RIVER VALE, N.J.—Musician, historian, and preservationist Alex Prizgintas returns to the River Vale Public Library on Friday, June 6 at 1 p.m. for “Bach to Rock”— an electric cello immersion that’s part musical performance, part living history.
Presented by the Friends of the River Vale Public Library, the event is free and open to all. Advance registration is requested via the library’s website.
With roots in Orange County, N.Y., Prizgintas has spent more than a decade weaving the past into performance—combining classical music training with storytelling, public history, and a looping station that transforms him into a one-man band.
“Most cellists give concerts,” Prizgintas says. “I try to give a show.”
His genre-crossing repertoire includes J.S. Bach, Claude Debussy, Astor Piazzolla, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix. With guitar pedals and a 1,000-watt amp, he transforms his cello into an expressive rock, jazz, and blues instrument. A Boss RC-300 looping station lets him layer tracks in real time, building immersive soundscapes live in concert.
Prizgintas experiences synesthesia—a blending of the senses where sounds appear as colors and musical phrases form visual and spatial patterns. “When I perform a piece like Bach’s Suite No. 1 in G Major, the musical phrases create a kind of mental road map,” he explains. “It’s a harmonic journey, and there’s relief in returning home with the final cadence.”
Audiences often find themselves on a journey, too. At Bach to Rock, Prizgintas doesn’t just perform: he narrates, pausing to explain a piece’s backstory or cultural significance. “I want listeners to connect with the music and the people who created it,” he says.
That same impulse drives his second career: public history. A summa cum laude graduate of Marist College with degrees in history and public administration, Prizgintas has delivered more than 150 historical lectures on topics ranging from antique bottles and railroads to Jewish bungalow colonies and the Gilded Age estates of the Hudson Valley.
Diving into his website, one gets the sense Prizgintas is tirelessly living his best life. Beyond his music, he is president and town historian of the Woodbury Historical Society and the creator of the Orange County Milk Bottle Museum collection.
He began young, joining the Woodbury Historical Society at 11 and being elected to its board at 14. By the end of high school, he had presented more than 40 lectures and caught the attention of Marist’s history faculty, who recruited him as a student. During the COVID-19 shutdown, when most societies suspended events, he pivoted to research and writing. His essays have been published in New York Archives Magazine, Antique Bottle & Glass Collector, and the peer-reviewed Hudson River Valley Review.
In 2023, Prizgintas gave 135 performances and lectures, supported in part by community arts grants from the Orange County Arts Council and Arts Mid-Hudson. These awards helped him develop new themed concerts under the brand “Uber Arts: Delivering Music for the Soul.” Among them: Salute to Broadway, British Invasion, A Night at the Opera, and a holiday program fusing Christmas, Hanukkah, and classical traditions.
As town historian, Prizgintas is helping lead a revival of historical programming in his community. The Woodbury Historical Society’s “Fifty-Themed” events and toy train exhibitions now draw more than 250 visitors annually. He recently was appointed to the advisory board of the Catskills Borscht Belt Museum, and he recently taught in the Life Long Learning programs at both Marist and Vassar Colleges.
Whether performing or presenting, he says the goal is the same: “To connect people to history and sound in a way that’s alive, personal, and meaningful.”
Bach to Rock will be held in the community room of the River Vale Public Library on Friday, June 6 at 1 p.m. To register or for more, information visit alexprizgintas.com.