MUSIC AT BUNKER HILL MAKES ACOUSTIC CONNECTIONS IN SOUTH JERSEY
FeaturedMusic-- November 21, 2018
In the baseball saga “Field of Dreams,” Kevin Costner’s character proclaims, “If you build it, they will come.”
And Carol Westfall, President of Music at Bunker Hill, believes this saying holds true as well for other things – such as a multi-concert-season chamber music series in Gloucester County.
Coming up on Sunday, November 25 at 3:00 p.m. is “Piano Quartet Masterworks,” a concert that brings together alumni of the Perelman Music Program to perform works by Beethoven, Fauré and Ernst von Dohnáyni.
Previous concerts this season included an eclectic afternoon of music performed by ETHEL (described by The New Yorker as an “innovative alternative string quartet”) and “Trios,” a program of flute, harp and viola celebrating the 90th birthday of composer Thea Musgrave.
Music at Bunker Hill – held in Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church in Sewell – is now in its 11th year and its popularity is steadily on the rise.
“Our aim is to bring great music to South Jersey,” said Westfall. “We present professional musicians that one might expect to hear in New York and Philadelphia at a low cost to our patrons.
“We’ve gotten out the word about we are doing, and people have come and appreciated it,” she continued.
Artistic Director William Frampton concurs. “There is nothing else quite like this in the area,” he said.
Frampton is a professional musician and lives full-time in New York, but he’s also a Jersey boy, who spent many a Sunday morning at the very church where the series now takes place. And after college, he pursued the idea of bringing the music he loves to the area where he grew up.
“I was going around to these small towns with nice little venues, and I thought ‘why can’t we do this in South Jersey?”
Now, more than a decade on, MaBH is thriving and growing.
“Our concert series seems to fill a classical music void in the area,” said Westfall.
More than the individual concerts or the musical selections that are presented, the true value of the series may lie in the fact that it consistently provides remarkable live performances to its audience.
“This is totally different from listening to something on YouTube or your phone,” Frampton said. “Being in the moment with these professional performers absolutely transports the audience.”
As Artistic Director, it is up to Frampton to put together the seasons and each individual program and to gather the artists who will perform. His career as a professional musician exposes Frampton to a wide variety of artists and works, and those often provide ideas for concerts.
“Sometimes it is one or two specific pieces that inspire me,” he said. “Other times I get ideas from artists or groups I am working with.”
Basically, though, he is on constant alert to discover new and unique things to present.
Some concerts are more traditional, such as this spring’s string quartet performance with works by Beethoven and Dvorak, while others range to the less conventional end of the spectrum, like the triptych of three interlocking rap cantatas composed by Doug Balliett, or the concert that featured updated arrangements of Beatles’ songs, or the jazzy “A Cole Porter Afternoon.”
Frampton believes that this intermingling of well-known works with new and innovative pieces is exactly what concert-goers enjoy most.
“We draw a predominantly local and regional audience, from all eight Southern New Jersey counties and occasionally from bordering states,” Frampton said, “and they come with an open mind and a desire to hear something different each time.”
“I feel very lucky that we have an audience that trusts us.”
Another special and always-enjoyable aspect of the MaBH concerts is that each is followed by a reception, which both audience and artists attend.
Organized and staffed by a dedicated group of volunteers, who also bring homemade snacks and desserts, the receptions are a casual, low-key way to make a meaningful connection between those on stage and those in the seats.
Frampton credits the volunteers and board members who regularly participate in these events. “We have really great volunteers,” he said, “some of whom haven’t missed a single reception.”
Martha Frampton, a founding member and the Executive Director of MaBH (and William’s mother), explained the organization’s structure to me.
“We have six board members, an Executive Director, a CFO and an Artistic Director,” she said. And she proudly pointed out that three of the series founders are still very active. “We also have 20+ people who volunteer to usher, post flyers, help with set-up and clean-up, and bake and serve at the receptions,” she said.
And, she added, the Board’s youngest and most recent addition, Shawn Garrone, has invited several Rowan University friends to help usher. “This is a great cross-generational asset for us.”
At the organization’s heart, though, is the pure joy of creating a community around music.
“The main thing,” Frampton reiterates, “is that live performances connect people and give them an escape. It is all acoustic music – with no amplification – and it just feels different to hear those sounds in real life,” he said.
“For that one or two hours, you are somewhere else.”
ABOUT AUTHOR Shen Shellenberger
Shen’s been a Jersey girl for most of her life, other than living for a three-year stretch in Portland, Oregon, and six magical months in Tokyo. Shen loves the arts in all of its various forms – from the beauty of a perfectly-placed base hit to the raw energy of rock ‘n’ roll – and has successfully passed on this appreciation to her three grown children. Shen’s most recent jobs include WXPN (1993-2001) and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2003-present). Shen also has been a working freelancer for 25 years, and operated her own frame shop in Mt. Holly in the late-70s.
FeaturedMusic-- November 21, 2018
In the baseball saga “Field of Dreams,” Kevin Costner’s character proclaims, “If you build it, they will come.”
And Carol Westfall, President of Music at Bunker Hill, believes this saying holds true as well for other things – such as a multi-concert-season chamber music series in Gloucester County.
Coming up on Sunday, November 25 at 3:00 p.m. is “Piano Quartet Masterworks,” a concert that brings together alumni of the Perelman Music Program to perform works by Beethoven, Fauré and Ernst von Dohnáyni.
Previous concerts this season included an eclectic afternoon of music performed by ETHEL (described by The New Yorker as an “innovative alternative string quartet”) and “Trios,” a program of flute, harp and viola celebrating the 90th birthday of composer Thea Musgrave.
Music at Bunker Hill – held in Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church in Sewell – is now in its 11th year and its popularity is steadily on the rise.
“Our aim is to bring great music to South Jersey,” said Westfall. “We present professional musicians that one might expect to hear in New York and Philadelphia at a low cost to our patrons.
“We’ve gotten out the word about we are doing, and people have come and appreciated it,” she continued.
Artistic Director William Frampton concurs. “There is nothing else quite like this in the area,” he said.
Frampton is a professional musician and lives full-time in New York, but he’s also a Jersey boy, who spent many a Sunday morning at the very church where the series now takes place. And after college, he pursued the idea of bringing the music he loves to the area where he grew up.
“I was going around to these small towns with nice little venues, and I thought ‘why can’t we do this in South Jersey?”
Now, more than a decade on, MaBH is thriving and growing.
“Our concert series seems to fill a classical music void in the area,” said Westfall.
More than the individual concerts or the musical selections that are presented, the true value of the series may lie in the fact that it consistently provides remarkable live performances to its audience.
“This is totally different from listening to something on YouTube or your phone,” Frampton said. “Being in the moment with these professional performers absolutely transports the audience.”
As Artistic Director, it is up to Frampton to put together the seasons and each individual program and to gather the artists who will perform. His career as a professional musician exposes Frampton to a wide variety of artists and works, and those often provide ideas for concerts.
“Sometimes it is one or two specific pieces that inspire me,” he said. “Other times I get ideas from artists or groups I am working with.”
Basically, though, he is on constant alert to discover new and unique things to present.
Some concerts are more traditional, such as this spring’s string quartet performance with works by Beethoven and Dvorak, while others range to the less conventional end of the spectrum, like the triptych of three interlocking rap cantatas composed by Doug Balliett, or the concert that featured updated arrangements of Beatles’ songs, or the jazzy “A Cole Porter Afternoon.”
Frampton believes that this intermingling of well-known works with new and innovative pieces is exactly what concert-goers enjoy most.
“We draw a predominantly local and regional audience, from all eight Southern New Jersey counties and occasionally from bordering states,” Frampton said, “and they come with an open mind and a desire to hear something different each time.”
“I feel very lucky that we have an audience that trusts us.”
Another special and always-enjoyable aspect of the MaBH concerts is that each is followed by a reception, which both audience and artists attend.
Organized and staffed by a dedicated group of volunteers, who also bring homemade snacks and desserts, the receptions are a casual, low-key way to make a meaningful connection between those on stage and those in the seats.
Frampton credits the volunteers and board members who regularly participate in these events. “We have really great volunteers,” he said, “some of whom haven’t missed a single reception.”
Martha Frampton, a founding member and the Executive Director of MaBH (and William’s mother), explained the organization’s structure to me.
“We have six board members, an Executive Director, a CFO and an Artistic Director,” she said. And she proudly pointed out that three of the series founders are still very active. “We also have 20+ people who volunteer to usher, post flyers, help with set-up and clean-up, and bake and serve at the receptions,” she said.
And, she added, the Board’s youngest and most recent addition, Shawn Garrone, has invited several Rowan University friends to help usher. “This is a great cross-generational asset for us.”
At the organization’s heart, though, is the pure joy of creating a community around music.
“The main thing,” Frampton reiterates, “is that live performances connect people and give them an escape. It is all acoustic music – with no amplification – and it just feels different to hear those sounds in real life,” he said.
“For that one or two hours, you are somewhere else.”
ABOUT AUTHOR Shen Shellenberger
Shen’s been a Jersey girl for most of her life, other than living for a three-year stretch in Portland, Oregon, and six magical months in Tokyo. Shen loves the arts in all of its various forms – from the beauty of a perfectly-placed base hit to the raw energy of rock ‘n’ roll – and has successfully passed on this appreciation to her three grown children. Shen’s most recent jobs include WXPN (1993-2001) and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2003-present). Shen also has been a working freelancer for 25 years, and operated her own frame shop in Mt. Holly in the late-70s.
Music at Bunker Hill prepares strong opener for the eleventh season
NYC based band, ETHEL, to open the season for Music at Bunker Hill
The Washington Township Sun, Anthony Mazziotti, Aug. 22, 2018
After 10 successful seasons of concerts, Music at Bunker Hill is preparing for its 11th season with a band from New York City named ETHEL.
Martha Frampton, one of the founders and Executive Director of Music at Bunker Hill, discussed the humble beginnings of the nonprofit.
Martha Frampton remembers first being presented with the opportunity to buy a grand piano.
Once she had the piano, she recalls her son William Frampton having the idea to start a concert series.
It was then that Music at Bunker Hill was born.
Although the group uses Bunker Hill Church as a venue, it’s a standalone corporation separate from the church.
