Jason C. Tramm to Conduct Ocean Grove's Summer Stars Classical Series Finale, 7/31

On Thursday July 31 at 7:30 pm Maestro Jason C. Tramm will conduct the Ocean Grove Summer Stars Classical Series season finale concert at the magnificent 6,500 seat Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove, NJ. The concert "Grand Orchestra and the Great Organ" will feature the 65 member MidAtlantic Opera Orchestra, renowned soloists and rare instruments in a program of masterworks for organ, orchestra and violin. The concert will include Saint-Saens' Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso in A Minor, Charles Marie Widor's Symphony in G Minor, and Horatio Parker's Concerto in E-flat Minor.

"I'm honored to lead the 2014 Summer Stars Classical Series Season Finale which leverages the virtuosity and talent of our soloists, musicians and venue. Our program includes a rarely heard work by American composer Horatio Parker, who taught Charles Ives at Yale, a piece by Saint-Saens, originally written for the Spanish virtuoso violinist Pablo de Sarasate and a symphony by Charles Marie Widor. Written in 1880, Widor's Symphony in G Minor anticipates the unprecedented technical advances in power and sound achieved by Ocean Grove's historic Hope-Jone's organ. The composition sounds as if it were intended all along for The Great Auditorium's spectacular 106 year old instrument, which was built many decades after Widor's composition. Our concert will be a special treat for aficionados and newcomers alike " said Tramm.

The Ocean Grove Summer Stars Classical Series continues a century long legacy of classical music performance at The Great Auditorium- a stage which has featured legendary conductors and musicians such as Bernstein, John Phillip Sousa, Enrico Caruso, John McCormack, Rosa Ponselle and Marian Anderson.

For the 2014 Season Finale, acclaimed violin soloist and director of the Solisti Ensemble, Byung-Kook Kwak will perform Saint-Saens' Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso in A Minor, playing on a priceless instrument crafted in 1751 by the great violin maker Giovanni Battista Guadagnini. Internationally renowned concert organist Gordon Turk will be at the console of the Great Auditorium's celebrated Hope Jone's organ joining the orchestra in Widor's Symphony in G Minor and Parker's Concerto in E-flat Minor. Long time colleagues, Gordon Turk and Jason Tramm have collaborated on several concerts which have been broadcast from the Great Auditorium on National Public Radio, an organ concerto program with the Rittenhouse Orchestra and a concert with the Philadelphia Brass Ensemble.

Jason C. Tramm has held the position of Ocean Grove Director of Music Ministries for eight seasons. Featured in Symphony Magazine's 2012 Issue of Emerging Artists and hailed as a conductor to watch, Tramm is recognized as one of the most dynamic young conductors on the podium today. From 2008-2012 he served as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the New Jersey State Opera, receiving wide audience and critical acclaim with performances which included Porgy and Bess at Newark Symphony Hall and the PBS HDTV broadcast of Verdi Requiem, Live From Ocean Grove, which merited a regional Emmy nomination.

In 2013, Maestro Tramm was appointed Artistic Director/Principal Conductor of the Mid Atlantic Opera, conducting Verdiana, the company's inaugural performance at The Great Auditorium in September of 2013; following with the company's production of Dido and Aeneas at SOPAC in May 2014. Last Fall Tramm was selected to lead New Jersey's 75th Anniversary Commemorative Concert of Kristallnacht.

Tramm currently serves on the faculty at Seton Hall University, where as the Director of Choral Activities he directs two choirs and teaches courses in performance and music education. In 2003, he joined the ranks of Metropolitan Opera stars Renée Fleming and Stephanie Blythe when he was honored with the Rising Star Award from the SUNY Potsdam Alumni Association. A frequent guest conductor, Tramm has led operatic and symphonic performances in Italy, Romania, Albania, and has recently recorded with the Szeged Symphony Orchestra of Hungary.

General Admission Tickets for Summer Stars Classical Series Concert are $16.00. Order tickets at 800-590-4064 or online at www.oceangrove.org. The Great Auditorium is located at Pilgrim and Ocean Pathways in Ocean Grove, NJ. All facilities are handicapped accessible.