Award-Winning Raritan River Chamber Music Festival Announces Innovative Hybrid May Events

Raritan River Music Festival
Winner of the National Award for Adventurous Programming from ASCAP/Chamber Music America

WHEN: Saturdays, May 8–29, 4 PM, no intermission
WHERE: in a unique, outdoor, 100% covered venue: The internationally-renowned Blue Army Shrine, located in the rolling hills of West-Central New Jersey at 647 Mountain View Rd E, Asbury, NJ 08802. 
TICKETS: In-person tickets are $20 and Live-Stream Family Viewing tickets are $20 (link to be provided).
Tickets will be sold to a limited capacity to ensure safe, socially-distanced seating. No ticket transactions will be accomplished at the venue, minimizing close interactions.
Tickets are available at www.RaritanRiverMusic.org.
For more information call 908-213-1100 or info@RaritanRiverMusic.org. 
Please note: All tickets must be purchased in advance to ensure safe, socially-distanced seating, but tickets can be exchanged any time before the concert for a link to the live-stream of the concert. Social distancing is assured, guidelines posted by the federal CDC and the State of New Jersey Department of Health will be followed.

All concerts will take place live in-person and can also be viewed in real-time via live-stream.

The modern, fully covered, outdoor facility will protect all audience members, regardless of the weather.

All audience members will wear protective face masks. 

RECEPTIONS TO GO!

Complementary pre-packaged yummies will be available for all audience members following each concert.

Challenging times demand innovative thinking and action. With your support and enthusiastic encouragement, we have worked to weather the storm and have continued to provide music to the community throughout the past year, especially through schools and health care facilities.

For those living out of the area or not yet comfortable attending in-person events, each concert will be professionally live-streamed by our new partner, The Animal Farm music production studio. Program notes and artist info will be available through the website. As always, the festival will include a wide range of musical programs featuring music from around the world, celebrating the joy and healing powers of music, and bringing together communities during challenging times.  With works by composers of Indian, African, Middle Eastern, Asian, Mexican, Cuban, Colombian and Argentine descent and crossing stylistic boundaries, the music reflects the vast cultural wealth of America today.

Saturday, May 8, at 4:00 PM

Poorwill Lane Duo: Hyeyung Sol Yoon, violin and Gregory Beaver cello: Between Worlds

As members of the famed Chiara String Quartet and as founding directors of the new organization Open Space Music, connecting artists and communities through digital technology throughout the world, the Poorwill Lane Duo are making their RRMF debut in a program that will include new music by Carlos Simon—inspired by the art of Bill Traylor, a Black man who was enslaved at birth and was an eyewitness to American history from Civil War to Jim Crow segregation—plus NJ premieres of works by Matthew Fuerst and Anjna Swaminathan.

Saturday, May 15, at 4:00 PM

Bridget Kibbey, harp: Counterpoint in Motion

America’s most renowned harpist returns to the RRMF for a program of harp solos throughout the centuries, featuring her famed virtuosic performance of Bach’s Toccata & Fugue, French and Spanish Romantic classics, along with new music by Latin Grammy Award-winning Colombian composer Samuel Torres.

Saturday, May 22, at 4:00 PM

duoJalal: Katherine Lockwood, viola and Yousif Sheronick, percussion: Lost in Time

Katheryn Lockwood of the Lark Quartet and Yousif Sheronick of Ethos Percussion Group join forces as duoJalal to provide an international blend of diverse musical styles. Their concert will feature the NJ premiere performance of Changes by Allison Loggins-Hull, written in June 2020, during the global pandemic era of COVID-19 and a period that saw calls all over the world against systemic racism and for equality and unity.

Saturday, May 29, at 4:00 PM

Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo: Laura Oltman and Michael Newman, guitars: Two to Tango

Celebrating the heritage of Hispanic and Latin-American tango traditions from Argentina and Uruguay, Newman & Oltman (top photo) have worked closely with Nuevo Tango masters Astor Piazzolla (centenary of his birth) and Daniel Binelli (75^th birthday). The duo will present these composers’ works, along with Tango favorites for two guitars.