The organization’s eleventh season of concerts will kick off on Sunday, Sept. 16, at 3 p.m., with the band ETHEL performing for the first time at Bunker Hill.
The concert series will have refreshments for attendees, which Martha Frampton believes are one of the things patrons look forward to.
“We have volunteers that bring refreshments,” she said. “We have a really nice spread –a variety of sweet, savory and something fresh. People enjoy standing around noshing and talking with the performers afterwards.”
However, refreshments aside, Martha Frampton believes the best part of the concert series is seeing people react to the music.
“I’ve had several moments that I’ve thought it was fantasy, like in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’,” she said. “(Like) when I saw the performers on stage, and how they’re moving and communicating with their eyes and the audience members also looking at each other and loving the music. My favorite part is seeing the evidence on stage and in the audience that they’re into it.”
However, things did not always come easy for Music at Bunker Hill.
Martha Frampton said it has taken 10 years for the group to build its audience.
“We had a good occupancy rate last year,” she said. “We feel like we’re pretty established and have people that appreciate good music.”
She said that 78 percent of available tickets sold last season.
Martha Frampton said her son, who lives in New York City, introduced her to ETHEL.
William Frampton, the artistic director for Music at Bunker Hill, found ETHEL a few years ago. The schedule this season finally worked for each, so ETHEL is making their debut for Music at Bunker Hill next month.
Ralph Farris, co-founder, co-artistic director and violist for ETHEL, described his band for those not familiar with their body of work which spans 20-years.
“Open-eared and open-hearted,” Farris said. “We always have a mind for collaboration. We all write music and we are influenced by anything from Native American music to classic rock, hip hop drum lines, bluegrass artists, you name it.”
ETHEL is not your grandparent’s string quartet, which is why they chose their name in the first place. In a combined effort of not slighting traditional string quartets while simultaneously keeping a band mentality, ETHEL settled on their name.
“We wanted to avoid a classic name like ‘something something string quartet’,” Farris said. “We wanted to step in a different direction when we decided on ETHEL.”
Farris, who is friends with William Frampton, is thrilled to come to Washington Township to play for the community.
“I thought it would be a treat and an honor to play for his community’s series,” Farris said. “I love the idea of the family musical work — I come from a musical family. It’s a beautiful world and I’m happy to support it.”
Farris believes that all ETHEL shows have a little bit of something for everyone. “We take our programming very seriously. We make sure there’s something that will connect with each audience member no matter what.”
Tickets are available online at www.musicatbunkerhill.org, set at $22 for adults and $10 for students.
For more information on the concert series visit the above website.
For information about ETHEL, visit their website www.ethelcentral.org.
Washington Township Sun Article by Caytlinn Strickland, published Sept 27, 2017
Thanks for covering our Tenth Anniversary season, Caytlinn.
Sep 22
Ten years in tune: Music at Bunker Hill celebrates anniversary of concert series
In celebration of 10 years, Music at Bunker Hill presents ‘exciting and impressive’ performances
Music at Bunker Hill will host six concerts to celebrate its 10th anniversary concert series, kicking off on Oct. 1 with pianist Orion WeissA lot has happened since Music at Bunker Hill opened its doors to some of New York City and Philadelphia’s best classical musicians 10 years ago. According to Artistic Director William Frampton, this year’s concert series will have one of the most exciting and impressive arrays of performers in the organization’s history.
It all began in 2008 with the purchase of a Yamaha C7 grand piano by Framton and his mother and Executive Director Martha Frampton. Hosting three concerts in the first year, performed by William, his girlfriend and bass player Ranaan Meyer, whose mother was the orchestra director at Washington Township High School at the time, Martha said it started with musicians who either had a vested interest in Music at Bunker Hill, or wanted to support the Framptons.
Martha said she remembers the organization’s first few years as a low point, looking out to the audience of 35 people and thinking, ‘that’s not many.’” Since then, the concert series receives between 90 and 100 guests for each event.
“We’re filling a void in this area for good, live music,” Board of Directors President Carol Westfall said. “People who come to us for the first time are just spellbound.”
Typically, the series consists of five concerts each season, October to May, however to celebrate the 10th anniversary, Martha said, a special sixth concert has been added, featuring violinist and concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra David Kim and Friends, returning for the third time, on April 8.
“I like to strike a balance between variety and favorites of the audience,” William said. “We do have a lot of repeat performers this season, but we like to keep things fresh. I try to present a variety of styles of music, different composers and different ways of writing for the instrument.”
Pianist Orion Weiss will kick-off the 10th anniversary season on Oct. 1, followed by Dolce Suono Trio on Nov. 12, Founders on Dec. 3, Piano Quartet Masterworks on March 18 and Imani Winds on May 20. Performances are held at 3 p.m. in the church, located at 330 Greentree Road, with a reception to follow, allowing patrons to meet and greet with the musicians as they wish.
William said what makes Music at Bunker Hill unique is how it has a “hometown” atmosphere, rather than a city atmosphere, welcoming a potentially different audience than those drawn to chamber music in Philadelphia or New York City.
“A community has formed around these concerts,” William said. “There’s now a circle of chamber music aficionados in South Jersey who know each other because of Music at Bunker Hill.”
Alongside its traditional concert series, Music at Bunker Hill is also involved with outreach programs, providing concerts to the community through schools, libraries, Boys and Girls Clubs, retirement homes and more. According to its mission statement, the artists “inspire the next generation with their passion for the arts and standards of excellence.”
“I absolutely love when people have their first chamber music or classical music at Music at Bunker Hill,” William said. “It’s a really nice place to have that first experience — it’s welcoming and it’s a warm community.”
For more information on Music at Bunker Hill or this season’s performances, visit www.musicatbunkerhill.org, or call (856) 494–6077.
NYC based band, ETHEL, to open the season for Music at Bunker Hill
The Washington Township Sun, Anthony Mazziotti, Aug. 22, 2018
After 10 successful seasons of concerts, Music at Bunker Hill is preparing for its 11th season with a band from New York City named ETHEL.
Martha Frampton, one of the founders and Executive Director of Music at Bunker Hill, discussed the humble beginnings of the nonprofit.
Martha Frampton remembers first being presented with the opportunity to buy a grand piano.
Once she had the piano, she recalls her son William Frampton having the idea to start a concert series.
It was then that Music at Bunker Hill was born.
Although the group uses Bunker Hill Church as a venue, it’s a standalone corporation separate from the church.
The organization’s eleventh season of concerts will kick off on Sunday, Sept. 16, at 3 p.m., with the band ETHEL performing for the first time at Bunker Hill.
The concert series will have refreshments for attendees, which Martha Frampton believes are one of the things patrons look forward to.
“We have volunteers that bring refreshments,” she said. “We have a really nice spread –a variety of sweet, savory and something fresh. People enjoy standing around noshing and talking with the performers afterwards.”
However, refreshments aside, Martha Frampton believes the best part of the concert series is seeing people react to the music.
“I’ve had several moments that I’ve thought it was fantasy, like in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’,” she said. “(Like) when I saw the performers on stage, and how they’re moving and communicating with their eyes and the audience members also looking at each other and loving the music. My favorite part is seeing the evidence on stage and in the audience that they’re into it.”
However, things did not always come easy for Music at Bunker Hill.
Martha Frampton said it has taken 10 years for the group to build its audience.
“We had a good occupancy rate last year,” she said. “We feel like we’re pretty established and have people that appreciate good music.”
She said that 78 percent of available tickets sold last season.
Martha Frampton said her son, who lives in New York City, introduced her to ETHEL.
William Frampton, the artistic director for Music at Bunker Hill, found ETHEL a few years ago. The schedule this season finally worked for each, so ETHEL is making their debut for Music at Bunker Hill next month.
Ralph Farris, co-founder, co-artistic director and violist for ETHEL, described his band for those not familiar with their body of work which spans 20-years.
“Open-eared and open-hearted,” Farris said. “We always have a mind for collaboration. We all write music and we are influenced by anything from Native American music to classic rock, hip hop drum lines, bluegrass artists, you name it.”
ETHEL is not your grandparent’s string quartet, which is why they chose their name in the first place. In a combined effort of not slighting traditional string quartets while simultaneously keeping a band mentality, ETHEL settled on their name.
“We wanted to avoid a classic name like ‘something something string quartet’,” Farris said. “We wanted to step in a different direction when we decided on ETHEL.”
Farris, who is friends with William Frampton, is thrilled to come to Washington Township to play for the community.
“I thought it would be a treat and an honor to play for his community’s series,” Farris said. “I love the idea of the family musical work — I come from a musical family. It’s a beautiful world and I’m happy to support it.”
Farris believes that all ETHEL shows have a little bit of something for everyone. “We take our programming very seriously. We make sure there’s something that will connect with each audience member no matter what.”
Tickets are available online at www.musicatbunkerhill.org, set at $22 for adults and $10 for students.
For more information on the concert series visit the above website.
For information about ETHEL, visit their website www.ethelcentral.org.
Washington Township Sun Article by Caytlinn Strickland, published Sept 27, 2017
Thanks for covering our Tenth Anniversary season, Caytlinn.
Sep 22
Ten years in tune: Music at Bunker Hill celebrates anniversary of concert series
In celebration of 10 years, Music at Bunker Hill presents ‘exciting and impressive’ performances
Music at Bunker Hill will host six concerts to celebrate its 10th anniversary concert series, kicking off on Oct. 1 with pianist Orion WeissA lot has happened since Music at Bunker Hill opened its doors to some of New York City and Philadelphia’s best classical musicians 10 years ago. According to Artistic Director William Frampton, this year’s concert series will have one of the most exciting and impressive arrays of performers in the organization’s history.
It all began in 2008 with the purchase of a Yamaha C7 grand piano by Framton and his mother and Executive Director Martha Frampton. Hosting three concerts in the first year, performed by William, his girlfriend and bass player Ranaan Meyer, whose mother was the orchestra director at Washington Township High School at the time, Martha said it started with musicians who either had a vested interest in Music at Bunker Hill, or wanted to support the Framptons.
Martha said she remembers the organization’s first few years as a low point, looking out to the audience of 35 people and thinking, ‘that’s not many.’” Since then, the concert series receives between 90 and 100 guests for each event.
