OGCMA Presents Grand Orchestra Finale August 1

Concluding the "Summer Stars" Classical Concert Series, OGCMA will present "GRAND ORCHESTRA FINALE" on Thursday, August 1 (7:30 pm) in the Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove. Tickets are $17.00 (General Admission) and can be ordered online at www.oceangrove.org or by phone 732-775-0035 The Great Auditorium is located at Pilgrim and Ocean Pathways in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. All facilities are handicapped accessible.

Celebrating their 46th anniversaries in residence in Ocean Grove, tenor Ronald Naldi and organist Gordon Turk will each perform with the MidAtlantic Orchestra, Jason Tramm, and conductor.

Program Highlights

Festival Prelude - David Winkler, Composer* - world premiere

Concerto for Organ, Harp and Strings - Howard Hanson, Composer

"Flower Song" (from Carmen) and other songs by composer Georges Bizet Carmen - performed by tenor Ronald Naldi accompanied by the MidAtlantic Symphony

Symphony No. 3 - Camille Saint-Saens

* The NYC-based composer was so impressed with the Auditorium Organ and the combination of organ and orchestra in the Great Auditorium that he composed this new piece, which will have its world premiere.

Performers Bios:

RONALD NALDI is an internationally acclaimed lyric tenor who has performed with the metropolitan opera, verona Opera, Opera da Camera of Rome, L'Opera Francais, New Jersey State Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Salzburger Landestheater. With St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble he has sung over 200 performances of Haydn, Mozart, Offenbach, Rieti, Bakst, Fioravanti, and Rossini. He has performed with over 25 symphony orchestras and has an extensive repertoire of more than 30 oratorios. Mr. Naldi has worked under the baton of the world's most famous maestri and has been a colleague with such artists as Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. He studied with Charles Kullman, Margaret Harshaw, Licino Francardi, Luigi Ricci, Carol Bayard and William Riley; has a BM and MM in voice from Indiana University; and was a Fulbright scholar in Rome. He is the tenor soloist and artist-in-residence at OGCMA, where he is completing his 45th consecutive season.

Organist-In-Residence GORDON TURK has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, Russia, Ukraine, and Japan in concert halls, cathedrals, and universities in both solo performances and with orchestras. His collaborations with other musicians in chamber music concerts include principal instrumentalists from the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and other distinguished musicians. He has won awards for performances of J.S. Bach and in the national AGO Improvisation Competition. Dr. Turk is Organist-in Residence at the historic Ocean Grove Great Auditorium and Artistic Director of Ocean Grove's Chamber Music Series, "Summer Stars." Turk is a devoted champion of the pipe organ; a consultant for the building of new pipe organs and the restoration of historic ones; and is a frequent adjudicator of organ competitions. He is also the Organist and Choirmaster at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Wayne, Pennsylvania. Dr. Turk studied with two legendary teachers, Alexander McCurdy at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and Mc Neil Robinson at the Manhatan School of Music in NYC.

Hailed as a "Conductor to Watch" by Symphony Magazine and "filled with Italianate passion" by the Huffington Post, Jason C. Tramm's work in the choral, symphonic and operatic realms have received critical acclaim throughout the United States and abroad.

Maestro Tramm serves as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor with the MidAtlantic Artistic Productions with whom he made his Carnegie Hall debut (2015) and NJPAC debut (2017) with his critically acclaimed "Prayer for Peace" concerts. The May 2020 "Prayer for Peace" concerts will be held in venues in Scotland and England. He currently holds the current musical positions: Music Director of Teatro Lirico D'Europa, Music Director of the Axelrod Contemporary Ballet Ensemble, Principal Guest Conductor of the Long Island Concert Orchestra, and Music Director of both the Taghkanic Chorale and Morris Choral Society. He is currently in his 13th season of Dir of Music Ministries for the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association. He served as Artistic Director of the New Jersey State Opera from 2008 to 2012, where he collaborated with some of the finest voices in the opera industry. His 2009 HDTV broadcast with PBS affiliate NJN of "Verdi Requiem: Live from Ocean Grove," garnered an Emmy Award nomination.

An accomplished educator, he serves as Director of Choral Activities at Seton Hall University where he leads the University Chorus, Chamber Choir, Orchestra, and teaches voice and conducting. In 2017, Seton Hall University named him the University Faculty Teacher of the Year. Educating and mentoring the next generation of musicians has always been a central part of Jason Tramm's career. He is also actively sought as a clinician and regularly presents lectures on a wide variety of musical topics.

A frequent guest conductor, he has led operatic and symphonic performances in Italy, Romania, Albania, and in Hungary, where he recorded an album of rarely heard French operatic arias with the Szeged Symphony.