. To this day, Sobol is glad she did.
“Living in New York City, I didn’t really understand what an incomparable cultural destination Saratoga Springs is,” says Sobol. “After seeing the town in person — the natural beauty, the vibrant greenspace, the amazing historical preservation, and the thriving live music and arts scene — I couldn’t believe I had never known how special this place was. I fell in love overnight.”
Set in a 2,400-acre park preserve surrounded by wooded hiking trails, geysers, and the city’s namesake natural mineral springs, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, or SPAC, is one of the world’s most prestigious outdoor music venues. But it’s also the epicenter of a vibrant arts scene in the surrounding city that encompasses not just music and dance, but also culinary, literary, healing, and visual arts.
Even more than that, SPAC is the beating heart of a community that is passionate about art in all its forms and works to make Saratoga Springs a world-class, year-round cultural destination.
Natural beauty and art flow together in Saratoga Springs
First opened in 1966, SPAC is built around a wooden amphitheater with covered seating for 5,200 people and a sloping lawn that creates a natural bowl for an additional 20,000 concertgoers. This same stage has hosted the New York City Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra since its inception and has welcomed the two-day Saratoga Jazz Festival since 1978 — all of which continue to this day. Just look at this summer’s exciting lineup:
A ‘state-of-the-arts’ facility with history
When she arrived in 2016, Sobol began to work to update the physical facilities, the sound system, and collaborated more closely with Live Nation to ensure a more robust and varied line-up of artists ranging from Dave Matthews Band and Rod Stewart to modern acts like Mumford & Sons and Leon Bridges. In the summer alone, SPAC presents five weeks of ballet, jazz and orchestra performances, while Live Nation brings in an additional 35-40 shows, welcoming a total of 500,000 visitors through the gates.
Listeners and musicians alike are drawn to SPAC for its seamless blending of craftsmanship and sound engineering with natural splendor and acoustics.
“The venue and the park meet in the most perfect confluence of human-made and natural beauty,” says Sobol. “In my New York City days, I worked right next to Carnegie Hall, and I would wait until the last minute to leave the office, making it to my seat right before curtain. I’d go to a performance and I found that I couldn’t focus on the music. My mind was still in the middle of the workday and I didn’t have the clarity, space or time to absorb the concert. At SPAC, you drive into the park, down our majestic “avenue of the pines,” past historical buildings and you are enveloped by natural beauty. Your heart rate goes down and your mind begins to clear. You are ready to have a truly immersive encounter with the music.”
In addition, Sobol has worked to extend SPAC’s season to be year round, presenting Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, as well as modern dance, jazz, theatre and global music offerings in the intimate 500-seat Spa Little Theater venue.
A year-round concert venue
SPAC’s long tenure in Saratoga Springs has also engendered a deep bond with the people of the community. They not only work and volunteer at the art center venues, but they also take advantage of every opportunity to enjoy the visiting acts and programming as spectators and lovers of the arts.
“The love of this venue permeates the staff and this town,” says Sobol. “Many of the people grew up in Saratoga Springs and have been coming here for a long time. They remember the first show they saw at SPAC. It’s so much a part of the collective memory and DNA of the city that it’s palpable and powerful. Everyone has their SPAC stories.”
The people of Saratoga Springs are also eager to share the experience with newcomers looking to write their own SPAC stories. To buy your tickets to SPAC and start planning your trip to Saratoga Springs go to www.spac.org.
A welcoming atmosphere
By Monica Vanover on May 1, 2025
® I LOVE NEW YORK is a registered trademark and service mark of the New York State Department of Economic Development; used with permission.
Sponsored by Saratoga performing Arts Center
While SPAC is known for its natural wonder, it’s not the only amphitheater that allows musicians, artists, and spectators to commune with Mother Nature during a show. However, most of the other great outdoor venues in the U.S. are secluded, miles away from civilization. Somehow, SPAC manages to create that same escape while only being less than one mile from the vibrant downtown of Saratoga Springs.
That proximity translates to more than just easier traffic in and out of SPAC. It provides easy access to more cultural destinations in the charming, walkable setting of a town of fewer than 30,000 residents. In addition to the historic Saratoga Race Course, Saratoga Springs has a lot to offer. There are two extraordinary bookstores and the New York State Summer Writers Institute and Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College. Independent art galleries, street art districts, theaters, studios, and museums abound. There’s also a thriving restaurant and bar scene and plenty of boutique hotels and signature Bed & Breakfasts for overnight visitors and passers-through.
(See all that Saratoga Springs has to offer and plan your next visit.)
