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Tag: Raritan River Music Festival

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.

May 8, 2025
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.

May 3, 2024
Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo TCNJ Concert Friday

After being pinned down in the house for a few days by torrential rain, maybe you’d like to get out for an evening and enjoy some guitar music. If so, I have the very thing, as the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo will perform at The College of New Jersey on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

The recital will be held at the Mayo Concert Hall (located in the music building), 2000 Pennington Rd., in Ewing, NJ.

Together ensemble-in-residence at Mannes College of Music, Michael Newman and Laura Oltman are founders and artistic directors of the New York Guitar Seminar at Mannes and New Jersey’s Raritan River Music Festival. Michael serves on the faculties of Mannes and TCNJ. Laura serves on the faculties of Princeton University and Lafayette College.

I have no idea what’s on tomorrow’s program, but I’d be very surprised if the evening doesn’t include at least some Leo Brouwer, as the artists have enjoyed a close working relationship with the composer in recent years and had a couple works written specifically for them. In fact, they’ve released an all-Brouwer album on the MusicMasters label.

This is also an excellent opportunity for me to give advance notice of the Raritan River Music Festival, which always manages to sneak up on me, as the first of the warm weather music festivals. The concerts are held in historic venues in Central Jersey’s Raritan and Warren Counties throughout the month of May. Learn more about the rapidly-approaching 35th season at raritanrivermusic.org.

In the meantime, Laura and Michael, who make their home along the banks of the swollen Delaware, will slalom down to TCNJ for tomorrow night’s appearance.

For tickets and information, visit tcnjcenterforthearts.universitytickets.com or call the box office at 609-771-2585.

April 4, 2024
Raritan River Music Festival Continues

Three out of four ain’t bad. In fact, it looks pretty good.

The Raritan River Music festival will continue this weekend, with its third concert (of four) held in historic venues in West-Central New Jersey. The Mohawk Trail Piano Trio will present “Musical Monuments: Masterpieces by Anton Arensky and Florence Price.”

Price, whose music is only now being revived in a big way, was the first Black woman to have a symphony played by a major orchestra (the Chicago Symphony in 1933). Arensky studied with Rimsky-Korsakov and taught Rachmaninoff, but his primary influence as a composer was Tchaikovsky.

Trios by these two composers should make for a lovely program. Chamber music by Arensky and Price will be performed by resident artists of western Massachusetts’ Mohawk Trail Concerts, at Old Greenwich Presbyterian Church in Stewartsville this Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Next week, the series will conclude, with flutist Clare Hofmann and harmonica virtuoso Robert Bonfiglio of the Grand Canyon Music Festival. They’ll be joined by electric violist/composer Martha Mooke. Among the featured works will be “Serenade for the Grand Canyon” by Philadelphia-born Arnold Black, whose centennial 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 the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo ; and a new work by Diné-American composer Raven Chacon, recipient of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

That concert will take place on May 27 at 7:30 p.m. at Bethlehem Presbyterian Church in Pittstown.

For further details about either program, directions to the venues, and information about online streaming, visit raritanrivermusic.org.

May 19, 2023
Raritan River Music Festival: May Concerts

The Raritan River Music festival will continue this weekend, with its second concert (of four) held in historic venues in West-Central New Jersey throughout the month of May.

Festival directors Michael Newman and Laura Oltman of the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo will join the Bergamot Quartet on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Stanton Reformed Church for “Laments & Dances: Music from the Folk Traditions.”

The musicians will celebrate Philadelphia-born composer Arnold Black, who would have been 100 this year. Black, who was afflicted with cerebral palsy, nonetheless earned degrees for violin and composition from the Juilliard School and went on to perform with the NBC Symphony and as assistant concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony and National Symphony Orchestras.

As a composer, he provided music for the play “Ulysses in Nighttown,” starring Zero Mostel, and the film “Illuminata,” directed by John Torturro. For television, he scored segments for “3-2-1 Contact,” orchestrated Schubert for the Nickelodeon series “Little Bear,” and worked on the animated specials “Simple Gifts” and “A Soldier’s Tale” for R. O. Blechman.

Black’s “Laments & Dances,” based on melodies by the 17th century blind Irish harper Turlough O’Carolan, will be performed on Saturday. If you take a fancy to it, Newman & Oltman made a recording of it, which is available on the Musical Heritage Society label. Also on the program will be new works inspired by traditional music as interpreted by Ledah Finck (Irish), Anna Roberts Gevalt (Appalachian), and Princeton’s own Dan Trueman (Norwegian).

Black’s influence will continue to loom large over the remaining concerts in the series, as he also helped found western Massachusetts’ Mohawk Trail Concerts in 1970. Next week, on May 20 at 7:30 p.m., the Mohawk Trail Piano Trio will perform works by Anton Arensky and Florence Price. That concert will be held at Old Greenwich Presbyterian Church in Stewartsville.

Finally, Black’s chamber work, “Serenade for the Grand Canyon,” will be included as part of a celebratory concert inspired by the long-running Grand Canyon Music Festival. GCMF founders, flutist Clare Hofmann and harmonica virtuoso Robert Bonfiglio, will be joined by electric violist/composer Martha Mooke and the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo.

The program will also feature “Fairy Fantasy,” a new work commissioned by Raritan River Music from venerable Cuban composer Leo Brouwer; and a new piece by Diné-American composer Raven Chacon, recipient of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Music. That concert will take place on May 27 at 7:30 p.m. at Bethlehem Presbyterian Church in Pittstown.

Last Saturday’s concert of the Four Nations Ensemble performing music by François Couperin and friends at Clinton Presbyterian Church is now posted on YouTube, for your enjoyment, at the link.

For more information about Raritan River Music concerts, visit raritanrivermusic.org.

PHOTOS (counter-clockwise from top): the Bergamot Quartet, Arnold Black, and the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo

May 11, 2023

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