In addition, the festival, Raritan River Music continues to provide innovative enrichment presentations to school and health care facilities throughout the region. We are currently designing new programs – working with teachers at area high school and middle schools, along with leaders in senior services – to live stream and provide video content to serve the community at home and in senior living facilities

Award-Winning Chamber Music Festival Moves Completely Online The 31st Raritan River Music Festival: Bringing the Music to YOU

31st Annual Raritan River Music Festival
winner of the National Award for Adventurous Programming from ASCAP/Chamber Music America

WHEN: May 2 – 23, 2020, at 7:30pm.
WHERE: entirely online with links to every event available through the www.RaritanRiverMusic.org website. 

Acclaimed guitarists Laura Oltman and Michael Newman founded the Raritan River Music Festival with the promise of bringing live chamber music to historic venues in idyllic Hunterdon County. Co-Founding Artistic Director Michael Newman explains, “The past month has been the most difficult, challenging, and painful for the arts, artists, and lovers of art in anyone’s memory throughout the world.  In the midst of cancellations, loss of livelihood, and dearth of cultural and social enrichment, Raritan River Music stands firm in its commitment to make the 31st Raritan River Music Festival a reality – a VIRTUAL reality!” Laura Oltman, Raritan River Music’s Co-Founding Artistic Director adds, “We have continued to engage all the festival performers, who are right now developing special events for you to enjoy at home – live concert ‘watch parties,’ content provided exclusively for this festival event, and chat conversations in real time.”

The festival will open with a performance by the Argus String Quartet in a program Great Masters of Yesterday and Today on May 2, 2020 at 7:30pm featuring music by Bach, Fanny Mendelssohn and the New Jersey premiere performance of Conference of the Birds by Christopher Theofanidis. The Argus Quartet has emerged as one of today’s most versatile ensembles, winning First Prize at the M-Prize Competition and the Concert Artists Guild Competition and appearing in recent seasons at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and the Ravinia Festival. Highlights of the 2019-20 season include performances for Washington Performing Arts and Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series. Dedicated to the music of our time, Argus has worked closely with many famed composers.  Currently based in New York, the Quartet previously held residencies at Yale and Juilliard.

The Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo, hailed by the Washington Post as “a revelation to hear,” will be joined by the award winning Rene Izquierdo, one of the most sought-after guitarists on the scene, for an evening of hot Cuban dances and works from the past 100 years in a special A la Cubana: A Century of Music from the Pearl of the Antilles program. The evening will include music from the duo’s new MusicMasters release The Book of Imaginary Beings dedicated to the works of legendary composer Leo Brouwer on May 9, 2020 at 7:20pm. This special release party for the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo’s recording will include the new duet composed for the duo and commissioned by Raritan River Music, as well as Brouwer’s arrangement of The Fool on the Hill and She’s Leaving Home by the Beatles, plus Música Incidental Campesina.

On May 16 at 7:30pm the Meridionalis Instrumental and Vocal Ensemble, under the direction of Sebastian Zubieta will perform a program Selva Musical / Transatlantic Baroque: Music of Spain and the New World which includes works drawn from the Hispanic Society’s remarkable collection of music from the mid-1500s through the Baroque era.  Included will be “Enigma” puzzle pieces, extravagant ornamentations, and music from the Spanish musical forest of times past.

Closing the festival is The Philadelphia Flute Quartet on May 23 at 7:30pm. The Music of the Ages for the Entire Family program will feature the New Jersey premiere of Hidden River by Eric Sessler. This ensemble comprises the region’s top flute soloists and orchestral players. Their varied and engaging program offers a nod to the 100^th anniversary of the 19^th Amendment with music by award-winning American women.

Under Laura and Michael’s stewardship, Raritan River Music (RRM) has evolved into more than the annual festival concerts in May by delivering programs year-round for young children, seniors, and patients at health-care facilities around the region. RRM also creates a legacy of new works and recordings commissioned by RRM’s patrons, as well as presenting new music at each concert by local school-age composers.

For more details about the festival, nationally recognized educational enrichment programs, recordings, videos and links to the performers’ websites, visit www.RaritanRiverMusic.org.

