Christine Kwak, Gordon Turk and the MidAtlantic Opera Orchestra Join LEGENDS AND ROMANCE

Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association (OGCMA) Presents "ORCHESTRA LEGENDS AND ROMANCE"

Thursday, August 3 - 7:30 pm - The Great Auditorium

Including, Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major, Horatio Parker's Concerto for Organ and Orchestra

Léon Boëllmann's Fantaisie Dialoguée, Op. 35 for Organ and Orchestra (Opening Movement).

Performed by Violinist Christine Kwak, and Organist GORDON TURK with the MIDATLANTIC OPERA ORCHESTRA, conducted by Jason Tramm

Concluding the "Summer Stars" Classical Concert Series, OGCMA will present "ORCHESTRA LEGENDS AND ROMANCE," on Thursday, August 3rd (7:30 pm) in the Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove. Tickets are $16.00 (General Admission) and can be ordered online at www.oceangrove.org or by phone at 800-590-4064. The Great Auditorium is located at 54 Pilgrim Pathway in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. All facilities are handicapped accessible.

The program will include: Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major, featuring violinist Christine Kwak, who will play an historic 1751 Guadagnini violin - the violin that was played by Adolph Brodsky at the world premiere of the concerto on December 4, 1881; and Horatio Parker's rarely-performed Concerto for Organ and Orchestra, featuring resident organist Gordon Turk on the Great Auditorium Pipe Organ. Kicking off the program is the roof-raising opening movement of Fantaisie Dialoguée by Léon Boëllmann, which uses the woodwinds of the orchestra in a very melodic and colorful way, and the brass, timpani and organ dialogue in dramatic sonorities.

Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35, is the best thing to come out of his disastrous three-month 1877 marriage to Antonina Milyukova. In despair following this ill-advised undertaking, the composer waded into the freezing Moscow River, hoping to contract a fatal chill. Subsequently his brother Modest took him on an extended trip to continental Europe, where he tentatively returned to composition in the early months of 1878. An encounter in Clarens, Switzerland with his friend and student, the violinist Josef Kotek, inspired him to undertake composition of the violin concerto, sketches of which were completed in less than two weeks, the orchestration two weeks later, in April 1878. Though the work is dedicated to Leopold Auer, the great violinist refused to play its scheduled premiere, declaring the work unplayable and the concerto sat neglected until another violinist, Adolph Brodsky, premiered the piece in Vienna in December 1881. Since then, the three-movement work has become part of the standard repertoire for violin and orchestra. The first movement combines tuneful plangency with vigorous athleticism. The second movement finds Tchaikovsky in his most melodious mode, which leads directly into a finale which makes use of a recurring theme in a rousing folk-like style.

Horatio Parker (1863-1919) was an important figure American musical life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. If he is remembered at all today, it is as Charles Ives's first composition teacher at Yale University, and as the composer of the oratorio Hora novissima. He was an accomplished organist himself, who served at Trinity Church in New York, and a composer of a wide range of large and small-scale works, including the opera Mona, which premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 1912. His rarely-performed Concerto for Organ and Orchestra, written in 1902, is in the romantic musical traditions of composers of Richard Wagner and Gustav Mahler. The piece feature powerful sonorities by the extensive brass, soaring melodies by the violins and horns, driving rhythms by the timpani, and a dramatic interplay between the organ and the orchestra.

Violinist Christine Kwak has been described as "an extraordinary talent who will become one of the best of her generation," by the late Dorothy DeLay, renowned for producing many of the world's finest soloists. By the time Christine was 11 years old, she had already made her debut at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Avery Fisher Hall, where her debut with the American Symphony was received with much critical acclaim; "at the tender age of nine, Christine is a complete violinist who would make any violinist envious..." Today, she continues to perform as a soloist with renowned orchestras and in solo recitals across the country, in addition to teaching in New York City. Christine graduated from Columbia University in May 2007 with an undergraduate diploma in philosophy. She went on to complete her graduate studies at the Juilliard School, where she studied with the late Stephen Clapp and graduated with a Master of Music degree in May 2009. She has also been a pupil of the late Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School. Christine also taught at Cornell University as a Visiting Lecturer in the music department from 2011 to 2014.

Dr. Jason C. Tramm, now in his 11th season as Director of Music Ministries at the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, is recognized as one of the most dynamic young conductors on the podium today. He has been hailed by critics and audiences alike for his work in the operatic, symphonic, and sacred music realms. His 2008 NJN broadcast of Verdi's Requiem, shot in The Great Auditorium, was nominated for an Emmy Award. He has also appeared on two National Public Radio broadcasts with organ virtuoso Gordon Turk and a large orchestra. Dr. Tramm also serves as the Director of Choral Activities at Seton Hall University, where he director two choirs, conducts the University Orchestra, and teaches classes in conducting and music education. Frequently engaged as a guest conductor, Dr. Tramm has led operatic and symphonic performances in six countries and throughout the US. He also serves as Artistic Director of the MidAtlantic Opera Company, with which he made his Carnegie Hall debut last October. But sacred music has always held a special place in his heart, beginning as a boy soprano soloist at age six at St. Thomas Lutheran Church in West Nyack, NY.

Dr. Gordon Turk has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, Russia, Ukraine, and Japan in concert halls, cathedrals, and universities in both solo performances and with orchestras. His collaborations with other musicians in chamber music concerts include principal instrumentalists from the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and other distinguished musicians. He has won awards for performances of J.S. Bach and in the national AGO Improvisation Competition. Dr. Turk is Organist-in Residence at the historic Ocean Grove Great Auditorium and Artistic Director of Ocean Grove's Chamber Music Series, "Summer Stars." Turk is a devoted champion of the pipe organ; a consultant for the building of new pipe organs and the restoration of historic ones; and is a frequent adjudicator of organ competitions. He is currently the Organist and Choirmaster at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Wayne, PA and Professor of Organ at Rowan University in NJ.

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