By Kevin Coughlin
Summer is here, and Morris Arts is giving you three ways to get outside and celebrate over the next few days:
- Music Beyond Borders, with the exotic sounds of The Secret Trio;
- Meet Me in Morristown, presenting Romeo and Juliet from the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey; and…
- The Giralda Music and Arts Festival, featuring the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.
“Everybody’s all hands on deck,” Kadie Dempsey of Morris Arts said on Monday. “We’re making our lists and checking them twice.”
Tom Werder, executive director of the arts nonprofit, said he checked his calendar and immediately demanded: “Who planned this schedule? It’s crazy! Then I remembered… that was me!”
But he is pretty confident that the week ahead offers something for everybody. “It’s a great example of how the arts are popping up all over town,” Werder said.
The action starts when Music Beyond Borders kicks off its sixth season of free lunchtime concerts on Tuesday, June 23, 2015, with The Secret Trio, featuring Turkish, Middle Eastern, Macedonian and Armenian music.
Co-hosted by the Mayo Performing Arts Center, the hour-long starts at 12:30 pm on the historic Morristown Green.
Ara Dinkjian (oud), Ismail Lumanovski (clarinet) and Tamer Pinarbasi (kanun) have performed everywhere from Asia and North Africa to Lincoln Center. Morris Arts says this Secret Trio’s original and traditional melodies ….
fuse the microtonal modes and improvisation of the Middle East, dance beats of the Balkans, and elements of jazz, rock, classical and world music. The delicate harmonies, driving rhythms, rapid fire synchrony and intricate counterpoint developed by these musicians – with separate roots in Turkish, Armenian and Macedonian Roma music – are extraordinary. By inventing new ways to play percussively on fundamentally melodic instruments, the ensemble never sounds like only three instruments.
Next up, on Thursday, June 25, is Meet Me in Morristown, the last-Thursday-of-the-month sidewalk fair that extends from Elm Street up South Street to the Green.
A joint production with the Morristown Partnership, it includes sidewalk sales from 11 am to 8 pm, and free arts and entertainment between 5 pm to 9 pm.
More than 30 artists are scheduled to appear. Topping the bill: The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s free performance of Romeo and Juliet, re-creating the hot streets of Verona (Italy) on the Vail Mansion sidewalk on South Street.
This abridged one-hour production starts at 7 pm — giving patrons of the nearby Mayo Performing Arts Center time to see it prior to catching the evening’s Stanley Jordan/Kevin Eubanks concert at MPAC.
Also scheduled to appear at Meet Me In Morristown this week:
- The Atlanta Café Band – An original band with American roots and 35 years of experience, playing on the Green.
- Lyric Rising – A New Jersey acoustic duo combining rock, blues and folk in a “cool, edgy and unique acoustic” blend.
- The Gatsby Circle – Handmade glass doorknobs, hand painted tiles, hand rolled beads.
- Rooey Knots – Two local women turn men’s neckties into sustainable fashion accessories.
- Food 4 The Soul Train – A Nutley-based outfit brings its vintage caravan, nicknamed Maude, for “Tandem Poetry” intended to nourish body and soul.
- Be Well Morristown‘s Karma Yoga Tour – Donation-based yoga, with proceeds benefiting Morris Arts.
The Morristown & Township Library, meanwhile, continues its Just Out of the Box…Office series with free screenings of American Sniper (R), at 2 pm and 7 pm, at One Miller Road. Light refreshments will be served.
But wait, there’s more:
On Sunday, June 28, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra caps an afternoon of picnics, art exhibits and raffles with a performance of fan favorites on the rolling lawn of Giralda Farms in Madison, for The 2015 Giralda Music and Arts Festival.
The orchestra, conducted by Gemma New, will play selections from West Side Story and The Nutcracker and tributes to Frank Sinatra and Duke Ellington, along with short pieces by Mozart, Brahms, Dvorak, Ravel and Mendelssohn.
A short performance also is planned by the Lakeland Youth Symphony.
Activities for kids include creation of a communal poem with writer Ellen Papazian. Also coming: Whirled Revolution hula hooping; the Marafanyi Drum, Dance and Song troupe; and the Montclair Art Museum Art Truck with artist Dan Fenelon.
Twenty artists will be selling their works, and The Oink and Moo BBQ food truck and an old-fashioned Good Humor ice cream truck will be on hand to keep everyone well fueled.
And as in prior years, great prizes will be awarded to the most creative picnic decorations. So whip up something fancy and show your neighbors what you can do.
Gates open at 4 pm, and the symphony starts at 6 pm.
Advance tickets are $15 for anyone over age 12, $4 for children; under age 4, free. Groups of 10 or more can buy tickets for $12 apiece. At the event, tickets are $20 for adults and $5 for children.
Tickets are available online and at Morris Arts (14 Maple Ave., Morristown), Kings Food Markets in Morristown and Chatham and Gary’s Wine & Marketplace in Madison.
Proceeds from this festival will help support programs of Morris Arts.
Giralda Farms is on Route 124. In case of rain, the event will move to the Dolan Performance Hall in the Annunciation Center of the College of St. Elizabeth, 2 Convent Road, Morris Township. Doors there open at 5 pm; no picnics. Check back here for weather updates on Sunday, or call 973-285-5115 x 18.
MORE ABOUT MUSIC BEYOND BORDERS
MORE ABOUT MEET ME IN MORRISTOWN
MORE ABOUT THE GIRALDA MUSIC AND ARTS FESTIVAL
