A Whole New World

The Raritan River Music Festival gives new definition to ‘world music.’

By: Josh Appelbaum
   Western New Jersey isn’t normally thought of as a hotbed for New Music, but each spring the Raritan River Music Festival brings new works by contemporary composers to diverse audiences in rural locales throughout Hunterdon and Warren counties.
   Festival founders and organizers Laura Oltman and Michael Newman say contemporary classical music can be a hard sell on uninitiated audiences. But Ms. Oltman, also half of the couple’s guitar duo, says their festival aims to push chamber music into the mainstream and targets what she deems to be an under-served audience.
   "It’s a personal crusade," Ms. Oltman says. "We feel that it is important for composers to have venues to have their works played… the problem is, you can’t really liken (the music) to anything most audiences have ever heard."
   The festival consists of four concerts Saturdays from May 6 to 27, and includes performances by Arthur Kampela and his band in Stockton (May 6), the Daedalus Quartet in Pittstown (May 13), Atlantic Wave Irish Ensemble featuring Tony De Marco, Ivan Goff and Fionn Ó Lochlainn in Bloomsbury (May 20) and the Soclair Baroque Ensemble in Clinton (May 27).
   An integral part of the concert series is performances of works commissioned specifically for the festival. In fact, Ms. Oltman and Mr. Newman are in the process of recording select works commissioned for the Raritan River Music Festival stretching back 17 years to its inception. This year, they will share the bill May 13 and perform two commissioned pieces, "Sevdalinka (Balkan Blues)," by Dusan Bogdanovic and "Three Hungarian Tributes" by Puerto Rican-born composer Roberto Sierra.
   Although composers like Bela Bartok and Franz Liszt will make their way onto programs at the festival, Mr. Newman says the focus will be on works by modern composers who explore myriad genres, and intimate performances by artists not normally heard outside urban centers of the world. "People have a wonderful appreciation of classic works by composers like Mozart and Beethoven, but now it’s time to hear the new Mozarts and Beethovens," he says.
   Mr. Newman, who teaches at New York’s Mannes College of Music, says the informal presentation of the works at small venues in the festival context allows patrons to appreciate the music more profoundly. He says performers and composers will also be able to interact with audiences at informal meet-and-greet sessions following the concerts.
   "We’ve had pretty good results," he says. "Younger audiences really respond to the more dynamic pieces and they appreciate that the music is hip and current, and although I’m sure they don’t love everything they hear, there’s excitement. The opportunity to interact with them and talk about their works helps to demystify the whole experience."
   The Raritan River Music Festival opens at Prallsville Mill in Stockton with Arthur Kampela, who has been hailed as "the Brazilian Frank Zappa." Ms. Oltman says the guitarist is influenced by greats such as Johann Sebastian Bach, but plays with a more modern sensibility. "He uses some pretty energetic guitar solos that are pretty virtuosic," Ms. Oltman says. "When you hear his band you really know that he is influenced as much by popular music styles like Bossa Nova and (Tropicalia) as he is by (Igor) Stravinsky."
   Ms. Oltman, who teaches at Princeton University as well as Mannes College, says the venues chosen for this year’s festival — the Bethlehem Presbyterian Church in Pittstown, Old Greenwich Presbyterian Church in Bloomsbury and the Clinton Presbyterian Church in Clinton — have been longtime hosts and suit small ensembles especially well. "They provide really charming, beautiful settings," she says. "They are big enough to have a good audience, but mostly they were designed before amplification existed, so you can hear (the musicians) without amplification, whereas you’d normally hear them in concert halls that hold 2,000 or 3,000."
   The urge to classify some of the music on the four disparate programs — which include Brazilian, Balkan, Irish and "world music" ethnic styles — has led Ms. Oltman and Mr. Newman to subtitle this year’s installment "World Views," though both organizers readily admit the moniker is really a misnomer. "I was talking to the dean of Mannes College about the perception of different styles of music and that which is known as world music, and we (realized) that term is used to describe a lot of music that has evolved in one particular area. Music from Mali or Appalachian music has evolved in one specific locale, whereas Beethoven is really heard all over the world."
   So were Baroque classical musicians really the first composers of world music?
   "I guess selling music from around the world without some sort of classification would be hard," Ms. Oltman says. "Without that designation, (consumers) might not know what they’re getting."
   The festival takes a turn toward folk and traditional Irish music on May 20 with the Atlantic Wave, featuring Ivan Goff of Riverdance and Lord of the Dance fame, and Fionn Ó Lochlainn, who has performed and recorded with pop artists such as Seal, Sinead O’Connor and Billy Bragg.
   Balancing the New Music thrust of the other programs, the festival will revisit its classical Baroque roots in the closing performance with the Soclair Baroque Ensemble, who will perform works by Vivaldi, Bach and Handel, among their contemporaries. The ensemble features Ed Brewer (harpsichord), Virginia Brewer (oboe), Sarah Doval (oboes and recorders) and Myron Lutzke (violincello).
   With the variety of performers, composers and styles featured at the music festival, perhaps the only way to attempt to describe it is as one big tent under which the vast world of classical music genres can co-mingle. "Maybe it’s unfair to compare the music at the festival with world music," Ms. Oltman says. "It’s not exactly Enya, and that’s no lie."
The 17th Raritan River Music Festival will feature Arthur Kampela and Band, Prallsville Mill, Route 29, one-quarter mile north of Stockton, May 6; Newman and Oltman Guitar Duo and the Daedalus Quartet, Bethlehem Presbyterian Church, 2 Race Street, Pittstown, May 13; Atlantic Wave Irish Ensemble, Old Greenwich Presbyterian Church, Route 173, Bloomsbury, May 20; and Soclair Baroque Ensemble, Clinton Presbyterian Church, 91 Center St., Clinton, May 27. All shows 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $23, $15 seniors/students; $19 advance, $12 seniors/students. For information, call (908) 213-1100. On the Web: raritanrivermusic.org. Newman and Oltman Guitar Duo on the Web: www.guitarduo.com