Somewhere between the return of Catbird and the reopening of the public pool comes the 37th Raritan River Music Festival. The festival, curated by Laura Oltman and Michael Newman of the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo, gets a jump on the festival-heavy summer months with a series of May programs that honor, in one way or another, the 250th anniversary of the founding of our nation. These will be presented over four concerts in historic venues located in New Jersey’s Hunterdon and Warren Counties.
Since it’s been a very busy week – chockful of everything except sleep, apparently – and I’m running on fumes right now, I’m going to turn it over to this encapsulation from the Raritan River Music website:
“This season RRM celebrates the 250th anniversary of the founding of our nation. Many of our festival venues pre-date the American Revolution. The congregations of our churches were founded by people who were among the first European settlers in North America.
“So far from anything they had ever known, they fashioned a government and a culture separate from their origins, whose modern global appeal surely derives from the multiplicity of those who created it. A core mission of Raritan River Music is to embrace the creation and performance of new music from the New World and to build a recorded archive of these musical compositions – music that is as original, dynamic, and aspirational as our nation.”
Now back to me:
Duo Jalal will return to the festival with works for the striking (and bowed) combination of viola and percussion. The program, “Threads of Sound: Voices of American Composers,” will consist of new music by Kenji Bunch, Caroline Shaw, Dafnis Prieto, Kurt Rhode, and Dawn Avery. The concert will be performed at Historic Hunterdon County Court House, 71 Main St., in Flemington, on May 2 at 7:30 p.m.
Pulitzer Prize-winner Caroline Shaw’s music will also be represented on a concert by Trio Ondata, alongside works by Shostakovich, Haydn, and Chicago-born composer of Indian and Western classical music Reena Esmail. “American Mycelium: Explorations of the New World” will take place at Old Greenwich Presbyterian Church, 17 Greenwich Church Rd., in Stewartsville, on May 9 at 7:30 p.m.
Newman & Oltman will bring the “Greatest Hits of 1776,” as works by Haydn, Rossini, and Yankee tunesmith William Billings share a program with Early American-related works by Gaspare Spontini, Fernando Sor, and Stephen Jenks, along with an RRM commission, “Raritan Triptych,” by another Pulitzer Prize-winner, Paul Moravec. The concert will be held at Bethlehem Presbyterian Church, 2 Race St., in Pittstown, on May 16 at 7:30 p.m.
The series will conclude with “Two by Two: Harpsichord Duets Across the Centuries” – music performed on two harpsichords by ARTEK, Gwendolyn Toth and Peter Sykes, with an emphasis on composers for the virginal, clavichord, harpsichord, and chamber organ in the late 1500s/early 1600s, the peak period of English exploration of the New World. The program will be given at Stanton Reformed Church, 1 Stanton Mountain Rd., in Stanton, on May 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Concerts will also be available for streaming.
Stick a feather in your cap, call it macaroni, and visit https://www.raritanrivermusic.org/!
Tag: Newman and Oltman Guitar Duo
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May Is for Music at the Raritan River Music Festival
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Raritan River Music Festival NJ 2024
More accurate than a Farmers’ Almanac is a prediction for enjoyable music-making in scenic West-Central New Jersey. That’s right, the first of the warm-weather music festivals is practically upon us. Now in its 36th year, Raritan River Music will beat the summer crush, once again presenting acclaimed soloists and ensembles in a variety of programs to be performed at historic venues in Raritan and Warren Counties.
The first of this season’s concerts will take place this Saturday at 7:30 pm, at Bethlehem Presbyterian Church in Pittstown. A trio of musicians from the Philadelphia-based Tempesta di Mare Baroque Orchestra will perform music by Bach, Couperin, Marais, and Telemann, among others, on flute, recorder, viola da gamba, cello, theorbo, and lute.
On Saturday, May 17 at 7:30 pm, at Old Greenwich Presbyterian Church in Stewartsville, pianist David Korevaar will share repertoire from his new release, “Beethoven: Heroic to Hammerklavier,” on the Prospero Classical label. The program will include the Sonata in F Major, Op. 54, the Sonata in F Minor, Op. 57 “Appassionata,” the Sonata in E Minor, Op. 90, and the Sonata in A Major, Op. 101.
