Syracuse is a little city that is big on culture

The Life: If you think Syracuse is the sort of place you pass through, it is your loss.

Kofi Karikari, a professional jazz sax player from Syracuse. AP Photo / The Post-Standard, Peter Chen

If you think Syracuse is the sort of place you pass through, that's your loss.

The city of 145,000, which lies in upstate New York in the Finger Lakes wine country near the Canadian border, is a little slice of 19th-century America, with a downtown of brownstone streets, lined with cafes and cosy eateries, high culture and jazz clubs.

It's a town of students - 20,000-odd at its highly regarded Syracuse University - and a sophisticated workforce employed by companies such as Lockheed Martin and Time Warner.

If jazz is your bag, this is your kinda town. There are two annual outdoor festivals, the M&T Syracuse Jazz Festival and the CNY Jazz Arts Foundation's Jazz in the Square Festival. Performers such as Chuck Mangione, Smokey Robinson, Branford Marsalis, Stanley Clarke, Dr John and Aretha Franklin have all graced the shows' stages.

For more highbrow music, there is the Syracuse Opera Company, a professional outfit that generally performs three operas a season and several free outdoor concerts.

At the heart of local theatre life is the Syracuse Shakespeare Festival, best known for its annual free Shakespeare in the Park programme at the Thornden Park Amphitheatre.

For lovers of avant-garde, Syracuse Stage does experimental and creative theatre, with many of its productions moving to Broadway.

Then there is the Red House Arts Center, a small theatre housed in a converted hotel that also hosts regular exhibits in its art gallery and screenings of independent films.

If it is just a nice meal and a night out, dine out downtown around Armory Square with more than 50 restaurants and clubs, or go up to Little Italy in the Near Northeast neighbourhood for pizzas.