Bay-Atlantic Symphony to Perform at Cape May Music Festival

CAPE MAY – A program of works that are contrasting yet all sensuous and engaging will make up the Bay-Atlantic Symphony’s concert at the 24th Cape May Music Festival, on June 6, at 8 p.m.
The concert by the Symphony—orchestra-in-residence at the Festival—will feature works by Antonio Vivaldi, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and will be under the direction of Music Director Jed Gaylin. It will take place at the First Presbyterian Church of Cape May, 500 Hughes St., Cape May, NJ.
Featured in this concert will be renowned guitarist Max Zuckerman, who will be the soloist in Vivaldi’s Concerto for Guitar in D major, RV 93 and Villa Lobos’ Concerto for Guitar and Small Orchestra, A501. The program will also include Mozart’s Symphony No. 29 in A major, K.201.
Entitled “Folk and Fashion,” this program presents, in Villa-Lobos’ concerto, the music of Brazil’s most famous composer—full of the Brazilian folk idiom characteristic of his works. This blends with the cosmopolitan international idiom of Vivaldi and Mozart to create a rich listening experience.
Tickets are $25 for general admission, $20 for seniors, and $10 for students. To order tickets or for information about the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities’ (MAC) year-round schedule of tours, festivals and special events, call (609) 884-5404 or (800) 275-4278, or visit MAC’s website at www.capemaymac.org. For information about restaurants, accommodations and shopping, call the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Cape May at (609) 884-5508.
For more information on the Bay-Atlantic Symphony, please call their office at (856) 451-1169, visit the Symphony’s website at www.bayatlanticsymphony.org, or visit them on Facebook.
Guitarist Max Zuckerman received his Master of Music Degree from the Yale School of Music where studied with Benjamin Verdery. He is also a graduate of the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, where he earned both a Bachelors of Music and a Graduate Performance Degree in the studio of Manuel Barrueco.
He won first prize in the under 18 guitar division at the American String Teachers’ Association national competition in 2002 and Grand Prize for all string instruments in the under 18 division. In March 2003, he won first prize in the Portland Guitar Festival Solo Guitar Competition.
Zuckerman premiered a new work by Matthew Cmiel in the spring of 2009, commissioned by the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society in Baltimore and he was the featured performer in the autumn of that year in the New York City Classical Guitar Society Second Sundays Concert Series at the Roger Smith Hotel in New York. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in the fall of 2010 premiering Sam Adams’ Tension Study #1 for electric guitar and percussion.
In 2012, he received awards in the Appalachian State Guitar Competition, Montreal Guitar Festival and Competition, Sierra Nevada Guitar Competition, and was awarded First Prize in the Middle Tennessee State University Guitar Festival and Competition.
While maintaining his classical repertoire, Zuckerman enjoys collaborates with musicians and composers in a wide variety of styles, from the avant-garde to popular music.
Jed Gaylin, now entering his 17th season as Music Director of the Bay-Atlantic Symphony, is Artist in Residence at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey—the latter position being part of an innovative model in which the Bay-Atlantic Symphony is integrated into the college’s musical curriculum. He is also the Principal Conductor of the Cape May Music Festival and Music Director of the Johns Hopkins Symphony Orchestra in Baltimore.
The Music Director of the Two Rivers Chamber Orchestra in Shepherdstown, WV, Gaylin also served as the Director of Orchestras at the International Music Festival and Summer Course of Cervera (Spain), and was a regular conductor at Opera Vivente in Baltimore. His numerous guest appearances include St. Petersburg State Symphony, National Film and Radio Philharmonic (Beijing, China), Shanghai Conservatory Orchestra, Bucharest Radio Orchestra, Academia del Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona, Spain) among many others.
“Generous” is the word listeners and performers use time and again to describe Gaylin’s approach to the orchestra, the score, and the audience. His joyful abandon and probing intellect together create powerful programs, compelling interpretations, and evenings that are fresh and exuberant.
Now entering its 30th year, the Bay-Atlantic Symphony, in addition to being consistently praised for its astonishing level of artistry and precision, is also viewed throughout New Jersey as a model for how professional orchestras can become a vital focus and source of identity in their communities.
The Bay-Atlantic Symphony is the resident orchestra of the Stockton College Performing Arts Center and the Guaracini Fine and Performing Arts Center at Cumberland County College, as well as being the orchestra-in-residence at the Cape May Music Festival since 2003. Avalon is the summer home of the Symphony, which is orchestra-in-residence of the resort’s “Symphony by the Sea” series. The Symphony has received worldwide exposure through its appearances on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition, Voice of America, and WWFM’s Celebrating our Musical Community.
The Symphony’s first commercial label recording, of She Comes to Shore–concerto for improvised piano and orchestra by the contemporary Hong Kong-born, Canadian-based composer and pianist Lee Pui Ming, was recorded August 2010 and is available on the Innova label, distributed by Naxos.
This concert’s co-sponsors are: The David R. and Patricia D. Atkinson Foundation; Billmae Cottage (Bob and Linda Steenrod); and Leith Hall Bed & Breakfast (Elan and Suzie Zingman-Leith).
The 24th annual Cape May Music Festival is funded by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Frank & Lydia Bergen Foundation. It is presented by the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC), a multifaceted not-for-profit organization committed to promoting the preservation, interpretation, and cultural enrichment of the Cape May region for its residents and visitors. MAC membership is open to all.