(OCEAN GROVE, NJ) -- Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association’s (OGCMA) “Summer Stars Classical Series”  takes place every Thursday night from July 4th through August 1st. The Jersey Shore's only summer classical music series features renowned American and international artists in The Great Auditorium, starting at 7:30pm.  The 2019 Series features NJ Wind Symphony, Trio Confero, Solisti Ensemble, Vieness Piano Duo, and Grand Orchestra Finale.  

The Great Auditorium is located at Pilgrim and Ocean Pathways in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. All facilities are handicapped accessible.  Tickets are $17, $10 for students, and $80 for all five concerts. Order by phone at 800-590-4064 or online at  www.oceangrove.org. 

New Jersey Wind Symphony (July 4) – was founded as the Ridgewood Concert Band in 1983 with the idea of providing high quality performing venues for the many accomplished wind and percussion players living in the New York Metropolitan area. In honor of Independence Day, NJWS’s program will include popular marches, patriotic anthems and classical works by composers such as Francis Scott Key, John Philip Sousa, Giancarlo Menotti, Tchaikovsky, and Franz Von Suppa.  Resident organist Gordon Turk will join NJWS for the “Polka and Fugue” by Jaromir Weinberger. 

The musicians of the NJWS are volunteers with day jobs ranging from lawyer to doctor to band director. NJWS programs vary from light classics and famous marches, to cutting edge compositions by today’s brilliant composers. The NJWS is regularly joined by world class soloists from the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, radio and television personalities, and other nationally renowned performers and conductors.  The NJWS has released two CDs, performed on the East Coast and overseas, and was the recipient of the John Philip Sousa Foundation’s coveted Sudler Silver Scroll Award in 1996. The NJWS is actively engaged with area schools, offering opportunities for talented school musicians to perform with the band through their Prelude Band Performance opportunities, Youth Soloist Competition, and Side By Side program.  

Trio Confero (July 11) – was founded in 2018 by clarinetist Maksim Shtrykov to bring the superb-yet-seldom-performed chamber music repertoire for clarinet to wider audiences. The quest began in 2012 when, together with his partner, Japanese pianist Misuzu Tanaka, they formed the Shtrykov-Tanaka Duoand began touring the country garnering critical acclaim. Today, the duo is probably the most popular touring clarinet-piano ensemble in the US. For their Great Auditorium debut they will be joined by their newest partner, cellist Anitz Balázs. Together they form Trio Confero, a Latin verb meaning to bring together, unite and contribute. All three musicians are prizewinners of many international competitions and graduates of the world’s most prestigious music academies – The Juilliard School and Yale School of Music. And now their mission is presenting the unjustly rarely performed repertoire for clarinet, cello and piano - one of the most beautiful combinations in chamber music. Their program will include includes works by Adolph Blanc, Brahms, Nina Rota, and Georges Bizet.  

Solisti Ensemble (July 18) – founded in 2008, this Ocean Grove favorite is a conductor-less 11-piece string ensemble that seeks to revive the traditions of small-ensemble chamber music while also pursuing the rich, vibrant sounds of contemporary music, pop, tango, jazz, and beyond. The unique size of the ensemble and each member's individual virtuosity and musicality create an extraordinary sound that is quite unlike the conventional classical music culture known today. Since its inception, the ensemble has performed in halls across the metropolitan area, including its debuts at both Zankel Hall and Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, and many other notable stages.  Program to be announced.  

Vieness Piano Duo (July 25) – For years, this remarkable duo has enthralled audiences with their electric and captivating performances of a wide repertoire. Vijay Venkatesh and Eva Schaumkell are known for their intuition of musical conversation coupled with a commanding stage presence that has made them regularly in demand throughout the world. A tour of California brought the duo to the stage of the famous Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Beverly Hills Steinway Gallery, Richard Nixon Library, and the Encinitas Library's Wednesday's at Noon series. Vieness will start the 2019/2020 season with Kultur unter'm Dach in Frankfurt, Germany, followed by US performances in Chicago, New York, New Jersey, California, Indiana, Colorado, Oregon, as well as tours of Canada and China.  Their OGCMA program includes works by Brahms, Bolcom, Barber, and Saint-Saens.  

Grand Orchestra Finale (August 1) – will feature OGCMA’s resident organist Gordon Turk with Director of Music Ministries Jason Tramm leading the Mid-Atlantic Opera Orchestra. They will be joined by guest soloist tenor Ron Naldi, who has performed with the Metropolitan Opera. The evening’s program will open with the premiere performance of a new composition, “Festival Prelude” by NYC composer David Winkler, followed by the Concerto for Organ, Harp and Strings by Howard Hanson, a 20^th Century American composer. Naldi will sing the Flower Song from the opera Carmen and two songs by French composer [name], accompanied by the MidAtlantic Symphony. The program will close with Symphony No. 3 by Camille Saint-Saens (the “Organ Symphony”), certainly the most popular and favorite composition for organ and orchestra.  

Gordon Turk is OGCMA’s Organist-In-Residence and Artistic Director of the “Summer Stars” series. He is a devoted champion of the pipe organ; a consultant for the building of new pipe organs and the restoration of historic ones; and is a frequent adjudicator of organ competitions. He is also the organist and choirmaster at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Wayne, Pennsylvania. Turk has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, Russia, Ukraine, and Japan in concert halls, cathedrals, and universities in both solo performances and with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras. 

Dr. Jason C. Tramm is OGCMA’s Director of Music Ministries and is recognized as one of today’s most dynamic young conductors. He has been hailed by critics and audiences alike for his work in the operatic, symphonic, and sacred music realms. He also serves as Director of Choral Activities at Seton Hall University and is the Artistic Director of the Mid-Atlantic Opera Company, with which he made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2015. 

Ronald Naldi is an internationally acclaimed lyric tenor who has performed with The Metropolitan Opera, Verona Opera, and 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. He studied with Charles Kullman, Margaret Harshaw, Licino Francardi, Luigi Ricci, Carol Bayard and William Riley; has a BM and MM in voice from Indiana University; and was a Fulbright scholar in Rome. He is the tenor soloist and artist-in-residence at OGCMA, where he is completing his 45th consecutive season.