Mere weeks after welcoming a very high-end Janis Joplin tribute show at UPAC, the Bardavon’s 150th Anniversary Gala scores quite the real thing: music legend Gladys Knight, who performs at the namesake Poughkeepsie theater on Sunday, October 6. The Gala is always a big deal and typically features an outsize booking, but even by that standard, this is a big one. Gladys Knight and her orchestra will perform all of her R & B chart-toppers, from “Every Beat of My Heart” to “I Heard It through the Grapevine” to “I Don’t Want to Do Wrong,” her soul/pop smashes “If I Were Your Woman,” “Love Overboard” and the oft-covered “Neither One of Us Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye.” Also on the playlist will be “That’s What Friends Are For,” “You’re the Best Thing that Ever Happened to Me” and the song that has become her unofficial anthem, “Midnight Train to Georgia.”
Funds raised by the Bardavon Gala help underwrite many programs that cannot support themselves – programs like school residencies that bring artists and musicians to local students, ambitious symphonic events and more. Ticket prices range from $125 to $275 and are tax-deductible.Gladys Knight, Sunday, Oct. 6, 8 p.m., $125-$275, Bardavon 1869 Opera House, 35 Market St., Poughkeepsie, (845) 473-2072, www.bardavon.org