Abendmusik, the concert series sponsored by Music At Morristown United Methodist Church, continues its 2011-2012 themed season (“Celebrating American Music”) with a concert on Saturday, Feb. 11, at 7:30 pm, featuring Follow the Drinking Gourd (Diane Goldsmith, pianist, with Singers Ivan Woods and Shannon Hunt) in a program entitled The Power of African American Music to Inspire.
There is a suggested donation of $15 for adults and $12 for senior citizens. Advance tickets are available ($12 adults/$10 seniors) by telephoning the church office 973-538-2132. Students with ID are admitted free.
The concert will be presented at the church, on 50 Park Place (on the Green). Our facilities are handicapped accessible. There will be a reception following the concert. Please visit our website for more information: www.morristownumc.com.
Time-honored African American musical forms and traditions continue to stir the creativity of composers and arrangers. In this intriguing program for voices and piano, Follow the Drinking Gourd will sample the abundance that has grown from these amazing roots. The group will perform spirituals in all kinds of inventive arrangements, from jazz and tango settings to adaptation as anthems of the civil rights marches of the 1960s. Then, the group will show how the blues inspired composers like Harold Arlen (The Wizard of Oz) and George Gershwin.
They’ll follow up with recent takes on ragtime and conjure the virtuosity of bebop jazz. Along the way, there will be plenty of crowd pleasers, such as Route 66, Unforgettable, and A Woman Is a Sometime Thing. This original program is performed with commentary to enhance audience enjoyment.
Follow the Drinking Gourd takes its name from the coded song used to guide runaway slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad. The group presents original programs on Black History, using music and storytelling. In its decade in front of audiences, it’s garnered rave reviews from such presenting groups as Princeton’s Paul Robeson Center for the Arts, the African American Museum in Philadelphia, and the Camden County Cultural & Heritage Commission.
Ms. Goldsmith holds a master’s degree from Manhattan School of Music and did additional piano study with Gary Graffman, former director of the Curtis Institute of Music. A winner of the Mason & Hamlin competition, she’s appeared as soloist in Carnegie Recital Hall and in Lincoln Center, and recently presented recitals at the Zimmerli Art Museum in New Brunswick, the Bloomfield Library Theatre, and for the Steinway Society of South Jersey. She’s a staff accompanist at Westminster Choir College.
Mr. Woods was featured at the dedication of the Robeson Center for the Arts performing songs associated with Paul Robeson – to high acclaim from the late freedom fighter’s son. A former member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus under Robert Shaw and the Philadelphia Singers Chorale under David Hayes, Ivan Woods has appeared on a number of Grammy-winning recordings on the Telarc label.
Ms. Hunt earned a master’s degree from Westminster Choir College and performed in Italy with the Spoleto Vocal Arts Symposium. She’s done roles with Brooklyn Repertory Opera, Birmingham Opera Works, and this season made her debut with Opera Oggi in Manhattan. Her singing has been recognized by the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the Mobile Opera Guild.
Funding has been made possible in part by funds from the Arts Council of the Morris Area through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
For further information: 973-538-2132 or www.morristownumc.com
