(MAURICETOWN, NJ) -- Clarinetist Christopher Di Santo and cellist Elizabeth Mendoza—both principal players with the Bay Atlantic Symphony—and pianist Norma Meyer will be the featured performer at the next Maurice River Music salon concert on Sunday, April 10, at 2:30pm, at a residence in the Mauricetown, NJ area.
The program will include Ludwig van Beethoven’s Trio for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano in B-flat major, Op. 11; Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Six Studies in English Folk Song, and Johannes Brahms’ Trio for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano, Op. 114.
Christopher Di Santo, principal clarinetist with the Bay-Atlantic Symphony, has been a participant in music festivals in both North America and Europe, and has performed throughout venues in the United States, Canada, Austria, Germany, and Italy. Recording credits include Lee Pui Ming’s She Comes to Shore: concerto for improvised piano and orchestra in 2010 with the Bay-Atlantic Symphony on the Naxos/Innova label as well as Verdi’s Requiem and Mozart’s Requiem K. 626 with the Vox Ama Deus Ensemble on the Lyrichord label. His clarinet playing and commentary were highlighted on NPR’s Morning Edition on October 9, 2004, later broadcast in translation over Voice of America, throughout Europe and the former Soviet Republics.
He joined the faculty of The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in January 2012 as Associate Professor of Music and Coordinator of Classical Music Studies in the college’s School of Arts and Humanities. Former positions include appointments on the music faculties of Moravian College, as Artist-Lecturer, and as adjunct faculty in the music departments of Swarthmore College and West Chester, Lehigh and Rowan Universities. In December 2006, he accepted an invitation to Shanghai, China where he performed as soloist with the Shanghai Conservatory Symphony Orchestra and conducted a series of master classes with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music’s highly talented and advanced clarinet students. He has also performed Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto to audience acclaim last year with the Bay-Atlantic Symphony at Atlantic City’s Dante Hall Theater and Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa.
Elizabeth Mendoza, principal cellist of the Bay Atlantic Symphony received her Bachelor of Music degree from Peabody Conservatory and her Master of Music degree from the Cincinnati Conservatory. She currently plays with Philadelphia’s Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, the Chanticleer String Quartet, and the Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra. She is also a member of the Satori chamber music ensemble of Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley and The Ardmore Trio. Previously she performed as principal cellist with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, and with the Ann Arbor and Flint Symphony Orchestras and the Michigan Opera Theater, where she served as director of orchestral and instrumental chamber music at Rudolph Steiner High School in Ann Arbor.
Pianist-conductor Norma Meyer, making her eighth Maurice River Music salon concert appearance, is a founding member of Piano4, a four-piano quartet, and has toured with them throughout the United States since 2001. Tracks from their CD, Piano4 Christmas, have been aired nationally. This CD includes arrangements featuring Bunny Sigler, an internationally-known, Grammy-Award- winning Philadelphia vocalist. In this venture, she has worked as co-arranger/composer as well, along with performances with son Ranaan Meyer—composer and bassist of Time for Three.
She has performed at the Honeywell Center in Wabash and the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia for the past four years as the resident pianist for the WaBASS programs directed by Ranaan Meyer. A respected collaborative pianist, her current work also includes performances with her son Ranaan, cellist Nancy Stokking, soprano Sarah Joanne Davis and cellist Jonathan Beiler of The Philadelphia Orchestra in sonata and ensemble performances. Venues of recent seasons have included Verizon and Carnegie Halls.
Additional performances include recitals with Ranaan Meyer, featuring his 5 pieces for Double Bass and Piano, Piano4 performances in West Virginia, Arizona and Michigan, La Musique des Amis (with violist Judy Barnett, clarinetist Paula Rothman, and featuring soprano Charlotte Barnett, soprano), as soloist with the Ambler Symphony, and in Ludwig van Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with Jonathan and Lynne Beiler with the Main Line Symphony.
A former orchestra director in the Washington Township Public Schools, Meyer continues her lifelong commitment to music education in outreach programs, as an accompanist and as a collaborative coach.
Maurice River Music will present Mendoza with guitarist Lynn Pompa and vocalist Patrice Pompa at its final salon concert of the season on Sunday, May 1, at 2:30 p.m.
Seating is very limited, so reservations are required. Donations to assist in covering expenses will be accepted. To reserve seats, receive directions, or receive more information on the series, please call Maurice River Music at (856) 506-0580, e-mail them at [email protected], or visit their website at www.mauricerivermusic.com.