RARITAN RIVER MUSIC FESTIVAL CELEBRATES 30TH ANNIVERSARY, MAY 4 - 25

RARITAN RIVER MUSIC FESTIVAL

WHEN: Saturdays, May 4-25, 7:30pm
WHERE: various venues
ADMISSION: Advance tickets for each concert are $21 for adults, students up to age 26 are free.  Prices at the door $25 for adults, students up to age 26 are free.
Discount subscriptions for the entire festival cost $75 for adults; seniors $50; students are free.  
For more information and reservations: Call 908-213-1100, e-mail info@RaritanRiverMusic.org, www.Raritan RiverMusic.org.

Guitarists Laura Oltman and Michael Newman founded the Raritan River Music Festival with the promise of bringing live chamber music to historic venues in idyllic Hunterdon County.  Marking its 30th season, a highlight of this year’s festival is the world premier performance by the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo (left) of renowned Cuban composer Leo Brouwer’s The Book of Imaginary Beings commissioned by Raritan River Music.

WHEN: Saturday, May 25^th at 7:30pm
WHERE: Stanton Reformed Church, Stanton, New Jersey.

The popular four-week festival runs on Saturdays, May 4-25 and will include

• A return engagement by the Horzowski Trio on May 4 7:30pm.
  WHERE: Old Greenwich Presbyterian Church, Stewartsville, NJ (right)
• Grammy Award winning violinist Eileen Ivers (below) will perform Beyond the Bog Road: A Celebration of Americana Music and its Celtic Roots featuring the Universal Roots Band on May 11 7:30pm.
  WHERE: Clinton Presbyterian Church, Clinton, NJ
• The Grand Canyon Ensemble featuring Robert Bonfiglio on harmonica and flutist Clare Hoffman performing music of young Navaho composers, blues harmonica and jazz on May 18 at 7:30pm
  WHERE: Prallsville Mills, Stockton, NJ
• May 25 7:30pm the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo will perform the final concert of the series featuring Brouwer’s composition. The program, New Music of the Americas features Brazilian guest artists, Clarice Assad, piano and vocals, and guitarist João Luiz. 
  WHERE: Stanton Reformed Church, Stanton Mountain Road (at Rte 629) Stanton, NJ

Under Laura and Michael’s stewardship, Raritan River Music (RRM) has evolved into more than the annual festival concerts in May by delivering programs year-round for young children, seniors, and patients at healthcare facilities around the region.  RRM also creates a legacy of new works and recordings commissioned by RRM’s patrons, as well as presenting new music at each concert by local school-age composers. Each concert begins with music composed by elementary and high school winners of the 2019 Hunterdon County Young Composer contest. 

For more details about the festival, as well as Raritan River Music’s nationally recognized educational enrichment programs, Music from Raritan River recording, and videos and links to the performers’ web sites, please visit www.RaritanRiverMuisc.org.

Closing Concert of the 29th Raritan River Music Festival

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 31^th 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

RARITAN MUSIC FESTIVAL RUNS SATURDAYS IN MAY: OPENS MAY 7

27th Raritan River Music Festival:  
Change Your Music │ Change Your Mind

WHEN: May 7 – 28, 2016
WHERE: Prallsville Mills, 22 Risler Street (Route 29), Stockton, NJ

TICKETS: Advance tickets $21; $14 for students and seniors.  (Tickets at the door, if available $25; $15 for students and seniors.) 
Discount subscriptions for the festival are available. 
For more information and reservations: 
Phone: 908-213-1100. 
E-Mail: info@RaritanRiverMusic.org  
www.RaritanRiverMusic.org

The award-winning Raritan River Music Festival brings world-renowned performers to historic locations in picturesque settings throughout rural Western New Jersey.

La Fiocco (Baroque Ensemble):
Colonists and Rebels:  Music of New Jersey and Pennsylvania from Colonial and Federal America

WHEN: Saturday, May 7, 2016 at 7:30 PM
WHERE: The Prallsville Mills, 33 Risler Street, is located on the Delaware River on Route 29, ¼ mile north of Stockton.

Musicians include artistic director Lewis R. Baratz (recorder, harpsichord, and 18th-century English square piano), Benjamin Berman (harpsichord and fortepiano), soprano Rochelle Reed, Dan McCarthy (period violinist), Loren Ludwig (violist da gamba), and Daniel Boring and John Lacombe (lutes and early guitars).

