By Jennifer Kohlhepp, Managing Editor
CRANBURY — Hers is the gift of music and she will bestow it this weekend on the community to help build a new place for its books.
Francine Hannay, whose stage name is Francine Kane, will present a concert with fellow Cranbury musicians at 7 p.m. in Fellowship Hall at the First Presbyterian Church at 22 S. Main St. She, Leslie Hart and Bernhard, Philipp and Max Geiger will perform classical music and show tunes. The suggested donation is $20 per person, with all proceeds going to the new Cranbury Community Library.
“We need a new library in town,” Ms. Hannay, who has lived in Cranbury for 50 years, said. “It would be good for the children. We now have a library located inside of the school and it’s too small for the town, which has grown.”
Ms. Hannay has been a professional musician since the age of 17. She joined an all-boys band and has been working ever since.
“I played solo, cocktail lounges, had my own group, played private parties, weddings, birthdays and was the director of the choral ensemble for Concordia for 20 years,” she said. “I gave it up just a couple of years ago.”
A member of the first graduating class of the High School of Music and Art, which is now the New York High School of Performing Arts, Ms. Hannay also went on to teach piano and theory.
“I’ve been teaching for 50 years here,” she said.
The upcoming concert includes two of her students.
Max, who she describes as a 14-year-old pianist who plays with his heart, will perform alongside of his brother, Phillip, a cellist, and father, Bernhard, who plays the bass and the piano.
Unbeknownst to her, Mr. Geiger had Phillip learn the accompaniment to a complicated piece Max was learning under her direction so they could play it together for her as a Christmas present. They will perform that piece in the concert. Max and his father will also perform a piano duet.
Ms. Hart, who took singing lessons with Ms. Hannay at the age of 16 and went on to join a chorale ensemble in New York City with which she has performed in Carnegie Hall 21 times, will perform a few solos as well as some songs from the “Sound of Music.”
“Mostly we will perform the beautiful songs that come from shows,” Ms. Hannay said. “I don’t do rock and roll.”
Many community members know Ms. Hannay for helping put on “Broadway shows” with Cranbury School’s former music teacher Susan Muller. She hopes both those that know her and those who are new to town will come out to the benefit performance this weekend to celebrate community and raise money for the creation of a new library.
“I think this is a wonderful town,” Ms. Hannay said. “It’s beautiful. It’s like living in a storybook.”
