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Tag: Westminster Community Orchestra

Pioneer Songs Trenton Performance Saturday

My article previewing Saturday’s performance of Eric Houghton’s “Pioneer Songs” runs for a second time, in a somewhat expanded form, in this week’s U.S. 1 Newspaper – PrincetonInfo, out today.

Among other things, you’ll find some interesting info (if I do say so myself) on the history and architecture of the Trenton War Memorial that had to be cut in order for the piece to be able to fit into the Trenton Downtowner last week.

Houghton’s historical oratorio is an epic meditation on the courage and resilience of those Americans who blazed the western frontier. The work will be presented in its entirety at Patriots Theater at the War Memorial in Trenton this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The cycle of fifteen symphonic songs, for vocal soloists, choir, and narrator, celebrates the first successful passage of wagon trains to California in the 1840s.

Ruth Ochs will conduct the Westminster Community Orchestra and a hundred voice choir, including the Westminster Community Chorus, prepared by Sinhaeng Lee, and the Ewing-based Glassbrook Vocal Ensemble, directed by Chaequan Anderson.

Houghton, a resident of Ewing, has been on the faculty of Westminster Conservatory of Music for 34 years. Ochs is in her fourteenth year as conductor of the Westminster Community Orchestra.

Here’s the article as it now appears online:

https://princetoninfo.com/pioneer-songs-arrive-in-the-capital-city/

You’ll find more information on the music and Saturday’s performance at pioneersongs.com.

PHOTO: Ochs and Houghton flank yours truly, during an on-air conversation that took place yesterday afternoon at WWFM – The Classical Network.

November 7, 2018
Visa Issues Sideline Soprano at Trenton Concert

Obtaining a performing arts visa is a long and drawn out process. A few days ago, I shared a link to an article I wrote about Eric Houghton’s “Pioneer Songs,” which will be performed by the Westminster Community Orchestra, the Westminster Community Chorus, and the Glassbrook Vocal Ensemble, at Patriots Theater at the War Memorial in Trenton on November 10. I only received word yesterday that famed coloratura soprano Carla Maffioletti, formerly of André Rieu’s Johann Strauss Orchestra, will not be appearing on the program due to visa issues.

Maffioletti is also scheduled to appear at the War Memorial with the Capital Philharmonic of New Jersey on two programs, both also at the War Memorial, on December 28 (a recital with chamber orchestra in the intimate George Washington Ballroom) and December 31 (a New Year’s Eve celebration with full orchestra in Patriots Theater). It is hoped that on those occasions everything will proceed as planned.

The article appeared on November 1 in the Trenton Downtowner. An extended version (which you probably won’t be surprised to hear, given the source, had to be edited for inclusion in the Downtowner due to its extreme length) will run in this upcoming week’s U.S. 1 Newspaper – PrincetonInfo, out on Wednesday. I am sharing the Downtowner piece again, minus the Maffioletti info, below.

https://communitynews.org/2018/10/31/upcoming-musical-pioneer-songs-tells-the-story-of-american-pioneers/

November 3, 2018
Pioneer Songs A Musical Journey West

Once they left, they were really gone for good. There were no smartphones. No Starbuck’s. No 7-Elevens. Unknown perils, punishing weather, and sudden illness were facts of daily life. Provisions may have run short, but through determination, grit, and the efforts of a tight-knit community, they were able to get by.

Their story is told in “Pioneer Songs,” Eric Houghton’s epic meditation on the courage and resilience of those Americans who blazed the western frontier. The historical oratorio will be presented at Patriots Theater at the War Memorial in Trenton on November 10 at 7:30 p.m. Houghton’s cycle of fifteen symphonic songs, for vocal soloists, choir, and narrator, celebrates the first successful passage of wagon trains to California in the 1840s.

The concert will feature guest soprano Carla Maffioletti, who achieved fame through her association with André Rieu and his wildly popular Johann Strauss Orchestra. Other soloists will include soprano Kathee Zenn and mezzo-soprano Miranda Landers-Smith, both graduates of Westminster Choir College, lyric tenor Jeremy Blossey, and bass-baritone Martin Hargrove. Nancy Froysland-Hoerl will narrate the perils and triumphs of the pioneers.

The Westminster Community Orchestra will be joined by a hundred voice choir, made up of the Westminster Community Chorus, prepared by Sinhaeng Lee, and the Ewing-based Glassbrook Vocal Ensemble, directed by Chaequan Anderson. The joint forces will be conducted by Ruth Ochs.

Houghton, a resident of Ewing, has been on the faculty of Westminster Conservatory of Music for 34 years. Ochs is in her thirteenth year as conductor of the Westminster Community Orchestra.

Learn more about this free concert in my article in this month’s Trenton Downtowner, out today.

https://communitynews.org/2018/10/31/upcoming-musical-pioneer-songs-tells-the-story-of-american-pioneers/

November 1, 2018
Amy Beach’s Gaelic Symphony Resounds Again

She was an extraordinary figure of her time. 26 years before women were granted the right to vote in the United States, Amy Marcy Cheney Beach composed a symphony that conquered Boston.

The “Gaelic Symphony,” as she titled it, was written in 1894. It was conceived in direct response to a call by prominent Czech composer Antonin Dvořák for Americans to break away from the European models they had for so long venerated. Instead, he urged Americans to open themselves up to their own surroundings, to find what was uniquely American and forge a distinctive national sound. For a Boston resident, English, Scottish, and Irish melodies would have been natural resources.

To coincide with the 150th anniversary of Beach’s birth, the Westminster Community Orchestra will revive this rarely-heard work, on Saturday at 8 p.m. The concert will take place at Princeton Meadow Event Center. Also on the program will be Mendelssohn’s “Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage” and a recent opus, “The Heroine’s Theme,” by Westminster Master of Music in Composition student Caeleb Tee.

You will find my article on Amy Beach and the “Gaelic Symphony” in this week’s U.S. 1, a handsome newspaper, established in 1984, with a circulation of nearly 20,000. Copies are available up and down the Route 1 corridor of Central NJ – including, of course, Princeton. Or you can follow this link.

http://www.princetoninfo.com/index.php/component/us1more/?Itemid=6&key=5-3-17ochs

Ruth Ochs, conductor of the Westminster Community Orchestra for the past 12 years, will be my guest this afternoon on WWFM – The Classical Network. Tune in at 4:00 p.m. EDT to enjoy our conversation about Amy Beach and the “Gaelic Symphony.”

May 3, 2017

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