The Highland Park Recorder Society presents Irish Musical Traditions
Join us for Irish Tune Classes,
Leading to performance opportunities
These classes are open to violinists and other strings, recorders and other woodwinds, and open to everyone, from beginners to advanced. They will take place on the following Thursdays in 2024, from 7:00 to 9:00 PM:
- January 4, 18, 25
- February 1, 15, 22, 29
Concert – Saturday, March 2, 2024, approx. 7:30 – 9:30 with an intermission
Location – Reformed Church of Highland Park, NJ, 19-21 South Second Ave., Highland Park, NJ Take Rte. 27/Raritan Ave to South 2nd, go one block to Magnolia, go left onto Magnolia and go past a white house, left into a driveway to a spacious parking lot, and enter the back of the church.
Playing Fees:
- $10 per class
- $5 per class for students with a student ID
Music Director: Nathan Bishop, classically trained violinist, violist, Irish fiddler, and conductor Graduate of Mason Gross School of the Arts in Music, Magna cum Laude.
Youthful H.S. musicians – violinists, flutists – Join the Irish Tune Classes, and enjoy a new performing opportunity, playing your new tunes, at the concert, March 2, 2024.
Covid Precautions: You need to have been vaccinated and boosted, and only attend if you are symptom-free. Masks are encouraged, except while playing wind instruments. Social distancing will be attempted. Air filters may be used. If you don’t feel well, please stay home. These guidelines may be updated according to the CDC guidelines at the time.
For more information, email Donna Messer recorderdonna@gmail.com
If you are interested, please fill out this Declaration of Intent to Participate Form (DOI), then email your form to D. Messer at recorderdonna@gmail.com with the subject line: DOI to Participate in Irish Program.
Or, mail your form to D. Messer, 431 Lincoln Ave., Highland Park, NJ 08904.
Presented below is a review of the concert held prior in 2023:
Irish Musical Traditions, a Concert of the Highland Park Recorder Society, March 25, 2023
Reviewed by Donna Messer
In honor of March being Play the Recorder Month, Early Music Month, and the month for celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, on Saturday evening, March 25, 2023, the Highland Park Recorder Society presented a performance of Irish Musical Traditions. The concert was directed by Nathan Bishop, a talented violinist and conductor specializing in traditional Irish music. Featuring artists in both classical and Irish folk traditions, this concert explored the intersection of the two arts through new ideas about ensemble, arrangements of tunes, and traditional settings.
The concert sparkled with a liberal sprinkling of O’Carolan’s (1670-1738) folk compositions, his Welcome to Music, O’Carolan’s Concerto, his Planxty Hewlett, and Planxty Irwin, Si Bheag, Si Mhor and Carolan’s Farewell to Music. He was a blind, Celtic harper, composer and singer, who traveled through Ireland in the 18th century, with his horse, his guide and his harp, composing music for those who extended to him their hospitality.
The program included such traditional Irish favorites as Rakes of Mallow, Fig for a Kiss /The Black Rogue, Galway Hornpipe / Rights of Man, interspersed with story-telling and singing of the Irish spirit and struggles by Irish soprano Fiona Tyndall, a singer and recording artist specializing in Traditional Irish, whose singing is broadcast over the radio on both sides of the Atlantic.
Early music was represented by Telemann’s Canonic Sonata played by pairs of violins, and pairs of recorders, Johann David Heinichen’s (1683-1729) Concerto in C Major for recorders and strings, and Concerto di Camera by Telemann (1681-1767). Free and open to the public, the concert was performed by an ensemble of recorders, strings, including Irish fiddlers, guitar, voice and percussion and was supported by grant funding that was provided by the Middlesex County Board of County Commissioners through a grant award from the Middlesex County Cultural and Arts Trust Fund. The videos of the performance are posted on our website, https://hprecorder.org/gallery/video/2023-concert-irish-musical-traditions/ and plans are being made to have another exciting performance of Irish Musical Traditions in Highland Park, NJ, on March 2, 2024.
