RACHAEL SAGE AND CASSANDRA KUBINSKI
DROM
85 Ave. A between Fifth & Sixth Sts.
Saturday, June 20, $23.49 (plus $20 table minimum per person), VIP $46.97, 7:00
dromnyc.com
rachaelsage.com
cassandrakubinski.com
“Every time that you touch my hand I feel love / Every time you look in my eyes I feel love / Every time that you touch my cheek I feel love / Every time you give me a squeeze I feel love,” Rachael Sage sings on “Just Enough,” the lead track on her beautiful 2025 album, Canopy. It’s hard not to feel love when listening to the Port Chester native’s music, either across more than twenty LPs and EPs or live with her band, the Sequins.
“I wished and I waited / So quiet, so patient / I thought I would never hear it come / But here it comes now / I want it to thrill me / Cut through me, come fill me up / I’m ready, so let me / Sing it out, sing it out,” Cassandra Kubinski sings out on “This Is the Sound,” the lead track on her alluring 2023 EP, The Saratoga Sessions: Songs + Stories. It’s hard not to feel the thrill when listening to the Connecticut-born, NYC-based artist’s music, either across more than a half dozen LPs and EPs, as bandleader on The Never Settle Show, or as a featured songwriter on Dance Moms (as is Sage).
On June 20, the two singer-songwriters will team up for a special concert at DROM, playing separately and together. Joined by the Sequins, Sage will highlight tunes from her upcoming record, Under My Canopy, an acoustic reimagining of Canopy. Kubinski will focus on tunes from her upcoming record, Dance Moms Acoustic & Lyrical Solos, which includes such tracks as “Timeless,” “Save You Tonight,” and “There Is Only Love.”
“I am bursting with excitement to finally share the stage with Cassandra after so many years of knowing one another and having both had our music so heavily featured on the TV show Dance Moms,” says Sage, the founder, president, and art director of MPress Records and winner of three Great American Song Contests, the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, the Billboard Songwriting Contest, four OUTmusic Awards, and five Independent Music Awards. “What makes this upcoming show so special isn’t only that we’re both unveiling new material and unique acoustic arrangements — along with a video premiere — but that we are and have long been two fiercely independent, strong female artists who’ve advocated for and enjoyed intense community with the NYC music scene for decades. That shared sensibility of wanting to show up for and lift up other women while pursuing our creative bliss has always been something that’s bound us within the New York scene . . . and now we’ll finally get a chance to sing together — and about what it means to be resilient and inspired by one another’s journeys. Plus, I just adore her songwriting and vocal abilities, so there’s a ton of respect and admiration right now, which will make this night especially fun.”
Kubinski agrees wholeheartedly.
“I’m so excited to premiere songs from my forthcoming album. I’m also looking forward to sharing the stage with Rachael Sage for the first time,” adds Kubinski, who is also a voice actress, the former global co-chair of membership for the international nonprofit Women in Music, and winner of a Women in Sync Award. “It’s a unique connection, as our music has been central to the world of dance competitions. It’s gratifying when these different creative threads combine to form something memorably distinctive. I so respect Rachael’s songwriting and work ethic. Playing in NYC, the heartland of the arts, is a very special honor, and it’s a city I’ve loved performing in over the years.”
Tickets for the DROM show are $23.49 with a $20 table minimum per person; the VIP package is $46.97 and comes with priority seating, a signed, personalized commemorative poster, and autographed CDs from both Sage and Kubinski.
On “Nexus (Acoustic),” the first single from Under My Canopy — originally written about nonbinary high school student Nex Benedict, who died by suicide after being bullied and whose death became a national incident — Sage sings, “We can lift each other up with our resolve instead of doing nothing / We can lift each other up with our resolve instead of giving up.”
There should be a lot of lifting up at DROM on June 20 when these two extraordinary women take the stage.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]