Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo Performs at RARITAN RIVER MUSIC FESTIVAL Tonight

The celebrated Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo will appear at the Raritan River Music Festival tonight, May 24. The Duo, in a collaboration with string quartet, ETHEL will perform a program of Raritan River commissioned works by Paul Moravec, Michael Karmon, and Dusan Bogdanovic. The concert will also include the music of Augusta Read Thomas in a celebration of her 50th birthday. Beginning at 7:30pm the concert will take place at the Clinton Presbyterian Church in Clinton, NJ.

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

Highlights of recent and upcoming performances include the world premiere of Concierto Buenos Aires composed for the Duo by Nuevo Tango Master Daniel Binelli with l'Orchestre de l'Opéra de Reims in France. Following on the success of the concerto's French debut, the Duo performed it with the Virginia Symphony. Last season their international travels included a performance and lecture at the VI Academic Guitar Symposium in Brazil. Summer 2013 brought Newman & Oltman to several Italian venues, which included a performance and master class at the Estate Musicale Frentana/Lanciano International Guitar Seminar and the Volterra Guitar Project. Other appearances this season include the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, the Mississippi Guitar Festival and a return engagement at the Iserlohn (Germany) International Guitar Symposium. The Duo, who serves as Artists-in-Residence at Lafayette College, performed in concert with Tim Fain this winter.

The duo's latest CD, Music from Raritan River features a collection of world premieres commissioned by the duo over the past decade. Their artistry has also been captured on a dozen other acclaimed recordings.

In addition to founding and serving as artistic directors of the New York Guitar Seminar at Mannes, Michael Newman and Laura Oltman have served as ensemble-in-residence at Mannes College of Music since 1987. The NY Guitar Seminar at Mannes will be held again this July. They also are the founders and artistic directors of the Raritan River Music Festival now in its 25th year of presenting new music in Central New Jersey. Newman & Oltman also serve as the artistic advisors to the D'Addario Foundation Performance Series at Carnegie Hall.

ETHEL has, for the past 9 years, served as the Ensemble-in-Residence at the Grand Canyon Music Festival's Native American Composers Apprenticeship Project. They have premiered over 55 new works by 20th and 21st century composers at major festivals throughout the country, including Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival and Lincoln Center's Out of Doors. Founded in 1998 and based in New York City, Ethel comprises Ralph Farris (viola), Dorothy Lawson (cello), Kip Jones (violin) and Tema Watstein (violin).

For more information, visit www.guitarduo.com.

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