On Saturday, May 24, at 7:30 pm, at Stanton Reformed Church in Stanton, Raritan River Music founders (and Warren County residents) Michael Newman and Laura Oltman, a.k.a. the Newman and Oltman Guitar Duo, will be joined by the Bergamot String Quartet for “Music from the NEW World: 21st Century Masterpieces.” The program will include RRM-commissioned works by Daniel Binelli and Lowell Liebermann, the premiere of a new string quartet by New Jersey composer Payton MacDonald, selections by Bergamot violinist and composer Ledah Finck, and a work by Pulitzer Prize-and-Grammy Award-winning Princeton University alum Caroline Shaw.
The festival will conclude on Saturday, May 31, at 7:30 pm at Historic Hunterdon County Courthouse in Flemington, with “Americana Meets Old Masters.” Classical favorites and showpieces by Gershwin, Piazzolla, Bach, Rimsky-Korsakov, and others will be played on marimba, vibraphone, and piano by Greg Giannascoli, Behn Gillece, and Ron Stabinsky. Sounds like a good time to me.
The festival can also be accessed via online streaming. For more information, directions, and archived videos of past concerts, visit raritanrivermusic.org.
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Raritan River Music Festival NJ May Concerts
That’s right! It’s already upon us! The first of the warm-weather music festivals will begin this weekend, as Raritan River Music presents its 35th season at historic venues in West-Central New Jersey throughout the month of May. All concerts will begin at 7:30 p.m.
This Saturday, the Daedalus Quartet will perform William Grant Still’s “Lyric Quartet,” Béla Bartók’s String Quartet No. 4, and the New Jersey premiere of “Deep Summer Folklore” by Andrew Davis at Stanton Reformed Church in Stanton.
On May 11, Hot Club of Philadelphia, inspired by the Quintette du Hot Club de France, which flourished in Paris in the 1930s and ‘40s under the direction of guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stéphane Grappelli, will bring its distinctive blend of Manouche Jazz (a.k.a. Gypsy Jazz), Hot Jazz, and French Swing, along with Americana styles, to Bethlehem Presbyterian Church in Pittstown (Grandin).
On May 18, festival directors and curators Michael Newman and Laura Oltman of the Newman and Oltman Guitar Duo will welcome special guests Celil Refik Kaya and João Luiz for an evening of new commissions and a Leo Brouwer 85th birthday celebration. Through Raritan River Music’s New Music Commissioning Program (and an acclaimed “Music from Raritan River” CD of world premiere recordings), dozens of new compositions have been performed and published worldwide. Newman & Oltman have developed an especially significant relationship with Cuban master Leo Brouwer, several of whose pieces they have premiered and recorded. The concert, which will take place at Historic Hunterdon County Courthouse in Flemington, will also feature new music by Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Moravec.
The festival will conclude on May 25 with the Manhattan Chamber Players performing piano quartets by Johannes Brahms and Antonín Dvořák at Old Greenwich Presbyterian Church in Stewartville.
For more details and information about online streaming, visit raritanrivermusic.org.
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Raritan River Music Fest Returns to NJ & PA
Attention, music-loving Jerseyites and Eastern Pennsylvanians!
The robins and catbirds are scarcely settled-in, and already the first of the warm-weather music festivals is upon us!
For the 33rd consecutive year, Raritan River Music will beat the summer crush, in presenting a winning combination of spring, music, and historic venues in Raritan and Warren Counties. Internationally-renowned soloists and ensembles will venture in to scenic West-Central Jersey to present a wide range of musical programs in a variety of genres.
The first of the concerts will take place this Friday at 7:30 pm at Stanton Reformed Church in Stanton. The Bergamot Quartet will perform works by living composers, with a special emphasis on women (including Pulitzer Prize-winner Tania Leon), in dialogue with music by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. The program will also include selections by Paul Wiancko, Suzanne Farrin, and Ledah Finck, from their album “In the Brink.”