“We’re filling a void in this area for good, live music,” Board of Directors President Carol Westfall said. “People who come to us for the first time are just spellbound.”
Typically, the series consists of five concerts each season, October to May, however to celebrate the 10th anniversary, Martha said, a special sixth concert has been added, featuring violinist and concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra David Kim and Friends, returning for the third time, on April 8.
“I like to strike a balance between variety and favorites of the audience,” William said. “We do have a lot of repeat performers this season, but we like to keep things fresh. I try to present a variety of styles of music, different composers and different ways of writing for the instrument.”
Pianist Orion Weiss will kick-off the 10th anniversary season on Oct. 1, followed by Dolce Suono Trio on Nov. 12, Founders on Dec. 3, Piano Quartet Masterworks on March 18 and Imani Winds on May 20. Performances are held at 3 p.m. in the church, located at 330 Greentree Road, with a reception to follow, allowing patrons to meet and greet with the musicians as they wish.
William said what makes Music at Bunker Hill unique is how it has a “hometown” atmosphere, rather than a city atmosphere, welcoming a potentially different audience than those drawn to chamber music in Philadelphia or New York City.
“A community has formed around these concerts,” William said. “There’s now a circle of chamber music aficionados in South Jersey who know each other because of Music at Bunker Hill.”
Alongside its traditional concert series, Music at Bunker Hill is also involved with outreach programs, providing concerts to the community through schools, libraries, Boys and Girls Clubs, retirement homes and more. According to its mission statement, the artists “inspire the next generation with their passion for the arts and standards of excellence.”
“I absolutely love when people have their first chamber music or classical music at Music at Bunker Hill,” William said. “It’s a really nice place to have that first experience — it’s welcoming and it’s a warm community.”
For more information on Music at Bunker Hill or this season’s performances, visit www.musicatbunkerhill.org, or call (856) 494–6077.
News
— New Jersey South Jersey woman turns her porch into butterfly sanctuary
Updated: SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 — 1:08 AM EDT
Suzan Preiksat, a retired computer programmer, with a couple of the monarch butterflies she raised. CHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer
by Kevin Riordan, Inquirer Columnist @Inqkriordan
Coaxing, coaching, and cooing, Suzan Preiksat persuades a seemingly reluctant hatchling to do what it must.
SJ woman makes home a butterfly sanctuary"
Come on, honey, come on," she says in a gentle, yet no-nonsense, voice.
"Get on my hand."
Raised since caterpillarhood in the screened sanctuary of Preiksat's porch, this monarch butterfly had emerged from its chrysalis just hours earlier.
The intricate little creature nevertheless attaches itself to her finger, opens a majestic set of fresh, brilliant orange wings, and flies.
"Amazing," says Preiksat, 68, as we watch the monarch flutter around, and then settle on a pale pink zinnia blossom in one of the butterfly gardens in her Deptford yard.
"Isn't it a magnificent thing?"
Indeed it is. And so are the efforts of people like Preiksat, a retired computer programmer and lifelong nature lover who began raising monarchs last year.
Known for the distinctive hue and pattern of their wings, as well as their sensational Canada-to-Mexico migrations, monarchs are beloved, but under siege.
Habitat loss in Mexico, and the widespread use of pesticides that kill milkweed - the insect's sole food source and only hospitable egg-laying site - are taking a toll.
"Five years ago, there were so many monarchs it looked all orange out here," Preiksat says, adding that she has since noticed "a startling decline" in such visitors.
New Jersey Audubon's Cape May Bird Observatory has since 1990 sponsored a Monarch Monitoring Project (monarchmonitoringproject.com) to do research on, advocate for, and educate about the creatures. Other organizations in South Jersey, and elsewhere, also champion the butterflies.
"In the last 15 to 20 years, aerial surveys in Mexico show that the migratory population has declined 90 percent," says Erik Mollenhauer, 67, of Pitman, a former West Deptford High School science teacher.
He founded the Monarch Teacher Network in 2000 to encourage schools to use the butterflies as an educational tool.
"Suzan is a good example of the fact that getting involved is not only good for the incredible monarch phenomenon, but good for people, too," he says.
Mollenhauer is a consultant to the network, which is a project of the Education Information Resource Center, a state agency with offices in Blackwood.
"Since 2000 we've trained about 6,000 people" in North America and elsewhere in the world, director Brian Hayes says.
"Our workshops educate people and provide the tools and all the basics needed to raise monarchs, and raise awareness," adds Hayes, who notes that simply planting native milkweed helps the butterflies.
He also suggests that anyone with questions visit the Monarch Teacher Network page on Facebook.
Preiksat, a breast-cancer survivor, has long planted zinnias, tithonia, and other butterfly-friendly "nectar" flowers and shrubs.
In 2015, her friend Karen Kravchuck, president of the Gloucester County Nature Club (gcnatureclub.org) suggested raising monarchs.
Kravchuck herself became interested in the butterflies after Mollenhauer, a longtime club member, "handed me a container with a beautiful lime-green chrysalis with gold dots on it," she recalls.
Adds Kravchuck, a hairdresser who lives in Mantua Township, "I knew Suzan would enjoy it, because of the wonder of it.
"Because of the magic."
There's a good amount of work involved as well.
"If you're going to raise monarchs on your porch, you should have a supply of native milkweed," notes Preiksat, who readily harvests stalks of the tasty plants from her five-acre property.
It's also where she also collects the caterpillars that she places in three net-covered "rearing towers" - each containing one of her mother's mason jars, filled with water and milkweed cuttings - on her porch.
The caterpillars pupate at the top of the tower, and after a couple of weeks the monarch emerges.
Preiksat raised 33 of the butterflies in 2015; this year, the number will be about 85.
And often, when she releases monarchs, "they fly right up over the house and head south" to begin their migration.
"I'm kind of like a foster parent," Preiksat says.
"I'm just trying to get them out of here and on their way. I hope some of them will make it to Mexico."
[email protected]
267-815-0975@inqkriordan
www.philly.com/blinq
Francesca dePasquale keeps up the family musical tradition at Art Museum
Updated: MARCH 27, 2016 — 3:01 AM EDT
by David Patrick Stearns, Music CriticYou may think you're hearing voices at violinist Francesca dePasquale's recital next Sunday at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Be assured: the effect is intentional.
Francesca dePasquale keeps up the family musical tradition at Art Museum
The 26-year-old scion of the Philadelphia Orchestra's string-playing dePasquale clan isn't giving a dressed-for-success recital, either in her forthcoming concert or on her just-issued debut album, Francesca dePasquale. Instead, she commissioned something new, having received a Leonore Annenberg Arts Fellowship, amounting to $100,000 over two years. The piece: Oceanic Fantasy by composer Paola Prestini, incorporating on-location street sounds recorded in Italy near where dePasquale's grandfather was from. Nothing terribly radical, but it's hardly typical.
"We're careful with the volume level. We aren't going to accost anybody with some crazy sounds," she said. "But there's definitely been some sense of surprise within the audience. The energy in the room shifts."
Currently on a tour that includes Reading, Philadelphia, and the ultra-fashionable Brooklyn venue National Sawdust, dePasquale has enlisted her piano collaborator Meng-Chieh Liu to handle the electronic element.
The rest of the program, both on disc and in concert, is a highly personal, eclectic mixture of Bach, Bartók, and Korngold - again, nothing radical but hardly typical. Mentors such as Itzhak Perlman never cautioned her to play it safe. Not that it would do any good with this strong-minded musician. She was questioned, though, about including Bach's famous Partita No. 2 - widely considered advanced adult music. But she would not be stopped, and the performance is in many ways a calling card for her musical values.
Though many violinists grapple more aggressively with the grand architectural edifice sketched out by the unaccompanied violin, dePasquale exhibits great care for the actual sound of the piece. Distinctive indeed. One could even say it sounds like nothing else and establishes her as an evolved musical personality. On the recording, she partly credits producer Adam Abeshouse, who is known for giving layers to the sounds he records.
But the contagiousness of the Philadelphia Orchestra sound would also have to be a factor. She is, after all, the daughter of the orchestra's longtime concertmaster, the late William dePasquale, who died in 2012. "When I think of the rehearsals and concerts I heard, what I was surrounded with, it's going to have an effect whether you realize it or not," she said. "My dad and I talked about the sound sometimes. So much of it came from Eugene Ormandy, the acoustics at the Academy of Music, lots of different factors. I listen to recordings of my father before he joined the orchestra and his sound changed a lot in Philadelphia."
Her musical pedigree - her father and three string-playing brothers formed a string quartet, and her mother, Gloria, still plays in the Philadelphia Orchestra - counts for much but perhaps not in predictable ways. Francesca started playing at age 3, but the relationship with music was casual enough that she could have a true childhood, often playing sports with her two older brothers, who gave up their violins when she took up hers.
Initially, she resented when her father gave her advice while she was practicing. Later, she sought it out. She also chose home schooling because she wanted more practice time. She earned her undergraduate degree at the Colburn School Conservatory of Music before moving on to the Juilliard School, where she studied with Perlman and Catherine Cho.
Her family chose careers playing in orchestras, but dePasquale has a more diversified life. Now based in New York, she teaches at Rutgers University in New Brunswick and is teaching assistant to Perlman at Juilliard. And at the moment, she is living the life of a soloist.
She rules out nothing in a musical marketplace in which career musicians have never had so many options and so little clarity. The days when agents and advisers would protectively descend on a promising new talent are not over. But they often seem to be, at a time when young artists must take command of their own careers and do so much of the logistical work themselves. That means being your own travel agent and tour planner.
Having grown up behind the scenes, dePasquale is perhaps more qualified than most to navigate 21st-century classical music.
The Annenberg grant "allowed me to explore my own individual voice," she said. "I've always loved chamber music and perform as part of a piano trio. I've done a little substituting for Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. And I'm looking forward to seeing what's next in all of this."
[email protected]
The acoustics are heavenly
by Kevin Riordan April 12, 2015
read article
WRTI Where Music Lives http://www.wrti.org/term/music-bunker-hill APRIL 8, 2013
By MERIDEE DUDDLESTON
A concert series in southern New Jersey’s Washington Township attracts top-notch performers from the region, across the river, New York, and all around. The Music at Bunker Hill concerts take place in a church built on a high point in Gloucester County. Starting with three concerts, the program has steadily grown. Now in its fifth season, the Sunday series stands out as a breath of fresh air.
