Lombardo: Dance Suite for Oboe and Strings (World Premiere)
October 26, 2008
Oscar Petty began his musical studies in Newark, New Jersey, at the Newark School of the Arts and the Newark Public Schools. He has since studied at the Mannes College of Music in New York City, and the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford in Connecticut. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree from Montclair State University, and his M.A. degree from Rutgers University, where he studied with oboist Marsha Heller.
Hailed by the press as a brilliant and captivating oboist, Oscar has served as principal oboist of the Rome Festival Orchestra, and has performed in France, Switzerland, Austria, and Canada. He was one of only four finalists to be awarded an Orchestral Performance Fellowship to the first Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, where Leonard Bernstein described Petty's playing as “a gorgeous oboe sound.”
Oscar has performed at the New Jersey Mozart Festival, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, and Camegie Hall, and was awarded a fellowship to the American Conservatory of Music at Fontainebleau, France. He was a performer in master classes with the Bach Aria Institute, American Oboist Conference at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Aspen Music Festival under Dr. Richard Killmer, The Muir and Essex String Quartets, and has played under such notable conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Christopher Hogwood, and Herbert Blomstedt. He also has served as Principal Oboe for the Staten Island Symphony, Virtuosi de Camera, the Bergen Philharmonic, the Westfield Symphony, the Orchestra of St. Peter by the Sea, Rutgers University Wind Ensemble and as Assistant Principal Oboe of the Cathedral Symphony at Newark's Sacred Heart Cathedral, under Thomas Michalak.
In November 1993, Oscar Petty performed two of Mario Lombardo's works with the Monmouth Symphony Orchestra: the Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra, and the world premiere of the Rhapsody for Oboe and Orchestra. Subsequent solo performances have included conferences of the International Double Reed Society at Arizona State University, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In 2007, Oscar was invited to perform as a soloist at the Assisi Music Festival in Assisi, Italy.
Mario Lombardo, born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, began the study of piano at the age of nine, and began composing at sixteen. He graduated with honors from Seton Hall University with a Masters Degree in English, where he also studied piano, harmony, theory, and composition with Professor Walter Cohrssen. He continued his musical education at Columbia University Graduate School. Upon completion of these studies, he accepted a position as assistant professor of English at Seton Hall, which he held for eight years. Mario Lombardo is a composer of more than 200 songs, five musicals, and many works for piano, chorus, concert band, and orchestra. His music has been performed by the orchestras of Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Cincinnati, New Jersey, and numerous other orchestras in the United States and Europe.
Mario Lombardo's new 20-minute work, Dance Suite for Oboe and Strings, is made of four movements, including three dance forms: gavotte, waltz, and ballad, and a lively scherzo as the final movement. Oscar Petty will be the oboe soloist in the world premiere of the Dance Suite, accompanied by the Monmouth Symphony Orchestra.
C. P. E. Bach: Flute Concerto in D
Minor
February 1, 2009
In addition to acting as Assistant Conductor of the Monmouth Symphony Orchestra, the versatile Lucian Rinando performs a vast range of music in orchestral, theatrical, and a great variety of chamber ensembles in New York City, across the United States and in festivals abroad. Lucian is principal flutist of Cantori New York, Garden State Philharmonic, Monmouth Symphony Orchestra, and Verismo Opera, as well as in the orchestras for the Monmouth Civic Chorus and Shrewsbury Chorale. He is a flute extra with The Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center and has performed with New York City Opera National Touring Company, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra and Sunset Boulevard on Broadway.
Lucian is head of the flute department at the Monmouth Conservatory of Music in Red Bank. For over 22 years he has shared with his flute students the French Conservatory training that he obtained from his mentor Bernard Z. Goldberg, principal flutist of the Pittsburgh Symphony. Under the astute pedagogy of Mr. Goldberg, he earned a Bachelor of Music Performance Degree Cum Laude from Duquesne University.
Pierné: Concertstϋck in G flat
Major
Debussy: Danse Sacré et Danse Profane
March 22, 2009
Elaine Christy is the winner of the American Harp Society National Harp Competition and has twice won the Ruth Lorraine Close Competition Award for advanced study. A Steinway Hall Soloist, Elaine was invited to perform at the World Harp Congress in Seattle/Tacoma, 1999, and in Geneva, Switzerland, 2002. She appeared with the Princeton University Chapel Choir in the 250th Anniversary Documentary film entitled Princeton: Images of a University, produced by Gerardo Puglia. Of her solo performance in York, England, Musician Magazine said, “American harpist Elaine Christy...enthralled the delegates.” Her Holiday Concerts in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Newark, New Jersey were received with standing ovations.
Elaine is a founding member of the Venus Trio, which was the winner of the 1992 Artists' International Competition in New York City. She has performed at Carnegie's Weill Hall, the Riverside, St. Bartholomew, and Trinity Church concert series, the premier performance of Oyeme con los Ojos by Allison Sniffin in Merkin Hall, and has appeared with the CBS Orchestra on the Late Show with David Letterman, all in New York City. She is a member of the Richardson Chamber Players, Princeton University.
A past member of the Board of Directors of the World Harp Congress and the American Harp Society, Elaine has also served as a national competition judge. She received the Burton E. Adams Research Prize for scholarly research on the chromatic harp and its technique, and the 1998 Distinguished Career Award from William Penn College. Her publications have appeared in the American Harp Journal and the World Harp Congress Review, and her music editions for solo harp have been published by Lyon and Healy.
Hedges: Psalm 104
May 17, 2009
The Concordia Youth
Chorale is a concert choir organization based in Monmouth County for treble
and changed voices ranging from second through twelfth grades. The Chorale, in its
eighth year of operation, is directed by husband and wife team John Balme
and Cynthia Springsteen.
The Chorale has three divisions that rehearse weekly from September through June: the Junior Chorale and the Youth Chorale for treble voices between grades 2 and 12, and the OperaLab, a training program for senior singers interested in exploring voice as a college major. The Junior Chorale is for second through sixth grades and the Youth Chorale is for seventh through twelfth grades.
Singers receive vocal training and music theory instruction. Repertory is chosen from the best voice music available. The repertory ranges from Medieval and Renaissance classics to contemporary masterworks, ethnic music, and the classics of Broadway.
Following their motto of “singing great music in great places,” the Chorale specializes in providing unusual performance opportunities for its singers. The Chorale has performed twice in Carnegie Hall, including a performance of John Rutter’s Mass of the Children with the composer conducting, three times at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, and has toured England and Italy, with performances in Canterbury Cathedral, St. Mark’s in Venice and St. Peter’s in Rome.
In the summer of 2007, the Chorale toured Bavaria, Austria and the Czech Republic, and will return to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Carnegie Hall in the coming season. The Chorale will sing in Colonial Williamsburg during the summer of 2008 and will tour Ireland in the summer of 2009, after a winter season of major concerts.