On Saturday, May 14, at 4 pm, outdoors under cover at Blue Army Shrine in Asbury (NOT to be confused with Asbury Park), fiddler Eileen Ivers will return with her all-star band, The unIVERSal Roots (on Irish fiddle, guitar, Irish accordion, whistles, trumpet, bass, and percussion, with vocals) to share music from her new album, “Scatter the Light.”
On Saturday, May 21, at 7:30 pm, at Greenwich Presbyterian Church in Stewartsville, Raritan River Music founders (and Warren County residents) Michael Newman and Laura Oltman, a.k.a. the Newman and Oltman Guitar Duo – for 35 years ensemble in residence at the Mannes School of Music – will be joined by leading Mannes faculty. They’ll perform a new Raritan River Music commission from esteemed Cuban master Leo Brouwer, entitled “Through the Looking Glass.”
Also on the program will be Brazilian composer Clarice Assad’s “Dusty Grooves” and Yenne Lee’s arrangement of her YouTube sensation (with 19 million views) “Autumn Leaves.” In addition, Hannah Murphy and Phil Goldenberg will play selections from their groundbreaking project “Changing the Canon,” featuring nine eminent Black American composers, here represented by Mason Byrnes and Thomas Flippin.
The festival will conclude on Saturday, May 28, at 7:30 pm at Prallsville Mills in Stockton, with the improvisatory ensemble 9 Horses, a group that blurs the line between “folk art” and “fine art,” playing selections from their critically-acclaimed albums, on mandolins (acoustic and electric), violins, Hardanger d’amore, and bass.
This year’s festival may also be accessed via online streaming. If you attend in-person, please bring proof of vaccination status. Also, exercise common sense in terms of maintaining appropriate face coverings at the venues, so you don’t get or spread the bug!
For more information and directions, visit raritanrivermusic.org.
COUNTER-CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: The Bergamot Quartet, Eileen Ivers & the unIVERSal Roots, the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo, and 9 Horses
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Irish Music This Sunday on The Lost Chord
This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we anticipate St. Patrick’s Day, with two contrasting works with ties to the Emerald Isle.
John Kinsella was born in Dublin in 1932. He combined composition with a career in music administration until 1988, when he left his position as Head of Music at RTE, Ireland’s national broadcasting organization.
As a composer, he was influenced by contemporary trends in the European avant-garde, until 1977. Then, following the completion of his String Quartet No. 3, he wrote nothing for a period of 18 months. He emerged from this self-imposed silence a renewed artist, crafting wholly tonal works of great beauty and integrity. Since then, he has completed eleven symphonies, a second violin concerto, a cello concerto, a fourth string quartet, and various other works.
Kinsella’s Symphony No. 3 was composed in 1989-1990. The work falls into two substantial movements, framed by a brief Prologue and Epilogue, and separated by an Intermezzo, all of which return to material stated in the symphony’s opening bars. The movements are performed without break.
Although it is not a programmatic work, the composer dedicated the symphony, with gratitude, to his parents. He intended the piece as a personal expression of certain aspects of the joy of life. Hence, the subtitle, “Joie de vivre.”
More overtly folk-inflected is “Laments and Dances from the Irish,” after melodies by Irish harper Turlough O’Carolan (1670-1738). Philadelphia-born composer Arnold Black was afflicted with cerebral palsy from birth, resulting in limited mobility on his right side. Yet he managed to become a master of the violin. So successful was he on his instrument that following graduation from the Juilliard School, he was hired as assistant concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony, and ultimately concertmaster of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC.
Black’s “Laments and Dances” was commissioned by the Newman and Oltman Guitar Duo. Michael Newman and Laura Oltman reside along the Delaware River in Warren County, NJ. Together or between them, they have taught or been guitarists-in-residence at the Mannes College of Music in New York City, Princeton University, The College of New Jersey, and Lafayette College in Easton, PA. They are also directors of the Raritan River Music Festival, held in historic venues in Central Jersey throughout the month of May. The duo is joined in this recording by the Turtle Island String Quartet.
Pour yourself a pint of stout and find your bliss. We laugh and weep along with the Irish, on “Airs from Erin,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
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