SPAC is also connected closely to the community through its innovative educational programming initiatives. The SPAC School of the Arts was founded in 2021 to ensure that students of all ages and abilities can experience the transformative power of music, theatre, and dance. There are also regular art exhibits and literary conversations with poets, authors, and journalists.
One of the most successful SPAC initiatives is Culinary Arts@SPAC, a series of food-and-drink experiences featuring local and visiting chefs that emphasizes sustainability and the connections we form to art, nature, and each other through food.
“Over the years, we’ve been really focusing on science and data around the neurobiology of everyday experiences of awe,” says Sobol. “Encounters with beauty, whether natural or human-made, activate the parts of the brain where empathy and compassion are cultivated. And we’ve been looking at our center as a place of tremendous healing.”
Ties to the town
Bold and expressive performer and guitarist fusing blues, rock, R&B, soul and hip hop.
2 days, 2 stages and 22 electrifying artists! Kick off summer with one of the largest jazz events in North America. From jazz to roots, funk, blues, rock and beyond, the festival brings the best artists in the world to the unbeatable atmosphere of SPAC's bucolic grounds.
Saratoga Jazz Festival,
presented by GE Vernova
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Tickets
Magnetic performer and audience favorite.
Jazz and funk guitarist.
Jazz vocalist known for his rich baritone voice and emotional depth.
6/28
Trombone Shorty
& Orleans Avenue
Cory Wong
Gregory Porter
Gary Clark Jr.
6/29
6/29
6/28
6/28-6/29
The delightful tale of a mad inventor and the life-like doll he creates. Called "story ballet done to perfection” by The New York Times, Coppélia is one of the greatest comic ballets of the 19th Century. (Buy Tickets)
Coppélia
WEDNESDAY, JULY 9 @ 7:30PM
THURSDAY, JULY 10 @ 7:30PM
FRIDAY, JULY 11 @ 7:30PM
SATURDAY, JULY 12 @ 2:00PM
7/10 & 7/11
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Tickets
Experience New York City Ballet at its summer home at SPAC -- one of the only places in the world to see the full company outside of NYC.
New York City Ballet
5-time GRAMMY®-winner brings her Voice of Nature: the Anthropocene program. (Buy Tickets)
Renée Fleming
Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads an all-star cast with soloists from the Metropolitan Opera stage. (Buy Tickets)
Verdi's Requiem with Yannick
GRAMMY®-winning jazz singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Laufey brings a spell-binding sonic journey. (Buy Tickets)
Laufey: A Night at the Symphony
Tony®, Emmy®, GRAMMY® Award-winner and three-time Oscar nominee gives voice to music by the greatest singers of all time.
(Buy Tickets)
An Evening with Cynthia Erivo
8/22
Experience the thrill of Back to the Future on a big high-def screen with The Philadelphia Orchestra performing Alan Silvestri’s dazzling musical score live. (Buy Tickets)
Back to the Future
in Concert
8/23
8/9
8/14
8/15
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Tickets
Returns to its summer home at SPAC for a three week residency featuring 12 unique programs.
The Philadelphia Orchestra
- Elizabeth Sobol, Chief Executive Officer, Saratoga Performing Arts Center
The venue and the park meet in the most perfect confluence of human-made and natural beauty.
"
- Elizabeth Sobol, Chief Executive Officer, Saratoga Performing Arts Center
Encounters with beauty, whether natural or human-made, activate the parts of the brain where empathy and compassion are cultivated.
"
- Elizabeth Sobol, Chief Executive Officer, Saratoga Performing Arts Center
I couldn’t believe I had never known how special this place was. I fell in love overnight.
"
Thirty years after the original release, experience Disney’s The Lion King on the big screen, as the orchestra performs Hans Zimmer’s Oscar®-winning musical score live. (Buy tickets)
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Buy Tickets
Spellbinding and kinetic masterworks by Jerome Robbins and George Balanchine accompany a SPAC premiere by Justin Peck. (Buy Tickets)
FRIDAY, JULY 11 @ 2:00PM
SATURDAY, JULY 12 @ 7:30PM
Robbins, Balanchine & Peck
8/6-8/23
7/9-7/12
7/9
The delightful tale of a mad inventor and the life-like doll he creates. Called "story ballet done to perfection” by The New York Times, Coppélia is one of the greatest comic ballets of the 19th Century.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 9 @ 7:30PM
THURSDAY, JULY 10 @ 7:30PM
FRIDAY, JULY 11 @ 7:30PM
SATURDAY, JULY 12 @ 2:00PM
Coppélia
8/7
Gary Clark Jr.
Trombone Shorty
Gregory Porter
Cory Wong
Cynthia Erivo
Laufey
Renée Fleming
Yannick Nézet-Séguin