The Town Supervisor of Woodstock will be presenting Todd Rundgren with Keys to the Town on October 23 following a two-day residency.
A pioneer of electronic and progressive rock music, the usage of computer software and online music delivery, and music videos as a whole, Todd Rundgren is nothing short of a music industry legend.
His experimental approach to creating has garnered widespread respect since his beginnings with psychedelic band Nazz, following solo career and subsequent group Utopia, and ventures into the tech world- Rundgren is to be thanked for one of the first music videos to be aired on MTV produced in addition to one of the first computer paint programs.
This insatiable desire to create and experiment is exactly what landed Rundgren in the limelight time and time again, as his work maintains personality and ingenuity regardless of medium or circumstance.
Some of his most notable work not directly tied to his name came out of his 1969 move to New York, in which he found himself in the Greenwich Village club scene mingling with Manhattan creatives.
After accepting a job offer from former Nazz assistant manager turned new founder of Ampex Records and correlated Bearsville Studios nestled next to Woodstock, Rundgren began his journey to becoming the highest-paid producer in the world, eventually giving him the push needed to kick-start his solo career.
Rundgren’s ties to the town continue in 2002, scoring the A Face to a Name film debuted at the Woodstock Film Festival, a piece made in and concerning the aftermath of the September 11 attacks of the previous year.
It’s no wonder why the town of Woodstock has decided to honor Rundgren in this way- the keys will be a testament to his importance to the cultural history of the area, music, and everything in between. In addition to the symbolic presenting of keys, the ceremony will also mark the installation and dedication of a plaque to his work at Utopia Video Studio, built for Rundgren by Albert Grossman in the 1980s- the origin point of his legendary MTV music video projects.
The ceremony runs parallel to Rundgren’s two-day set at Bearsville Theater on October 22 and 23. While the first of two dates is sold out, the second that will follow the key presenting ceremony still has tickets available- learn more and purchase tickets here.
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