The concert program by La Fiocco—the Baroque ensemble that performs on period instruments—is a celebration of the early settlers of what are today the states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  Beginning with music heard at the court of James I, during whose reign both the Halve Maen (Half Moon) and the Mayflower departed England for North America, this concert will also present music of the Dutch Republic (settlement of Pavonia), New Sweden (parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware), and after the English fleet captured all the lands of New Netherland in 1664.  La Fiocco commemorates these early settlers, and then continues with songs of the American Revolution and the early Federal period, when Philadelphia was the nation’s temporary capital. 

BEBIMBOP: Acquaintances Revisited

WHEN: Saturday, May 14, 2016 7:30pm
WHERE: Stanton Reformed Church1 Stanton Mountain Road, Lebanon, NJ

 

SAUER, ZORI, GERLACH TRIO: Between Heaven and Earth

WHEN: Saturday, May 21, 2016 at 7:30 PM
WHERE: Old Greenwich Presbyterian Church, 17 Greenwich Church Road (at Route 173), Stewartsville, NJ

Thomas Sauer, piano
Carmit Zori, violin
Alexis Pia Gerlach, cello

NEWMAN & OLTMAN GUITAR DUO WITH SPECIAL GUEST ROCHELLE ELLIS, SOPRANO: ¡España!

WHEN: Saturday, May 28, 2016 7:30pm
WHERE: Bethlehem Presbyterian Church2 Race StreetUnion Township, NJ

CLOSING CONCERT OF RARITAN RIVER MUSIC FESTIVAL IN CLINTON

Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo + ETHEL string quartet

2014 and Beyond: Tomorrow’s Classics
Music from Raritan River Commissioned Works by Paul Moravec, Augusta Read Thomas (50^th Birthday Celebration), Michael Karmon, Dusan Bogdanovic, among others

WHEN: Saturday, May 24, at 7:30 PM
WHERE: Clinton Presbyterian Church, 91 Center Street, Clinton, NJ  08809
TICKETS: $21; $14 for students and seniors. For more information and reservations: 908.213.1100
www.RaritanRiverMusic.org

About ETHEL
ETHEL invigorates the contemporary music scene with exuberance, intensity, imaginative programming, and exceptional artistry.  At the heart of ETHEL is a collaborative ethos – a quest for a common creative expression that is forged in the celebration of community. As cultural and musical “pollinators,” ETHEL’s 2013-’14 season celebrates the diversity of regional American music. For nine consecutive years, ETHEL has served as the Ensemble-in-Residence at the Grand Canyon Music Festival’s Native American Composers Apprenticeship Project, culminated in the first commercial recording of American Indian student works. Over the past four years, ETHEL has premiered 55+ new works by 20th- and 21st-century composers at major festivals throughout the country, including Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival and Lincoln Center's Out of Doors. Founded in 1998 and based in New York City, ETHEL comprises Ralph Farris (viola), Dorothy Lawson (cello), Kip Jones (violin) and Tema Watstein (violin). www.ethelcentral.org

“Indefatigable and eclectic” —The New York Times 
“Vital and brilliant” —The New Yorker
“One of the most exciting quartets around” —Strad Magazine

About Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo
Guitarists Laura Oltman and Michael Newman have been making music together since they met at the Aspen Music Festival in 1977.  As founding directors of Raritan River Music, they have developed an award-winning festival, community outreach program, and a new music commissioning and recording program.  They have recorded a dozen CDs, perform throughout the world, serve as Ensemble-in-Residence at New York’s Mannes College The New School of Music since 1987, are artistic advisors to the D’Addario Foundation Performance Series at Carnegie Hall and are the 2013-2014 Alan and Wendy Pesky Artists-in-Residence at Lafayette College.  They also founded the New York Guitar Seminar at Mannes, now in its 14^th season, and the Lanciano International Guitar Seminar in Abruzzo, Italy, now in its 2^nd season. www.guitarduo.com

“Guitar duo dazzles with grace, precision” —Anchorage Daily News 
“Sheer artistic greatness” —Seen & Heard International 
“The standing ovation was probably the loudest noise to ever happen in rural Clinton.” —The Star-Ledger