The sanctuary of Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church is the venue for Music at Bunker Hill, and it's Where Music Lives. Philadelphia Orchestra Concertmaster David Kim will perform there on April 28, 2013 at 3 pm.
The allure of the cello: Efe Baltacigil feels a deep connection to the instrument
Published: Friday, March 30, 2012, 1:30 PM
By Ronni Reich/The Star-Ledger
Efe Baltacigil was born to love the deep, sonorous voices of the low-stringed instruments.
The cellist grew up in Istanbul, his father and his aunt played the double bass, and one of his brothers is now a bassist for the Berlin Philharmonic. Another brother plays cello at the same conservatory in Turkey that Efe attended.
“I’m drawn to darker, more soulful instruments,” Baltacigil says. “That’s one thing about the sound I go after.”
Baltacigil, 33, should have a great canvas for that kind of tone on his Music at Bunker Hill program this Sunday. The concert centers on Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 3, op. 60 in C Minor, which the composer once described as the expression of a suicidal man. Begun in 1855 and completed in 1875, the work is believed to respond to the declining mental health of the composer Robert Schumann and Brahms’ unrequited love for Clara Schumann, Robert’s wife.
The music is — at times — fraught, desperate and violent. But in the andante third movement, the cello takes a central role for an intimate tune that is sometimes considered a love song.
“You can almost hear that he was writing this for a certain individual,” Baltacigil says. “It’s just such a beautiful melody.”
Pianist Amy J. Yang, Baltacigil’s regular recital partner, joins the quartet, along with violist and Bunker Hill artistic director William Frampton and violinist William Polk, who plays with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
The program also includes Beethoven’s Sonatas for Cello and Piano No. 1 and No. 5 with Yang. The pieces take listeners from the composer’s classically inflected early period to his innovative final years. Baltacigil, who admires the French school of cello playing, will give a taste of French music as well with Ravel’s light, pleasant “Habanera.”
Baltacigil may be most familiar to local listeners as the former associate principal cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He played there for 10 years after attending the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In September, he left the financially troubled ensemble to become the principal cellist of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.
“I’m very happy and it’s a really fantastic orchestra here,” he says. “Almost every concert has a full house and an incredible amount of young listeners show up. I love that — it’s quite a difference.”
Baltacigil hopes to see a rebirth in Philly and looks fondly on his time there. Wolfgang Sawallisch’s final concert with the orchestra — a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 — comes to mind first as a highlight. Among his other cherished memories are playing under Sir Simon Rattle and with guest artists such as Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax.
Baltacigil favors the German romantics he’ll play at Bunker Hill, but also has a soft spot for the baroque period. He dips into that repertoire with “La Follia” by Geminani, which he recorded with the New York-based East Coast Chamber Orchestra. A talented group of Baltacigil’s peers, ECCO released its first recording this year, also featuring works by Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich.
To work with the group, he’s spending lots of time in hotels and airports, and “building up his SkyMiles quite a bit,” he says.
“It is so worth it. There’s an unbelievable force to this ensemble,” Baltacigil says.
On top of his bicoastal orchestral career and his recital tours, Baltacigil makes his debut with Berlin next fall under Rattle. Some consider the orchestra the best in the world.
“That is thrilling,” he says. “I’ll probably retire after that.”
Touring the world, Thinking of Home (about Artistic Director William Frampton)
in Down the Pike
Posted on February 6, 2012
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP — William Frampton decided in a seventh-grade chemistry class that he wanted to become a professional musician.
“The hard chair, the cold slab of black desk in front of me … I never changed my mind. Not even close,” said the 2004 Washington Township High School graduate who has degrees from New England Conservatory and the Juilliard School.
The New York City-based violist recently returned from about a dozen performances in North and South America.
He had been touring in a show called “The Inferno Comedy,” a half-opera, half-play starring actor John Malkovich. The show consists of an actor, two opera singers and a 20-person onstage orchestra. Frampton said the orchestra takes the form of a character in the production.
“It’s a very complicated story, a really interesting multi-disciplinary production,” he said.
He’s played with the New York Philharmonic, with Philadelphia’s The Roots on “The Jimmy Fallon Show” and appeared in several wedding scenes in “Sex in the City 2” as a member of a string quartet.
Frampton is currently traveling for a performance in Germany and plays in many renowned music festivals around the world.
His determination, love for chamber music and talent led him to this busy career, even at the young age of 25.
But he also brings high-caliber classical music to the South Jersey area as a co-founder and artistic director of Music at Bunker Hill, a chamber music concert series at Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church in Sewell.
Because of his contacts in the music world, Frampton is able to line up some big-name talent for the series, which is in its fourth year. “It’s really incredible,” Frampton said. “I’ve realized how incredibly lucky I am to have the friends that I do.”
Some of the musicians who have performed in the series include former members of the internationally acclaimed Guarneri Quartet — John Dalley, Peter Wiley and Anna Polonsky — along with another Washington Township native, Ranaan Meyer, who is gaining national recognition as a bassist.
The next concert in the series, slated for April 15, will feature well-known recording artist Jason Vieaux playing the classical guitar.
Bunker Hill Presbyterian was the church that Frampton attended with his parents throughout his childhood. His mother, Martha Frampton, also is a co-founder of the concert series.
“To envision the development of a concert series where one had not existed before and to seek to populate the artist base for the series with brilliant, world-class musicians is not for the faint of heart,” said Rev. Daniel James Weitner, pastor at Bunker Hill Presbyterian. “Will had the confidence and the courage — and, if you will, the stubbornness — to make the concept a reality.”
Frampton said he just wanted to give back to those who supported him. “I wanted to see if I could give this thing that I loved back to the community.”
For more information. visit www.musicatbunkerhill.org
–E. Janene Geiss
Big acts come to small church through Music at Bunker Hill in Washington Township
Published: Friday, November 18, 2011, 11:00 AM By Michelle Caffrey South Jersey Newspapers
It all started with a piano. A seven-foot Yamaha C7 conservatory grand, to be exact.
Starkly black and stoic, the piano commands the room even as it’s nestled stage right of the altar in Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church. It’s this sleeping giant that’s responsible for kicking off the church’s unique classical music series, now in its fourth season.
The Music at Bunker Hill series draws renowned classical acts out of their prestigious New York City concert halls and into the intimate, 120-capacity church on Greentree Road. With just an upright piano previously at their disposal, Bunker Hill Musical Director Martha Frampton knew they’d need a more serious instrument to bring in more serious artists. In 2008, they found the right piano for the right price. Her son Will, a classical-musician, took on the responsibilities of artistic director for the series and began providing opportunity after opportunity to hear first-rate classical music. Tonight, Friday, Nov. 18, is no exception.
Ranaan Meyer, a township native who now resides in Philadelphia, will bring his one-of-a-kind stylings on the double-bass to the church with the Ranaan Meyer Band. His mother — classical pianist and the high school’s long-time orchestral director Norma Meyer — will join him.
“Being a musician is a huge part of who I am, and I really believe it is for my mom as well,” Meyer said. “It’s an amazing thing to make music with another individual, let alone your mom. It’s a way for us to communicate without saying anything.”
Frampton said people shouldn’t expect the average classical concert.
“Ranaan can get rowdy,” she said. “He’s pretty lively.”
Meyer normally tours the country with his acclaimed string trio, Time for Three, and describes his sound as a hybrid of classical, Celtic, jazz, rockabilly, singer/songwriter and pop music styles.
“We’re trying to do things with instruments that haven’t been done yet,” Meyer said. “It’s like Asian or contemporary fusion food. It resembles something you’re used to, but then there’s a cool twist to it.”
Meyer said he’s glad to be back at his old stomping ground in township for his band’s second performance in the series over the years, with the Framptons and Meyers being long-time friends.
“It’s wonderful because there are so many levels of connections,” Meyer said. “This is very special, especially to have my local friends and family come out. It feels good.” Meyer will also be debuting five original compositions during the performance.
A completely secular and separate entity from the church itself, the series was created out of a desire to give classical musicians an outlet where their works can be appreciated in a small setting, Frampton said.
“I felt like it would be filling a void if we offered classical music here,” she said.
With local residents now able to get a classical music fix without crossing a bridge, she’s also thrilled to be able bring the normally urban experience to the suburbs.
“We really have fine performers, and we can get an audience out here that can appreciate them and hear that it’s top-quality music,” Frampton said. “And then they can drive home in 10 or 15 minutes. We’re bringing it home to the people.”
Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church is located at 330 Greentree Road. Tickets for Friday’s performance are $20, $15 and $10 for adults, seniors and students, respectively. For more information, visit www.musicatbunkerhill.org.
— New Jersey South Jersey woman turns her porch into butterfly sanctuary
Updated: SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 — 1:08 AM EDT
Suzan Preiksat, a retired computer programmer, with a couple of the monarch butterflies she raised. CHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer
by Kevin Riordan, Inquirer Columnist @Inqkriordan
Coaxing, coaching, and cooing, Suzan Preiksat persuades a seemingly reluctant hatchling to do what it must.
SJ woman makes home a butterfly sanctuary"
Come on, honey, come on," she says in a gentle, yet no-nonsense, voice.
"Get on my hand."
Raised since caterpillarhood in the screened sanctuary of Preiksat's porch, this monarch butterfly had emerged from its chrysalis just hours earlier.
The intricate little creature nevertheless attaches itself to her finger, opens a majestic set of fresh, brilliant orange wings, and flies.
"Amazing," says Preiksat, 68, as we watch the monarch flutter around, and then settle on a pale pink zinnia blossom in one of the butterfly gardens in her Deptford yard.
"Isn't it a magnificent thing?"
Indeed it is. And so are the efforts of people like Preiksat, a retired computer programmer and lifelong nature lover who began raising monarchs last year.
Known for the distinctive hue and pattern of their wings, as well as their sensational Canada-to-Mexico migrations, monarchs are beloved, but under siege.
