Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Raritan River Music Last Chance May Concert

Is there something you’ve forgotten?

It’s nearly Memorial Day weekend – time for the last of this year’s Raritan River Music festival concerts!

You’ve one more chance to enjoy live chamber music this May in the intimacy of an historic venue in West-Central New Jersey.

The series will conclude with flutist Clare Hoffman and harmonica virtuoso Robert Bonfiglio, founders of the Grand Canyon Music Festival, and electric violist/composer Martha Mooke. Among the featured works will be “Serenade for the Grand Canyon” by Philadelphia-born Arnold Black, whose centenary it is this year.

The program will also include “Fairy Fantasy,” a new piece commissioned by Raritan River Music from venerable Cuban composer Leo Brouwer, performed by Michael Newman and Laura Oltman of the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo; and a new work by Diné-American composer Raven Chacon, recipient of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Hofmann and Bonfiglio founded the Grand Canyon Music Festival in 1983. Newman and Oltman founded Raritan River Music in 1990. Combined, that’s 74 years of music festival experience!

The concert will take place on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Bethlehem Presbyterian Church in Pittstown.

For more information, visit raritanrivermusic.org.

Follow the link for a taste of Arnold Black’s evocative “Serenade for the Grand Canyon.”

Then sample past weeks of Raritan River Music concerts on YouTube.

“Le Grand: French Baroque Music from Court & Concert,” with the Four Nations Ensemble performing music by François Couperin and friends at Clinton Presbyterian Church on May 6:

“Laments and Dances: Music from the Folk Traditions,” with the Bergamot Quartet and the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo at Stanton Reformed Church on May 13:

“Musical Monuments: Masterpieces by Arensky and Price,” with the Mohawk Trail Piano Trio performing chamber music by Anton Arensky and Florence Price at Old Greenwich Presbyterian Church in Stewartsville on May 20:

May 25, 2023
Old Nassau The Story of Princeton’s Song

I posted yesterday about my article on Princeton musician (born in Germany) Carl Langlotz. Langlotz, a student of Franz Liszt who played in the premiere of Wagner’s “Lohengrin,” must be one of the most overqualified composers of a university song ever. With Reunions upon us, “Old Nassau” will reverberate across town and gown all weekend, 164 years after Langlotz dashed it off while enjoying a smoke on his front porch on Mercer Street. Since the image wasn’t available yet at the time I posted, here’s a detail of the cover design. Enjoy the article in this week’s edition of the Princeton weekly U.S. 1 Newspaper – PrincetonInfo.

https://www.communitynews.org/princetoninfo/coverstories/in-praise-of-old-nassau-meet-its-composer/article_3729e04e-f982-11ed-acc8-53b68127b320.html?utm_campaign=blox&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR2e15QKRr6Sn5es3iRMBjXn1YSP4hx2rhSp-G8wjmcua46a2b4PkfkjiQM

May 25, 2023
Star Wars Post-Jedi Rant Livestream

May 25th. It’s been 40 years since the release of “Return of the Jedi,” the twilight of acceptable “Star Wars.” Hear me rant about everything post-1983, when I join Roy and his (prequel-era) son, Ry, on a special edition of Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Check your Midi-chlorians in the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc. Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the Dark Side, this Thursday evening at 7:00 EDT!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

May 25, 2023
Tina Turner Remembered Queen of Rock

Not my area of expertise, but like everyone else of my generation, I grew up with her music.

Then she appeared as Aunty Entity in “Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome” (1985), a role actually written with her in mind, according to director George Miller. I remember my parents’ astonishment as she leaped through the bars into the titular arena. “TINA!” they cried.

And in the Age of MTV, my sister was glued to every video.

Hard to escape the influence of Tina Turner in the 1980s. R.I.P. The Queen of Rock and Roll. Turner died today at the age of 83.

May 24, 2023
Old Nassau The Story of Its Composer

Carl Langlotz studied with Franz Liszt and played in the orchestra at the premiere of Wagner’s “Lohengrin.” At 19, he emigrated to the United States and lived much of his life in Philadelphia, Trenton, and Princeton – in the case of the latter for some 25 years. But he would be long forgotten now – a footnote of a footnote in the most arcane of music histories – if not for “Old Nassau,” which he essentially dashed off while enjoying a smoke one afternoon on Mercer Street. His spirit endures in Princeton University’s alma mater, which will be sung incessantly at Reunions, poised to engulf the town this weekend. Learn more about Langlotz in my article in – also the cover story of – this week’s U.S. 1 Newspaper – PrincetonInfo, out today.

https://www.communitynews.org/princetoninfo/coverstories/in-praise-of-old-nassau-meet-its-composer/article_3729e04e-f982-11ed-acc8-53b68127b320.html

May 24, 2023

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