Jason Tramm Leads 4th Annual Ocean Grove Choir Festival In Celebration Of Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association

The 64th Ocean Grove Choir Festival, the largest sacred music choral event on the East Coast, will take place Sunday July 8th, 7PM at the historic 6,500 seat Great Auditorium under the baton of noted American conductor Jason Tramm. Tramm, who has been at the helm of this spectacular annual festival for over a decade, serves as conductor and steward of Ocean Grove's signature sacred music festival. Historically the Ocean Grove Choir Festival has featured many of the finest choral and oratorio societies from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. - and as far ranging as Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Illinois, Louisiana - together with renowned soloists, musicians, composers and guest conductors. Over the past century featured musicians have included the legendary John Ness Beck, Craig Courtney, Dr. Laurence Dilsner, Jester Hairston, Ross Hastings, Dr. Carl Mueller, Carl J. Nygard, Jr. and Clayton White.

"This year the 64th Choir Festival "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling," celebrates the 150th Anniversary of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, with a nod to composer, churchman and humanist Charles Wesley, an English leader of the Methodist movement in the 1700's", said Maestro Tramm. "Among Wesley's 6,000 hymns "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" has always proved an inspiration to me, and is without doubt, his most widely recognized work."

On July 8th Tramm and an ensemble of guest conductors will perform with the 1000-member Choir Festival Chorus and Great Auditorium Brass Ensemble accompanied by nationally renowned organist Gordon Turk at the magnificent, 1200 pipe Hope-Jones organ. "In honor of the 150th Anniversary of the OGCMA we are joined by an extraordinary roster of guest conductors. Dr. Cindy Bell, Dr. Joseph M. Martin, C. Everett McCorvey, Mark Miller, Andrew Monath and David Clyde Morse will lead ten anthems by classical and contemporary composers said Tramm.

The anthems selected in the 2018 Ocean Grove Choir Festival include Love Never Fails" by JAC Redford; "And Can It Be" arranged by Joseph M. Martin; "O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus" by Joseph Martin; "O God Our Help in Ages Past" arranged by Mark Miller; "Ho, Everyone That Thirsteth" by Will McDarlane; "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee" by Simeone; "In Dat Great Getting' Up Morning" arranged by Hairston; "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" arranged by. G. Martin; "Greater Love Hath No Man" by John Ireland and "Chords of Love" by Gwyneth Walker;

The Ocean Grove Choir Festival originally evolved from a workshop for church musicians held in Ocean Grove in 1955. Invitations were extended to choral societies in nearby communities and in the Philadelphia area. Dr. Walter Eddows organized the first choir of three hundred singers who participated in the first festival that included a hymn sermon, seven anthems, five conductors and nine choirs. About 200 singers augmented the Ocean Grove Auditorium Choir and the result proved to be so compelling for audience and musicians alike that an annual event was established.

Jason C. Tramm's work in the symphonic, operatic, and choral repertoire has received acclaim nationally and internationally. Beginning his 12th season as Director of Music, in Residence, of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association in the summer months, Tramm leads the choral, orchestral, and oratorio performances in the historic 6,500-seat Great Auditorium. He has appeared on two National Public Radio broadcasts with organ virtuoso Gordon Turk and symphonic orchestra.

Maestro Tramm also serves as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor with the MidAtlantic Opera with whom he made his Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium) debut in 2015. The program, entitled "A Prayer for Peace," featured works of Bernstein, Vaughan Williams, and Saygun. The second concert of this critically acclaimed series took place on October 27, 2017 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, featuring works of Vasks, Schoenberg and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with Metropolitan Opera baritone, Mark Delavan.

As Music Director of Teatro Lirico D'Europa, a touring professional opera company, Tramm's upcoming tour repertoire for the 2018-19 season includes fully staged performances of Puccini's Tosca and Rossini's Barbiere di Siviglia to take place in Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Boston, Baltimore and South Carolina. Tramm is also the Principal Guest Conductor of both the Palmetto Opera (Columbia, SC) and Opera New Hampshire (Manchester, NH). He served as Artistic Director of the New Jersey State Opera from 2008 to 2012, where he collaborated with some of the finest voices in opera, including Samuel Ramey, Vladimir Galouzine, Angela Brown, Gregg Baker, and Paul Plishka. His 2009 HDTV broadcast with PBS affiliate NJN of "Verdi Requiem: Live from Ocean Grove," garnered an Emmy Award nomination. Tramm serves as Music Director of two excellent community choral societies, the Morris Choral Society (Morristown, NJ), with whom he will begin his third season and the Taghkanic Chorale (Yorktown Heights, NY) where he will begin his first season Fall 2018.

A member of the faculty at Seton Hall University (Assistant Professor and Director of Choral Activities, College of Communication and the Arts) Tramm leads the University Choir, Chamber Choir and Orchestra. A frequent guest conductor, he has led operatic and symphonic performances in Italy, Romania, Albania, and in Hungary, where he recorded an album of rarely heard French operatic arias with the Szeged Symphony. In 2017 he performed with Narnia Festival (Narni, Italy). Guest conducting engagements for the 2018 season include the Adelphi Chamber Orchestra (Oradell, NJ), featuring Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 in d minor (Drew Peterson, Piano); and Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, Bizet's Carmen with the Axelrod Performing Arts Center (Deal, NJ); Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte with the Light Opera of New Jersey (Basking Ridge, NJ); Gounod's Faust with the Vocal Productions NYC (Manhattan), the Long Island Concert Orchestra (Glen Cove, NY), and Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Axelrod Ballet Ensemble (Deal NJ). Most recently Maestro Tramm has appeared as guest conductor of Long Island Concert Orchestra for the auspicious launch of the Morgan Park Summer Music Festival's 59th Season,

64th Annual Ocean Grove Choir Festival

"Love Divine, All Loves Excelling"

Sunday July 8 at 7:00pm

The Great Auditorium Pilgrim and Ocean Pathways, Ocean Grove, NJ.

All facilities are handicapped-accessible.

Admission free and open to the public. A free will offering will be accepted.

 

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