Habitat loss in Mexico, and the widespread use of pesticides that kill milkweed - the insect's sole food source and only hospitable egg-laying site - are taking a toll.
"Five years ago, there were so many monarchs it looked all orange out here," Preiksat says, adding that she has since noticed "a startling decline" in such visitors.
New Jersey Audubon's Cape May Bird Observatory has since 1990 sponsored a Monarch Monitoring Project (monarchmonitoringproject.com) to do research on, advocate for, and educate about the creatures. Other organizations in South Jersey, and elsewhere, also champion the butterflies.
"In the last 15 to 20 years, aerial surveys in Mexico show that the migratory population has declined 90 percent," says Erik Mollenhauer, 67, of Pitman, a former West Deptford High School science teacher.
He founded the Monarch Teacher Network in 2000 to encourage schools to use the butterflies as an educational tool.
"Suzan is a good example of the fact that getting involved is not only good for the incredible monarch phenomenon, but good for people, too," he says.
Mollenhauer is a consultant to the network, which is a project of the Education Information Resource Center, a state agency with offices in Blackwood.
"Since 2000 we've trained about 6,000 people" in North America and elsewhere in the world, director Brian Hayes says.
"Our workshops educate people and provide the tools and all the basics needed to raise monarchs, and raise awareness," adds Hayes, who notes that simply planting native milkweed helps the butterflies.
He also suggests that anyone with questions visit the Monarch Teacher Network page on Facebook.
Preiksat, a breast-cancer survivor, has long planted zinnias, tithonia, and other butterfly-friendly "nectar" flowers and shrubs.
In 2015, her friend Karen Kravchuck, president of the Gloucester County Nature Club (gcnatureclub.org) suggested raising monarchs.
Kravchuck herself became interested in the butterflies after Mollenhauer, a longtime club member, "handed me a container with a beautiful lime-green chrysalis with gold dots on it," she recalls.
Adds Kravchuck, a hairdresser who lives in Mantua Township, "I knew Suzan would enjoy it, because of the wonder of it.
"Because of the magic."
There's a good amount of work involved as well.
"If you're going to raise monarchs on your porch, you should have a supply of native milkweed," notes Preiksat, who readily harvests stalks of the tasty plants from her five-acre property.
It's also where she also collects the caterpillars that she places in three net-covered "rearing towers" - each containing one of her mother's mason jars, filled with water and milkweed cuttings - on her porch.
The caterpillars pupate at the top of the tower, and after a couple of weeks the monarch emerges.
Preiksat raised 33 of the butterflies in 2015; this year, the number will be about 85.
And often, when she releases monarchs, "they fly right up over the house and head south" to begin their migration.
"I'm kind of like a foster parent," Preiksat says.
"I'm just trying to get them out of here and on their way. I hope some of them will make it to Mexico."
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267-815-0975@inqkriordan
www.philly.com/blinq
Francesca dePasquale keeps up the family musical tradition at Art Museum
Updated: MARCH 27, 2016 — 3:01 AM EDT
by David Patrick Stearns, Music CriticYou may think you're hearing voices at violinist Francesca dePasquale's recital next Sunday at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Be assured: the effect is intentional.
Francesca dePasquale keeps up the family musical tradition at Art Museum
The 26-year-old scion of the Philadelphia Orchestra's string-playing dePasquale clan isn't giving a dressed-for-success recital, either in her forthcoming concert or on her just-issued debut album, Francesca dePasquale. Instead, she commissioned something new, having received a Leonore Annenberg Arts Fellowship, amounting to $100,000 over two years. The piece: Oceanic Fantasy by composer Paola Prestini, incorporating on-location street sounds recorded in Italy near where dePasquale's grandfather was from. Nothing terribly radical, but it's hardly typical.
"We're careful with the volume level. We aren't going to accost anybody with some crazy sounds," she said. "But there's definitely been some sense of surprise within the audience. The energy in the room shifts."
Currently on a tour that includes Reading, Philadelphia, and the ultra-fashionable Brooklyn venue National Sawdust, dePasquale has enlisted her piano collaborator Meng-Chieh Liu to handle the electronic element.
The rest of the program, both on disc and in concert, is a highly personal, eclectic mixture of Bach, Bartók, and Korngold - again, nothing radical but hardly typical. Mentors such as Itzhak Perlman never cautioned her to play it safe. Not that it would do any good with this strong-minded musician. She was questioned, though, about including Bach's famous Partita No. 2 - widely considered advanced adult music. But she would not be stopped, and the performance is in many ways a calling card for her musical values.
Though many violinists grapple more aggressively with the grand architectural edifice sketched out by the unaccompanied violin, dePasquale exhibits great care for the actual sound of the piece. Distinctive indeed. One could even say it sounds like nothing else and establishes her as an evolved musical personality. On the recording, she partly credits producer Adam Abeshouse, who is known for giving layers to the sounds he records.
But the contagiousness of the Philadelphia Orchestra sound would also have to be a factor. She is, after all, the daughter of the orchestra's longtime concertmaster, the late William dePasquale, who died in 2012. "When I think of the rehearsals and concerts I heard, what I was surrounded with, it's going to have an effect whether you realize it or not," she said. "My dad and I talked about the sound sometimes. So much of it came from Eugene Ormandy, the acoustics at the Academy of Music, lots of different factors. I listen to recordings of my father before he joined the orchestra and his sound changed a lot in Philadelphia."
Her musical pedigree - her father and three string-playing brothers formed a string quartet, and her mother, Gloria, still plays in the Philadelphia Orchestra - counts for much but perhaps not in predictable ways. Francesca started playing at age 3, but the relationship with music was casual enough that she could have a true childhood, often playing sports with her two older brothers, who gave up their violins when she took up hers.
Initially, she resented when her father gave her advice while she was practicing. Later, she sought it out. She also chose home schooling because she wanted more practice time. She earned her undergraduate degree at the Colburn School Conservatory of Music before moving on to the Juilliard School, where she studied with Perlman and Catherine Cho.
Her family chose careers playing in orchestras, but dePasquale has a more diversified life. Now based in New York, she teaches at Rutgers University in New Brunswick and is teaching assistant to Perlman at Juilliard. And at the moment, she is living the life of a soloist.
She rules out nothing in a musical marketplace in which career musicians have never had so many options and so little clarity. The days when agents and advisers would protectively descend on a promising new talent are not over. But they often seem to be, at a time when young artists must take command of their own careers and do so much of the logistical work themselves. That means being your own travel agent and tour planner.
Having grown up behind the scenes, dePasquale is perhaps more qualified than most to navigate 21st-century classical music.
The Annenberg grant "allowed me to explore my own individual voice," she said. "I've always loved chamber music and perform as part of a piano trio. I've done a little substituting for Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. And I'm looking forward to seeing what's next in all of this."
[email protected]
The acoustics are heavenly
by Kevin Riordan April 12, 2015
read article
WRTI Where Music Lives http://www.wrti.org/term/music-bunker-hill APRIL 8, 2013
By MERIDEE DUDDLESTON
A concert series in southern New Jersey’s Washington Township attracts top-notch performers from the region, across the river, New York, and all around. The Music at Bunker Hill concerts take place in a church built on a high point in Gloucester County. Starting with three concerts, the program has steadily grown. Now in its fifth season, the Sunday series stands out as a breath of fresh air.
The sanctuary of Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church is the venue for Music at Bunker Hill, and it's Where Music Lives. Philadelphia Orchestra Concertmaster David Kim will perform there on April 28, 2013 at 3 pm.
The allure of the cello: Efe Baltacigil feels a deep connection to the instrument
Published: Friday, March 30, 2012, 1:30 PM
By Ronni Reich/The Star-Ledger
Efe Baltacigil was born to love the deep, sonorous voices of the low-stringed instruments.
The cellist grew up in Istanbul, his father and his aunt played the double bass, and one of his brothers is now a bassist for the Berlin Philharmonic. Another brother plays cello at the same conservatory in Turkey that Efe attended.
“I’m drawn to darker, more soulful instruments,” Baltacigil says. “That’s one thing about the sound I go after.”
Baltacigil, 33, should have a great canvas for that kind of tone on his Music at Bunker Hill program this Sunday. The concert centers on Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 3, op. 60 in C Minor, which the composer once described as the expression of a suicidal man. Begun in 1855 and completed in 1875, the work is believed to respond to the declining mental health of the composer Robert Schumann and Brahms’ unrequited love for Clara Schumann, Robert’s wife.
The music is — at times — fraught, desperate and violent. But in the andante third movement, the cello takes a central role for an intimate tune that is sometimes considered a love song.
“You can almost hear that he was writing this for a certain individual,” Baltacigil says. “It’s just such a beautiful melody.”
Pianist Amy J. Yang, Baltacigil’s regular recital partner, joins the quartet, along with violist and Bunker Hill artistic director William Frampton and violinist William Polk, who plays with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
The program also includes Beethoven’s Sonatas for Cello and Piano No. 1 and No. 5 with Yang. The pieces take listeners from the composer’s classically inflected early period to his innovative final years. Baltacigil, who admires the French school of cello playing, will give a taste of French music as well with Ravel’s light, pleasant “Habanera.”
Baltacigil may be most familiar to local listeners as the former associate principal cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He played there for 10 years after attending the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In September, he left the financially troubled ensemble to become the principal cellist of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.
“I’m very happy and it’s a really fantastic orchestra here,” he says. “Almost every concert has a full house and an incredible amount of young listeners show up. I love that — it’s quite a difference.”
Baltacigil hopes to see a rebirth in Philly and looks fondly on his time there. Wolfgang Sawallisch’s final concert with the orchestra — a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 — comes to mind first as a highlight. Among his other cherished memories are playing under Sir Simon Rattle and with guest artists such as Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax.
Baltacigil favors the German romantics he’ll play at Bunker Hill, but also has a soft spot for the baroque period. He dips into that repertoire with “La Follia” by Geminani, which he recorded with the New York-based East Coast Chamber Orchestra. A talented group of Baltacigil’s peers, ECCO released its first recording this year, also featuring works by Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich.
To work with the group, he’s spending lots of time in hotels and airports, and “building up his SkyMiles quite a bit,” he says.
“It is so worth it. There’s an unbelievable force to this ensemble,” Baltacigil says.
