(MOORESTOWN, NJ) -- Perkins Center for the Arts in Moorestown will build on its 30-year-old house concert tradition with a new series of acoustic performances featuring folk, roots music, and jazz with an international flavor. Perkins House Concerts kick off on September 15 and will run on the second Friday of each month through April 2024. Selected events will feature a pre-concert Community Discussion, an opportunity to meet the musicians and learn more about their music.
From Hawaiian jazz to bluegrass to folk music from all over Latin America, Perkins House Concerts will bring celebrated folk, jazz, and world music artists from near and far to South Jersey. Formerly known as DeCafe, this series takes place in Perkins’ historic Tudor mansion in Moorestown.
“Perkins has had a long history of turning its intimate ‘living room’ space into a vibrant concert venue, bringing great music of all kinds to Moorestown,” said Perkins’ Folklife Center Director Marion Jacobson. “This year we’re excited to offer a unique lineup of fabulous artists from around the world and around the corner—and the chance to discover emerging artists and types of music you might never have heard.”
Tickets are expected to go quickly for these events and space is limited. A subscription to all seven concerts is $175 ($25 per concert] and single tickets are $30. Admission includes coffee, tea and sweets.
Perkins House Concerts are a co-sponsored project of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Perkins Folklife Center.
EVENT LINEUP
Friday, September 15, 2023 - Ernesto’s Club is the piano and percussion duo of Rob Curto and Gregg Mervine, which explores the choro and samba traditions of Brazil. Celebrating their New Jersey debut, Ernesto’s Club is joined by two of South Jersey’s most accomplished Brazilian artists: Fabio Oliveira, head of Percussion Studies at Rowan University, and Fernanda da Silveira on cavaquinho, the ukulele’s Brazilian cousin.
Guests are invited for a pre-show conversation about Brazilian music.
[Note: this concert takes place on the third Friday due to the Labor Day holiday]
Friday, October 13, 2023 - Alex Hiele Paris Jazz Combo takes listeners back in time to soak up the sounds of a Paris jazz club in the 1950s through arrangements of popular music from Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Michel Legrand and various French composers.
Friday, November 10, 2023 - The Jersey Corn Pickers are a Philadelphia-area band that plays original and traditional high-energy bluegrass and Americana music. Their style is infused with old time, folk, rock, blues, traditional country and all manner of American roots music.
Friday, January 12, 2024 - Slowey and the Boats is a Philadelphia-based band that plays Hawaiian-inspired steel guitar and jazz.
Friday, February 9, 2024 - Magdaliz and Her Latin Ensemble Crisol. Crisol (the Spanish word for melting pot) is a Philadelphia-area ensemble dedicated to the interpretation of a variety of folk and traditional music genres from all over Latin America and the Caribbean (including Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, and other wonderful places).
Friday, April 12, 2024 - Armenian Social Club. Karinne' Andonian (vocals and guitar), Roger Mgrdichian (oud), and Haig Hovnanian (dumbeg) draw from folk traditions, ballads and dance rhythms of a culturally diverse region stretching from Anatolia to the Caucasus to New Jersey’s vibrant Armenian diaspora. This enchanting experience celebrates the heart and soul of Armenia’s rich musical heritage.
Perkins Center for the Arts is a regional multi-disciplinary arts education center with locations in Moorestown and Collingswood, New Jersey. With a mission to enrich lives, inspire life-long learning, and cultivate intercultural experiences, Perkins Center for the Arts offers a music conservatory, visual and performing arts classes, exhibitions, concerts, artist-led school residency programs, summer camp, Folklife Center, and community enrichment projects.
