OGCMA Presents Handel's Messiah

Each summer, the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association (OGCMA) presents its annual Sacred Masterwork concert and this year is no exception. Jason C. Tramm will conduct selections from Handel's Messiah performed by The Great Auditorium Choir and guest singers Monica Ziglar, Emily Geller, Ronald Naldi and Justin Beck, accompanied by MidAtlantic Symphony Orchestra and organist Gordon Turk. The Great Auditorium is located at 54 Pilgrim Pathway in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, and is handicapped-accessible. For more information, visit www.oceangrove.org or call 732-775-0035.

"Performing Handel's Messiah in the historic Great Auditorium has a long-standing history," said Maestro Tramm. "In 1908, Walter Damrosch, founder of the Julliard School led a performance of the great masterwork with over 10,000 in attendance. As Ocean Grove celebrates the 150th anniversary of its founding, we return to this most famous of classical works."

Monica Rose Ziglar (soprano) studied music with Soprano/Professor Elizabeth Mosher at the University of Arizona and was known throughout the region for her opera and festival performances. In 1993 she went east to study at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, PA. In 2009, she made her Carnegie Hall debut singing Mendelssohn's Elijah. Indeed, from recitals to the opera stage, Mrs. Ziglar is known for "possessing a gift of transcending angelic high notes" (Tucson Citizen Press). In addition to performing lead roles in major opera productions worldwide, she has been the soprano soloist and choral section leader for the past 20 years with OGCMA. She is also in her 25rd season as soloist with St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Wayne, PA.

Emily Geller (mezzo) has been lauded for her "amazing mezzo-soprano voice with a lower extension that has to be heard to be believed" and praised for her "effortless comic delivery." She is a versatile artist employing her rich and unique lower register and masterful acting skills in new works, opera and operetta, musical theater, and oratorio. This season, Ms. Geller received rave reviews for creating the image-obsessed Hollywood Mother with a love for plastic surgery in the world premiere of Chunky in Heat with Experiments in Opera as a part of New York Opera Fest. She was also featured as Madame Thénardier in LES MISERABLES with Westchester Symphonic Winds; as Manette in Sweethearts with Victor Herbert Renaissance Project LIVE! Ms. Geller debuts the role of Desiree (A Little Night Music) at Tri Cities Opera, tours La traviata as Flora/Annina with Teatro Lirico d'Europa in 2020, and reprises her Suzuki (Madama Butterfly) at Opera New Hampshire.

Ronald Naldi (lyric tenor) is an internationally acclaimed lyric tenor who has performed with The Metropolitan Opera, Verona Opera, Opera da Camera of Rome, L'Opera Francais, New Jersey State Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Salzburger Landestheater. With St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble he has sung over 200 performances of Haydn, Mozart, Offenbach, Rieti, Bakst, Fioravanti, and Rossini. He has performed with over 25 symphony orchestras and has an extensive repertoire of more than 30 oratorios. Mr. Naldi has worked under the baton of the world's most famous maestri and has been a colleague with such artists as Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. For over four decades he has been the tenor soloist and Artist-in-Residence at OGCMA.

Justin Beck (bass-baritone) has traveled a varied career path, both as an opera and concert soloist, as well as a choral singer and voice-over artist. He has had multiple performances at Carnegie Hall under the baton of notable conductors, including Robert Spano, with the Carnegie Hall Festival Chorus; Leon Botstein with the Bard Music Festival Chorus; and Steven Reineke with the New York Pops. He has also performed as a soloist with the Gregg Smith Singers. Beck performed for three seasons with the Opera Company of Middlebury Vermont, singing in productions of Massenet's Thaïs, Puccini's La Rondine and Bizet's The Pearl Fishers.

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