On top of his bicoastal orchestral career and his recital tours, Baltacigil makes his debut with Berlin next fall under Rattle. Some consider the orchestra the best in the world.
“That is thrilling,” he says. “I’ll probably retire after that.”
Touring the world, Thinking of Home (about Artistic Director William Frampton)
in Down the Pike
Posted on February 6, 2012
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP — William Frampton decided in a seventh-grade chemistry class that he wanted to become a professional musician.
“The hard chair, the cold slab of black desk in front of me … I never changed my mind. Not even close,” said the 2004 Washington Township High School graduate who has degrees from New England Conservatory and the Juilliard School.
The New York City-based violist recently returned from about a dozen performances in North and South America.
He had been touring in a show called “The Inferno Comedy,” a half-opera, half-play starring actor John Malkovich. The show consists of an actor, two opera singers and a 20-person onstage orchestra. Frampton said the orchestra takes the form of a character in the production.
“It’s a very complicated story, a really interesting multi-disciplinary production,” he said.
He’s played with the New York Philharmonic, with Philadelphia’s The Roots on “The Jimmy Fallon Show” and appeared in several wedding scenes in “Sex in the City 2” as a member of a string quartet.
Frampton is currently traveling for a performance in Germany and plays in many renowned music festivals around the world.
His determination, love for chamber music and talent led him to this busy career, even at the young age of 25.
But he also brings high-caliber classical music to the South Jersey area as a co-founder and artistic director of Music at Bunker Hill, a chamber music concert series at Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church in Sewell.
Because of his contacts in the music world, Frampton is able to line up some big-name talent for the series, which is in its fourth year. “It’s really incredible,” Frampton said. “I’ve realized how incredibly lucky I am to have the friends that I do.”
Some of the musicians who have performed in the series include former members of the internationally acclaimed Guarneri Quartet — John Dalley, Peter Wiley and Anna Polonsky — along with another Washington Township native, Ranaan Meyer, who is gaining national recognition as a bassist.
The next concert in the series, slated for April 15, will feature well-known recording artist Jason Vieaux playing the classical guitar.
Bunker Hill Presbyterian was the church that Frampton attended with his parents throughout his childhood. His mother, Martha Frampton, also is a co-founder of the concert series.
“To envision the development of a concert series where one had not existed before and to seek to populate the artist base for the series with brilliant, world-class musicians is not for the faint of heart,” said Rev. Daniel James Weitner, pastor at Bunker Hill Presbyterian. “Will had the confidence and the courage — and, if you will, the stubbornness — to make the concept a reality.”
Frampton said he just wanted to give back to those who supported him. “I wanted to see if I could give this thing that I loved back to the community.”
For more information. visit www.musicatbunkerhill.org
–E. Janene Geiss
Big acts come to small church through Music at Bunker Hill in Washington Township
Published: Friday, November 18, 2011, 11:00 AM By Michelle Caffrey South Jersey Newspapers
It all started with a piano. A seven-foot Yamaha C7 conservatory grand, to be exact.
Starkly black and stoic, the piano commands the room even as it’s nestled stage right of the altar in Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church. It’s this sleeping giant that’s responsible for kicking off the church’s unique classical music series, now in its fourth season.
The Music at Bunker Hill series draws renowned classical acts out of their prestigious New York City concert halls and into the intimate, 120-capacity church on Greentree Road. With just an upright piano previously at their disposal, Bunker Hill Musical Director Martha Frampton knew they’d need a more serious instrument to bring in more serious artists. In 2008, they found the right piano for the right price. Her son Will, a classical-musician, took on the responsibilities of artistic director for the series and began providing opportunity after opportunity to hear first-rate classical music. Tonight, Friday, Nov. 18, is no exception.
Ranaan Meyer, a township native who now resides in Philadelphia, will bring his one-of-a-kind stylings on the double-bass to the church with the Ranaan Meyer Band. His mother — classical pianist and the high school’s long-time orchestral director Norma Meyer — will join him.
“Being a musician is a huge part of who I am, and I really believe it is for my mom as well,” Meyer said. “It’s an amazing thing to make music with another individual, let alone your mom. It’s a way for us to communicate without saying anything.”
Frampton said people shouldn’t expect the average classical concert.
“Ranaan can get rowdy,” she said. “He’s pretty lively.”
Meyer normally tours the country with his acclaimed string trio, Time for Three, and describes his sound as a hybrid of classical, Celtic, jazz, rockabilly, singer/songwriter and pop music styles.
“We’re trying to do things with instruments that haven’t been done yet,” Meyer said. “It’s like Asian or contemporary fusion food. It resembles something you’re used to, but then there’s a cool twist to it.”
Meyer said he’s glad to be back at his old stomping ground in township for his band’s second performance in the series over the years, with the Framptons and Meyers being long-time friends.
“It’s wonderful because there are so many levels of connections,” Meyer said. “This is very special, especially to have my local friends and family come out. It feels good.” Meyer will also be debuting five original compositions during the performance.
A completely secular and separate entity from the church itself, the series was created out of a desire to give classical musicians an outlet where their works can be appreciated in a small setting, Frampton said.
“I felt like it would be filling a void if we offered classical music here,” she said.
With local residents now able to get a classical music fix without crossing a bridge, she’s also thrilled to be able bring the normally urban experience to the suburbs.
“We really have fine performers, and we can get an audience out here that can appreciate them and hear that it’s top-quality music,” Frampton said. “And then they can drive home in 10 or 15 minutes. We’re bringing it home to the people.”
Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church is located at 330 Greentree Road. Tickets for Friday’s performance are $20, $15 and $10 for adults, seniors and students, respectively. For more information, visit www.musicatbunkerhill.org.
Music at Bunker Hill Receives Grant from Target for Outreach Concerts
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Five upcoming S.J. classical concerts you don't want to miss
6:11 PM, Mar. 18, 2011 | Comments
The Pennsylvania Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra will team up for the first time in their histories for "Pulcinella.' Here, Pennsylvania Ballet principal dancer Julie Diana and soloist Francis Veyette perform the ballet. / Photo provided
FILED UNDER
Living
Here are some classical music highlights worth planning your spring around:
"Pulcinella" with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Pennsylvania Ballet, April 8 to 10. This production marks the first time the orchestra and the ballet have performed together. Rather than ask "what took them so long?" take this opportunity to witness new choreography by Jorma Elo and the innovations in rhythm and color that Stravinsky brought to classical music. Tickets from $20, available at philorch.org or (215) 893-1999.
Passion and revenge
"Don Giovanni," the Academy of Vocal Arts, April 30 to May 15.
The libretto of this Mozart opera would be enough to make it notable -- it's dark, thrilling and filled with seduction and revenge -- but the depth and richness of Mozart's score push into the realm of all-time greats. Tickets from $21, available at avaopera.org or (215) 735-1685.
New work
"Lyrical Romance," Symphony in C, Gordon Theater, Rutgers-Camden, May 7.
The season-closing concert by Camden's professional training orchestras features Sibelius' rousing Second Symphony and Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, with Soovin Kim as soloist. A new work by the Symphony's Young Composer Competition also will be unveiled. Tickets from $24, available at symphonyinc.org or (856) 963-6683.
Young artists
Chamber music at Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church, May 13.
To close this young series' third season, violinist Erin Keefe, cellist Andrey Tchekmazov and pianist Anna Polonsky perform works by Haydn and Kodaly, and series founder and Washington Township native William Frampton joins them on viola for a Dvorak quartet. Tickets $18, $15 for seniors and students, available at musicatbunkerhill.org or (856) 589-7863.
Phaedra, complex
"Phaedra," the Opera Company of Philadelphia, June 3 to 12.
Philadelphia's main opera company rarely performs contemporary music, but it's lavishing a new production on this 21st-century work by German composer Hans Werner Henze. The cast includes the striking countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, recently heard as a guest soloist with Symphony in C. Tickets from $48, available at operaphila.org or (215) 893-1018.
-- Dave Allen
After notable success, clarinetist explores his love for improvisation By Ronni Reich
April 09, 2010, 6:42PM
Clarinetist Anthony McGill has had some of the most coveted gigs around — performer at President Obama’s inauguration, principal clarinetist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and, his first gig, associate principal of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. And all of this was before he turned 30.
“I think when I got my first job, I was too young and naïve to think about what I was doing too much and was just really happy I was able to do it,” says McGill, who turns 31 in July. “As I get older and wiser and more mature, challenges become more real.”
But, he adds, “Everything — the Met job, too — has been so exciting. I think that’s the most important thing to focus on, rather than any kind of pressure.”
Between opera performances and teaching lessons (he’s a professor at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University), McGill will give a recital at the Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church in Sewell on Sunday with pianist Kwan Yi and violist William Frampton.
The program contains some of his favorite pieces, including Poulenc’s melancholy, expressive Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, which he describes as “very vocal” (it’s worth checking out his songs, choral works and operas, too). A kind of “clarinet standard,” Debussy’s Rhapsodie for Clarinet and Piano, written as an audition piece for the Paris Conservatoire, strikes him as one of the composer’s finest, with “beautiful, impressionistic music” that “floats over you.”
Alongside these will be pieces by André Messager and Schumann, and an arrangement of Gershwin’s Preludes for solo piano.
“Gershwin just plays beautifully on clarinet,” McGill says, noting the jazz influence that figures so prominently in “Rhapsody in Blue.”
An equally prominent American composer supplied the music for one of McGill’s career highlights so far, the inauguration, where he performed John Williams’ “Air and Simple Gifts” with pianist Gabriela Montero, violinist Itzhak Perlman and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. He had worked with Ma before, and was grateful to collaborate with him again.
“He’s an unbelievable musician, obviously,” says McGill, “but he’s also such an absolutely warm person with wonderful positive energy. It comes out through his music in such a friendly and open way. When you talk to him, you’re affected by the energy, and your playing is transformed as well by playing with him.”
Such welcoming, communicative musicality can be heard in McGill’s solo playing as well. As far as goals, he is thinking mostly in broad terms, “to keep performing with really great musicians” and to be receptive to all opportunities.
“It’s about being open to everything so I can explore and hopefully succeed.”
