Raritan River Music is rarin’ to go! The first of the warm-weather music festivals will beat the summer crush with four concerts held in historic venues in West-Central Jersey throughout the month of May.
Now in its 34th season, Raritan River Music is directed and curated by founders Michael Newman and Laura Oltman of the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo. This year’s theme is “Tributes: The Legacy of Musical Traditions.”
The series will begin tomorrow at 7:30 p.m., with The Four Nations Ensemble performing at Clinton Presbyterian Church. “Les Grands: French Baroque Music from Court and Concert” will feature music by Francois Couperin and colleagues, who composed and performed at the Palace of Versailles and at salons and concert halls around Paris in the early 18th century. The concert will serve as a tribute to New Jersey’s Soclair Music Festival (1975-2005), founded by June and Ira Kapp, with Edward Brewer the founding music director.
Then Newman & Oltman will join the Bergamot Quartet on May 13 at 7:30 p.m. at Stanton Reformed Church for “Laments & Dances: Music from the Folk Traditions.” The musicians will mark the centenary of Philadelphia-born composer Arnold Black. Black, who suffered from cerebral palsy, 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. His “Laments & Dances” incorporates melodies by the 17th century blind Irish harper Turlough O’Carolan. 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).
On May 20 at 7:30 p.m. at Old Greenwich Presbyterian Church in Stewartsville, 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. Arensky studied with Rimsky-Korsakov and taught Rachmaninoff, but his primary influence as a composer was Tchaikovsky. Piano trios by both Price and Arensky will be performed by resident artists of western Massachusetts’ Mohawk Trail Concerts, founded by Arnold Black in 1970.
Another one of Black’s chamber works will lend its name to the concluding program on May 27 at 7:30 p.m. at Bethlehem Presbyterian Church in Pittstown. “Serenade for the Grand Canyon” was composed for the Grand Canyon Music Festival. It will be played by that festival’s founders (in 1983), flutist Clare Hofmann and harmonica virtuoso Robert Bonfiglio. Also performing will be electric violist/composer Martha Mooke.
In addition, Newman & Oltman will perform a newly commissioned work from Cuba’s venerable master of the guitar, Leo Brouwer. “Fairy Fantasy” was inspired by Brouwer’s “The Book of Imaginary Beings,” which also received its premiere on an earlier Raritan River Music season. Again, Newman & Oltman recorded “The Book of Imaginary Beings” as part of an all-Brouwer program, for the MusicMasters Classical label.
Rounding out the program will be a new work by Diné -American composer – and 2022 Pulitzer Prize winner – Raven Chacon, who was born within the Navajo Nation.
For further details, directions, and information about online streaming, visit raritanrivermusic.org.
