If you like the organ, the beach, or outsized halls left over from the era of the Third Great Awakening, you might consider the summer classical music series at Ocean Grove, NJ.

Musicians have traditionally been attracted to churches, usually as an affordable means to reach local audiences. The Great Auditorium is not your neighborhood church. Ocean Grove does everything on a grand scale – 6,250 seats, 25 ton organ and a visiting chorus of 1000 voices. The hall’s enormous capacity and uncanny acoustical properties have attracted such luminaries as Enrico Caruso, Leonard Bernstein and Virgil Fox.

Sure, there’s a whiff of vulgarity about the venue, with its large wooden American flag studded with flashing light bulbs and enormous illuminated signs that flank the stage proclaiming “Holiness to the Lord” and “So be ye holy,” but really it makes it all the more perfect as a setting to celebrate America’s independence.

Read the complete rundown of the summer’s musical events in my article in today’s Trenton Times:

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2015/06/classical_music_series_of_reci.html

PHOTO: Understatement was never its strong suit