Exploration seems to be on his mind these days. On his blog, at AnthonyMcGill.com, he describes the stress, excitement and feelings of spontaneity that came from playing a piece by heart and his desire to work the mind-set of improvisation into his playing.
The posts fall under the heading “Learning NOT to read Music.” To this end, he has been playing some jazzier pieces, including the Gershwin he will perform at Bunker Hill and a Paquito D’Rivera work he recently performed.
“As I said on the blog, it’s something to try to work on for the rest of my life — also when I play standard repertoire — so it sounds like I’m improvising,” he says. “I think that’s the best way to perform.”
Anthony McGill
Where: Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church, 33 Greentree Road, Sewell
When: Sunday at 3 p.m.
How much: $18 in advance, $20 at door, $15 for seniors and students. Call (856) 589-7863 or visit MusicAtBunkerHill.org.
Chamber music fills church Courier Post - Cherry Hill, N.J.
Author: KATIE KALVAITIS Date: Feb 11, 2010 Start Page: n/a Section: NEWS Text Word Count: 508
The world of professional classical music is a small one. A chance encounter between William Frampton, artistic director of Music at Bunker Hill, and Metropolitan Opera singer Ginger Costa-Jackson, who gave Frampton directions at a bus stop in Switzerland, led to the young singer's invitation to perform in concert in Washington Township on Feb. 12.
The upcoming show at 8 p.m. is one of seven in the 2009-2010 Music at Bunker Hill concert series. The nonprofit organization -- its name derived from the place where the concerns take place, Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church -- strives to bring professional chamber music to South Jersey.
"Bringing world-class performers to South Jersey and more specifically my hometown of Washington Township is a dream come true," said Frampton, a classical violinist who is training at Juilliard School.
"Musical Theater: From Opera to Broadway" will feature Costa-Jackson with bass-baritone Eric Downs, pianist Craig Ketter and actor/narrator Jeffrey Golde. The program will integrate seven operas, including "Don Giovanni" and "Carmen," with a set of Broadway tunes, such as "Alabama Song" and "Summertime," for a combination of drama and music.
Narrator Golde said part of the fun of this particular show will be "trying to dispel the myth that opera is a super elite form. Much of the narration tries to establish that opera was entertainment just like modern musicals are today."
Golde is an actor, cellist and pianist from Brookline, Mass. His mother, Ellen Golde, a programmer in Boston, offered to put together the music for the show.
This group is just a selection of the talent Music at Bunker Hill has drawn to South Jersey. Previous concerts in the series included pianist Michael Mizrahi, the Ansonia Trio and a jazz tribute to Duke Ellington by Pitman native Denis DiBlasio.
The series will continue with Frampton playing violin on March 5 and Anthony McGill, principal clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, performing on April 11.
Frampton's mother, Martha, president of the board of directors, said the idea for Music at Bunker Hill began with the addition of a grand piano to Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church.
"We thought, "What a great addition to put on concerts,' " she said. "From there, we decided to start a nonprofit that was not connected to the church during the summer of 2008."
For William Frampton, the realization the concerts he was playing all around the world could happen in his hometown helped him co-found Music at Bunker Hill.
Audiences can enjoy "the convenience of seeing the same quality of performance that they used to have to travel to Philadelphia or New York to experience," he said.
Katie Kalvaitis writes about Gloucester County people for the Courier-Post. Reach her at [email protected].
MORE INFORMATION
Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church is at 330 Greentree Road in Washington Township. Season and individual tickets for Music at Bunker Hill concerts may be purchased in advance by mail, Paymail and e-mail. Tickets at the door are $20 for adults and $15 for senior citizens and students. For more information, call (856) 589-7863 or visit www.musicatbunkerhill.org.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission. Features, Washington Township » Jazz musician brings quintet to Washington Township church for concert By Kelly Roncace January 12, 2010, 3:25AM
Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church in Washington Township is usually a serene place of worship. That is unless the Music at Bunker Hill concert series is in town.
The concert series is led by a non-profit organization that brings chamber music and vocalists to the South Jersey area.
The series has included high-profile musicians such as Ranaan Meyer of Time for Three, Michael Mizrahi of Astral Artists, Ginger Costa-Jackson of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Met and Anthony McGill of the Met Opera Orchestra.
View full size
Denis DiBlasio and his quintet will perform at Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church in Washington Township as a of the Music at Bunker Hill concert series. The series is led by a non-profit organization that brings chamber music and vocalists to the South Jersey area.
The idea of putting together a concert series was born when the church acquired a Yamaha Grand Piano, according to the President of the Board of Directors Martha Frampton.
“Once we had a professional level piano in the church, my son, Will embraced the idea of having a concert series,” she said. “He has helped guide the musical direction of the concert series as artistic director.”
The church will come alive with authentic Duke Ellington music on Jan. 15 at 8 p.m.
Denis DiBlasio, world-renowned Jazz musician, is bringing his quintet to the venue as a part of the Music at Bunker Hill concert series.
DiBlasio, who is currently the director of the jazz program and executive director of the Maynard Ferguson Institute of Jazz Studies at Rowan University, said he is looking forward to his first appearance at Bunker Hill.
DiBlasio, a baritone sax and flute player, will be joined by George Rabbai, Brian Betz, Doug Rapp and drummer Jim Miller.
Frampton said the DiBlasio quintet is a fun and talented group of musicians.
“These accomplished players bring new meaning to the idea of ‘living in the moment,’” she said.
DiBlasio explained the group’s method is a “straight-ahead” approach.
“We pick some songs associated with Duke, play the melody, then solo on the tune in the traditional jazz style,” he said.
Frampton said the group plans the set list based on the “vibes in the house.”
“A look or a gesture is all it takes to let the next guy know to take a solo,” Frampton said.
DiBlasio said he also enjoys engaging the audience in a question and answer session during the show.
“I like to let the crowd know about some inside information, so story telling is usually involved,” he said. “People tend to identify a little more with the music when they know something about it.”
View full size Staff photo by Jonathan Wells
Martha Frampton is the Musical Director of Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church in Washington Township. Denis DiBlasio and his quintet will be playing at the upcoming Bunker Hill Concert Series.
The DiBlasio show is the fourth concert so far this season, Frampton said. There are three more concerts on the 2010 schedule, and five shows planned for next year.
“It’s been well received by audiences, but we have not sold out yet,” she said of the concert series. “That’s a goal.”
The series is funded in part by the New Jersey Council on the Arts/Division of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts from a grant to the Gloucester County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the Gloucester County Cultural and Heritage Commission, according to Frampton.
In addition to the funding, the series is made possible by help from volunteers, sponsors and ticket sales, she said.
“Thanks to our individual and corporate donors and sponsors, we operate in the black so far,” she said. “We are very low budget except for performer fees. Volunteers do the work.”
Frampton said there will be a Wine Tasting Dinner fundraiser on Jan. 31 at the Italian Affair restaurant in Glassboro.
“Last year at the first wine tasting we made some good friends who have been subscribers and great supporters during the past year,” she said.
The Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church is located at 330 Greentree Road in Sewell. Visitors can complete the evening with a reception with the artists following the show.
Tickets may be purchased at the door for $20 for adults and $15 for senior citizens or students.
For more information, call (856) 589-7863 or visit the Web site at www.musicatbunkerhill.org. Bob Shryock: DiBlasio Quintet — 'vibes in the house' By Bob Shryock/Gloucester County Times January 07, 2010, 3:00AM
Pitman resident Denis DiBlasio joins four talented friends in a jazz tribute to Duke Ellington when Music at Bunker Hill presents its fourth concert of the season 8 p.m. Jan. 15 at Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church, 330 Greentree Road, Washington Township. The DiBlasio quintet includes George Rabbai, Brian Betz, Doug Rapp and Jim Miller, all talented musicians.
“These guys bring new meaning to the idea of living in the moment,” says Martha Frampton, president of Music at Bunker Hill. “They call tunes based on the vibes in the house — improvisation is the name of the game. A look or gesture is all it takes to let the next guy know that it’s his turn to solo.”
Music at Bunker Hill was founded in 2008 to bring top performers to South Jersey and enhance the cultural life of the community.
Funding is in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Division of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, from a grant to the Gloucester County Board of Chosen Freeholders, and the Gloucester County Cultural and Heritage Commission.
Tickets ($20 adults, $15 seniors and children) can be purchased at the door. Call (856) 589-7863 for more information.
Three remaining concerts: Mezzo-soprano Ginger Costa-Jackson and bass-baritone Eric Downs 8 p.m. Feb. 12, violist William Frampton, 8 p.m. March 5, and clarinetist Anthony McGill, 3 p.m. April 11. Frampton is the organization’s artistic director.
A wine-tasting dinner and fund-raiser for Music at Bunker Hill will be held 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 31 at Italian Affair, Glassboro. Cost is $50 per person. RSVP by calling (856) 589-9402 or (856) 430-0513.
Posted on Sun, Jan. 10, 2010 Regional arts and entertainment events
Philadelphia Inquirer 1/10/10
All that jazz
Sensational saxophonist Denis DiBlasio performs with his quintet at Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church, 330 Greentree Rd., Sewell, at 8 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $20; $15 for seniors and students. Call 856-589-7863. . . .
April 09, 2010, 6:42PM
Clarinetist Anthony McGill has had some of the most coveted gigs around — performer at President Obama’s inauguration, principal clarinetist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and, his first gig, associate principal of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. And all of this was before he turned 30.
“I think when I got my first job, I was too young and naïve to think about what I was doing too much and was just really happy I was able to do it,” says McGill, who turns 31 in July. “As I get older and wiser and more mature, challenges become more real.”
But, he adds, “Everything — the Met job, too — has been so exciting. I think that’s the most important thing to focus on, rather than any kind of pressure.”
Between opera performances and teaching lessons (he’s a professor at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University), McGill will give a recital at the Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church in Sewell on Sunday with pianist Kwan Yi and violist William Frampton.
The program contains some of his favorite pieces, including Poulenc’s melancholy, expressive Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, which he describes as “very vocal” (it’s worth checking out his songs, choral works and operas, too). A kind of “clarinet standard,” Debussy’s Rhapsodie for Clarinet and Piano, written as an audition piece for the Paris Conservatoire, strikes him as one of the composer’s finest, with “beautiful, impressionistic music” that “floats over you.”
