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Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Closing Concert of the 29th Raritan River Music Festival

Raritan River Music

DUO A CORDA

NEWMAN & OLTMAN GUITAR DUO
North & South: Music from Norway to Argentina

WHEN: Saturday, May 26, at 7:30PM
WHERE:
Stanton Reformed Church, 1 Stanton Mountain Road, Stanton
ADMISSION: $21.00, Students: Free (under the age of 26); Day of Concert: $25.00, Students free
For more information, call 908-213-1100 or Write www.raritanrivermusic.org

Michael Newman and Laura Oltman, Founders and Artistic Directors of the RRMF, will perform music from Norway to Argentina. Norwegian guest artists, Duo A Corda, made up of guitarist Martin Haug and violinist Birgitte Staernes in their first New Jersey appearance, will perform new Norwegian music by Marcussen and Haug. The program includes Argentine tangos by Piazzolla, as well as Baroque and romantic favorites.

Newman and Oltman’s concert tours have taken them to world cultural capitals and premiere venues across five continents, the Caribbean, and South Pacific. They have performed at Carnegie Hall, Caramoor and at the Grand Canyon. The Duo has demonstrated extraordinary stylistic breadth in their collaborations with such diverse artists as composer/conductor Marvin Hamlisch and the Pittsburgh Symphony Pops, mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, fiddler Eileen Ivers, pianist Clarice Assad, violinist Tim Fain, and the Calder, and Turtle Island string quartets.

Next season, Newman & Oltman will present world premier performances of a new work written and dedicated to them by renowned Cuban composer Leo Brouwer, who they recently hosted during a rare US appearance at Mannes School of Music. A recent commission, Concierto Buenos Aires composed for them by Nuevo Tango Master Daniel Binelli, was brilliantly performed by Newman & Oltman in its  world premiere with the l’Orchestre de l’Opéra de Reims in France and celebrated its US premiere with the Virginia Symphony. Previous European engagements include performances and lectures at the VI Academic Guitar Symposium (Brazil) and the International Guitar Symposium Iserlohn (Germany). The Duo returned to several Italian venues this past summer, which included performances and master classes at the Estate Musicale Frentana/Lanciano International Guitar Seminar and the Volterra Guitar Project.   The Duo will continue serving as co-artistic directors of the Lanciano International Guitar Seminar through 2017.

Champions of new music, Newman & Oltman have built a unique repertoire of works for two guitars by leading and emerging composers such as Paul Moravec, Augusta Read Thomas, Lowell Liebermann, Dušan Bogdanović, Arthur Kampela, and Roberto Sierra. 

The duo’s latest CD, Music from Raritan River, which was hailed by Fanfare Magazine as “top notch” and “a winner all around” features a collection of world premieres commissioned by the duo over the past decade.  Their artistry has also been captured on a dozen other acclaimed recordings. 

In addition to founding and serving as artistic directors of the New York Guitar Seminar at Mannes, Michael Newman and Laura Oltman are celebrating their 31th year as ensemble-in-residence at Mannes College of Music.  The NY Guitar Seminar at Mannes will be held again this July. 

For more information and hi-res images of the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo, visit www.guitarduo.com