COURT HOUSE – Managing director Kay Aspell has announced that the Performing Arts Center of Middle Township has formally renewed its contract with charismatic pianist, Linda Gentille, and the Jersey Shore Pops Orchestra to establish the PAC as its permanent entertainment base.
For the first time this year the orchestra will present as many as eight concerts at The PAC.
More than 6,000 music lovers have attended the concerts in the first two years and it is anticipated that the mark will exceed 10,000 in 2013, Aspelll said.
“The popularity of this 25 piece high quality orchestra and its conductor has made it possible for us to come together for a bigger and longer season, “ said Aspell. “ The orchestra has been a key attraction in the arts community in and beyond Cape May County and we are pleased that our arts center has been the focal point for bringing its music to the area, not only in the summer but beyond that when the arts tend to slow down in this resort county.”
Aspell said it is a tribute to the orchestra that it is able to draw large audiences to the 1,000 seat theater in the face of competition from the nearby casinos.
“We do not have the financial resources of the big gambling hotels, but we are encouraged by our box office results and the possibility of grants to help the funding. As it is so often said in the arts, the best way to support them is to attend them, but often, as in the case of the Jersey Shore Pops, there is a need for supplemental funding to make it all happen.”
The Jersey Shore Pops was founded by Gentille in 2009 and was introduced to audiences at the performing arts center as a trial to see whether South Jersey residents, especially those in Cape May County, would support such a venture. The response was so encouraging that Aspell initially booked five concerts for each season. The big band orchestra with a string band section, is modeled after the orchestras of the Frank Sinatra era.
Gentille, originally from Pacific Palisades, California, now resides in Cape May County when she’s not performing on the high sea on cruise ships or in mainland China where she holds the world record for having presented more concerts than any foreign performer.
The 2013 season opens at PAC on June 29 at 7:30 p.m. with a performance featuring Irish tenor Colin Fitzmaurice.
Middle Township – First, I’m 67 and have arthritis in both hands, and my cell phone has the letters too close, but, I manage, democrats only know how to try and Put you down for punctuation, Hey! Nimrod, I’m not…