Alongside these will be pieces by André Messager and Schumann, and an arrangement of Gershwin’s Preludes for solo piano.
“Gershwin just plays beautifully on clarinet,” McGill says, noting the jazz influence that figures so prominently in “Rhapsody in Blue.”
An equally prominent American composer supplied the music for one of McGill’s career highlights so far, the inauguration, where he performed John Williams’ “Air and Simple Gifts” with pianist Gabriela Montero, violinist Itzhak Perlman and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. He had worked with Ma before, and was grateful to collaborate with him again.
“He’s an unbelievable musician, obviously,” says McGill, “but he’s also such an absolutely warm person with wonderful positive energy. It comes out through his music in such a friendly and open way. When you talk to him, you’re affected by the energy, and your playing is transformed as well by playing with him.”
Such welcoming, communicative musicality can be heard in McGill’s solo playing as well. As far as goals, he is thinking mostly in broad terms, “to keep performing with really great musicians” and to be receptive to all opportunities.
“It’s about being open to everything so I can explore and hopefully succeed.”
Exploration seems to be on his mind these days. On his blog, at AnthonyMcGill.com, he describes the stress, excitement and feelings of spontaneity that came from playing a piece by heart and his desire to work the mind-set of improvisation into his playing.
The posts fall under the heading “Learning NOT to read Music.” To this end, he has been playing some jazzier pieces, including the Gershwin he will perform at Bunker Hill and a Paquito D’Rivera work he recently performed.
“As I said on the blog, it’s something to try to work on for the rest of my life — also when I play standard repertoire — so it sounds like I’m improvising,” he says. “I think that’s the best way to perform.”
Anthony McGill
Where: Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church, 33 Greentree Road, Sewell
When: Sunday at 3 p.m.
How much: $18 in advance, $20 at door, $15 for seniors and students. Call (856) 589-7863 or visit MusicAtBunkerHill.org.
Chamber music fills church Courier Post - Cherry Hill, N.J.
Author: KATIE KALVAITIS Date: Feb 11, 2010 Start Page: n/a Section: NEWS Text Word Count: 508
The world of professional classical music is a small one. A chance encounter between William Frampton, artistic director of Music at Bunker Hill, and Metropolitan Opera singer Ginger Costa-Jackson, who gave Frampton directions at a bus stop in Switzerland, led to the young singer's invitation to perform in concert in Washington Township on Feb. 12.
The upcoming show at 8 p.m. is one of seven in the 2009-2010 Music at Bunker Hill concert series. The nonprofit organization -- its name derived from the place where the concerns take place, Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church -- strives to bring professional chamber music to South Jersey.
"Bringing world-class performers to South Jersey and more specifically my hometown of Washington Township is a dream come true," said Frampton, a classical violinist who is training at Juilliard School.
"Musical Theater: From Opera to Broadway" will feature Costa-Jackson with bass-baritone Eric Downs, pianist Craig Ketter and actor/narrator Jeffrey Golde. The program will integrate seven operas, including "Don Giovanni" and "Carmen," with a set of Broadway tunes, such as "Alabama Song" and "Summertime," for a combination of drama and music.
Narrator Golde said part of the fun of this particular show will be "trying to dispel the myth that opera is a super elite form. Much of the narration tries to establish that opera was entertainment just like modern musicals are today."
Golde is an actor, cellist and pianist from Brookline, Mass. His mother, Ellen Golde, a programmer in Boston, offered to put together the music for the show.
This group is just a selection of the talent Music at Bunker Hill has drawn to South Jersey. Previous concerts in the series included pianist Michael Mizrahi, the Ansonia Trio and a jazz tribute to Duke Ellington by Pitman native Denis DiBlasio.
The series will continue with Frampton playing violin on March 5 and Anthony McGill, principal clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, performing on April 11.
Frampton's mother, Martha, president of the board of directors, said the idea for Music at Bunker Hill began with the addition of a grand piano to Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church.
"We thought, "What a great addition to put on concerts,' " she said. "From there, we decided to start a nonprofit that was not connected to the church during the summer of 2008."
For William Frampton, the realization the concerts he was playing all around the world could happen in his hometown helped him co-found Music at Bunker Hill.
Audiences can enjoy "the convenience of seeing the same quality of performance that they used to have to travel to Philadelphia or New York to experience," he said.
Katie Kalvaitis writes about Gloucester County people for the Courier-Post. Reach her at [email protected].
MORE INFORMATION
Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church is at 330 Greentree Road in Washington Township. Season and individual tickets for Music at Bunker Hill concerts may be purchased in advance by mail, Paymail and e-mail. Tickets at the door are $20 for adults and $15 for senior citizens and students. For more information, call (856) 589-7863 or visit www.musicatbunkerhill.org.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission. Features, Washington Township » Jazz musician brings quintet to Washington Township church for concert By Kelly Roncace January 12, 2010, 3:25AM
Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church in Washington Township is usually a serene place of worship. That is unless the Music at Bunker Hill concert series is in town.
The concert series is led by a non-profit organization that brings chamber music and vocalists to the South Jersey area.
The series has included high-profile musicians such as Ranaan Meyer of Time for Three, Michael Mizrahi of Astral Artists, Ginger Costa-Jackson of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Met and Anthony McGill of the Met Opera Orchestra.
View full size
Denis DiBlasio and his quintet will perform at Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church in Washington Township as a of the Music at Bunker Hill concert series. The series is led by a non-profit organization that brings chamber music and vocalists to the South Jersey area.
The idea of putting together a concert series was born when the church acquired a Yamaha Grand Piano, according to the President of the Board of Directors Martha Frampton.
“Once we had a professional level piano in the church, my son, Will embraced the idea of having a concert series,” she said. “He has helped guide the musical direction of the concert series as artistic director.”
The church will come alive with authentic Duke Ellington music on Jan. 15 at 8 p.m.
Denis DiBlasio, world-renowned Jazz musician, is bringing his quintet to the venue as a part of the Music at Bunker Hill concert series.
DiBlasio, who is currently the director of the jazz program and executive director of the Maynard Ferguson Institute of Jazz Studies at Rowan University, said he is looking forward to his first appearance at Bunker Hill.
DiBlasio, a baritone sax and flute player, will be joined by George Rabbai, Brian Betz, Doug Rapp and drummer Jim Miller.
Frampton said the DiBlasio quintet is a fun and talented group of musicians.
“These accomplished players bring new meaning to the idea of ‘living in the moment,’” she said.
DiBlasio explained the group’s method is a “straight-ahead” approach.
“We pick some songs associated with Duke, play the melody, then solo on the tune in the traditional jazz style,” he said.
Frampton said the group plans the set list based on the “vibes in the house.”
“A look or a gesture is all it takes to let the next guy know to take a solo,” Frampton said.
DiBlasio said he also enjoys engaging the audience in a question and answer session during the show.
“I like to let the crowd know about some inside information, so story telling is usually involved,” he said. “People tend to identify a little more with the music when they know something about it.”
View full size Staff photo by Jonathan Wells
Martha Frampton is the Musical Director of Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church in Washington Township. Denis DiBlasio and his quintet will be playing at the upcoming Bunker Hill Concert Series.
The DiBlasio show is the fourth concert so far this season, Frampton said. There are three more concerts on the 2010 schedule, and five shows planned for next year.
“It’s been well received by audiences, but we have not sold out yet,” she said of the concert series. “That’s a goal.”
The series is funded in part by the New Jersey Council on the Arts/Division of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts from a grant to the Gloucester County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the Gloucester County Cultural and Heritage Commission, according to Frampton.
In addition to the funding, the series is made possible by help from volunteers, sponsors and ticket sales, she said.
“Thanks to our individual and corporate donors and sponsors, we operate in the black so far,” she said. “We are very low budget except for performer fees. Volunteers do the work.”
Frampton said there will be a Wine Tasting Dinner fundraiser on Jan. 31 at the Italian Affair restaurant in Glassboro.
“Last year at the first wine tasting we made some good friends who have been subscribers and great supporters during the past year,” she said.
The Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church is located at 330 Greentree Road in Sewell. Visitors can complete the evening with a reception with the artists following the show.
Tickets may be purchased at the door for $20 for adults and $15 for senior citizens or students.
For more information, call (856) 589-7863 or visit the Web site at www.musicatbunkerhill.org. Bob Shryock: DiBlasio Quintet — 'vibes in the house' By Bob Shryock/Gloucester County Times January 07, 2010, 3:00AM
Pitman resident Denis DiBlasio joins four talented friends in a jazz tribute to Duke Ellington when Music at Bunker Hill presents its fourth concert of the season 8 p.m. Jan. 15 at Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church, 330 Greentree Road, Washington Township. The DiBlasio quintet includes George Rabbai, Brian Betz, Doug Rapp and Jim Miller, all talented musicians.
“These guys bring new meaning to the idea of living in the moment,” says Martha Frampton, president of Music at Bunker Hill. “They call tunes based on the vibes in the house — improvisation is the name of the game. A look or gesture is all it takes to let the next guy know that it’s his turn to solo.”
Music at Bunker Hill was founded in 2008 to bring top performers to South Jersey and enhance the cultural life of the community.
Funding is in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Division of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, from a grant to the Gloucester County Board of Chosen Freeholders, and the Gloucester County Cultural and Heritage Commission.
Tickets ($20 adults, $15 seniors and children) can be purchased at the door. Call (856) 589-7863 for more information.
Three remaining concerts: Mezzo-soprano Ginger Costa-Jackson and bass-baritone Eric Downs 8 p.m. Feb. 12, violist William Frampton, 8 p.m. March 5, and clarinetist Anthony McGill, 3 p.m. April 11. Frampton is the organization’s artistic director.
A wine-tasting dinner and fund-raiser for Music at Bunker Hill will be held 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 31 at Italian Affair, Glassboro. Cost is $50 per person. RSVP by calling (856) 589-9402 or (856) 430-0513.
Posted on Sun, Jan. 10, 2010 Regional arts and entertainment events
Philadelphia Inquirer 1/10/10
All that jazz
Sensational saxophonist Denis DiBlasio performs with his quintet at Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church, 330 Greentree Rd., Sewell, at 8 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $20; $15 for seniors and students. Call 856-589-7863. . . .