Grant Awards
2024
On January 22, 2024, on behalf of Lindsay Erben, Director of the Arts Institute of Middlesex County and their entire office, Jared Cardenas, Division Head, Education, Outreach & Administration, and Manda Gorsegner, Grants Administration Manager, were pleased to announce that the Middlesex County Board of County Commissioners has approved a 2024 Arts Grant to our organization in the amount of $8000. They wrote, “Congratulations on this grant award for your 2024 arts programs!”
2023
On February 1, 2023, on behalf of Lindsey Erben, Director of the Arts Institute of Middlesex County and their entire team, Jared Cardenas, Division Head, Education, Outreach & Administration, and Manda Gorsegner, Grants Administration Manager, were pleased to announce that the Middlesex County Board of County Commissioners has approved a FY2023 Arts Grant for our organization in the Amount of $8,000. Congratulations on the grant award for your 2023 arts programs!
2022
On February 8, 2022, Lindsey Erben, Director of The Arts Institute of Middlesex County and their entire team, were pleased to announce that the Middlesex County Board of County Commissioners approved a FY2022 Arts and History Grant for our organization in the amount of $7,500. They wrote that the Arts Institute of Middlesex County commends our dedication to providing access to the arts. They wrote, “Congratulations on the grant award for your 2022 programs!”
2021
On February 2, 2021 the Arts Institute of Middlesex County, Division of Arts and History, was pleased to announce that our organization has been awarded an arts grant in the amount of $4,250. They congratulated us on the grant award for our 2021 programs. They wrote, “The Arts Institute of Middlesex County commends your dedication to providing access to the arts.”
The program the grant supports is a series of nine monthly online instructional seminars, “Seminar Series in Early Music Performance” to focus on recorders and other instruments typical of the Baroque era, on topics of interest to all who aspire to better themselves as musicians, to increase their musicianship and technique as performers of early music, whether they play recorders, strings, oboes, keyboards or other early music instruments.
The Highland Park Recorder Society is honored that this seminar series is under the musical direction of Dr. Lewis Baratz, performer on recorder and harpsichord, music historian, scholar, and Artistic Director of La Fiocco, a period-instrument performing ensemble. In each session he is joined by a highly professional guest artist who demonstrates how to interpret the issues and challenges being discussed. Participants can try out the ideas with their audio on mute. There are opportunities to play, usually muted, sometimes unmuted. Through the seminars participants gain historical perspective on the evolution of performance practices, and insight into interpretive issues of early music performance.
2020
Highland Park Recorder Society, in an artistic collaboration with Collegium Musicum, was awarded an unprecedented $7,000 grant from the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders Through a Grant Award from the Middlesex County Cultural and Arts Trust Fund, through the Middlesex County Office of Arts and History, to present a series of concerts for recorders, strings, and harpsichord with lectures integrated.
Collegium Musicum was planning to present Veritas Youth Orchestra, under the musical direction of Mira Kang and conducted by David Jeong. This had to be cancelled because large groups could no longer meet, to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
The grant award was repurposed to present a series of five small group and duo performances with mini-lectures or explanations, to be professionally recorded and live-streamed from April 26 to May 31, 2020. Performed online and live-streamed:
- Music for Two Violins, & Violin and Viola, Sunday, April 26, 2020
- Music for Violin and Harpsichord, Sunday May 3, 2020
- Music of Telemann, Sunday, May 10, 2020
- Music of Bach, Art of the Fugue, Double Violin Concerto, Sunday, May 17, 2020
- Hidden Treasures of the Baroque, Music of Biber, Uccellini, Babell, and “Polotsk Notebook” Sunday, May 31, 2020.
Soloists included the Collegium Musicum String Quartet: Brennen Sweet, Violin; Alexei Yavtuhovich, Violin; Dennis Krasnokutsky, Viola; Mira Kang, Cello; Phyllis Alpert Lehrer, Harpsichord; Allison Brewster Franzetti, Harpsichord; Steve Russell, Harpsichord; Debra Biderman, Violin: Donna Messer, recorder; Amy Herbitter, recorder; Paul and Robert Dorsey, recorders; and Members of the Veritas Youth Orchestra.
2019
Spring Concert of Mostly Baroque Masters, for recorders, strings and harpsichord. Featuring the music of Bach, Boismortier, Pepusch, Purcell, Piazzolla and Telemann. Conducted by Sinhaeng Lee. Saturday, May 11, 2019, Reformed Church of Highland Park, NJ
2018
Back to Bach, A benefit concert in honor of J.S. Bach’s 333rd birthday and to aid Puerto Rican children and families still recovering from Hurricane Maria. Performances by the Highland Park Recorder Ensemble, Musica Dolce and the Cisraritanian Consort of Viols. World premiere of Harpsichord Concerto in the Old Style by John Franek. March 17, 2018, Play-the-Recorder Day, In the United Methodist Church, New Brunswick, NJ.
2017
Hits and Highlights from 7 Centuries, including the World Premiere of “Highland Concerto,” a neo-Baroque concerto grosso by John Franek for recorders, strings and basso continuo. Saturday, March 18, 2017, United Methodist Church, New Brunswick, NJ.
2012
Music of Dance, Baroque Suites to the Sweet and Saucy Tango. Minju Lee, Music and Artistic Director. In collaboration with the Germantown Country Dancers, in costume, and the Korean Children’s choir. Performed May 20, 2012, in the Crossroads Theatre, New Brunswick, NJ to a full house.
2009
A Convergence of Musical Cultures: Spain, the Netherlands and the Sephardim in the Old and New Worlds. March 21, 2009, New Brunswick. March 22, 2009, Beth Mordecai Synagogue, Perth Amboy, NJ
2008
Cultural Crossroads: Spanish, Sephardic and Latin American Music, Featuring: The Highland Park Recorder Society’s Recorder Ensemble; Musica Dolce, devoted to Baroque music; and Zorzal Music Ensemble, Performing Latin American and Spanish Music across centuries and cultures. World Premiere of especially commissioned music, “Hago de lo flato fuerte” by Lynn Gumert. Under the Music and Artistic Direction of Lynn Gumert. Performed March 29 and 30, 2008.
2007
Cultural Crossroads: Spanish, Sephardic and Latin American Music, Featuring: The Highland Park Recorder Society’s Recorder Ensemble; Musica Dolce, devoted to Baroque music; and Zorzal Music Ensemble, Performing Latin American and Spanish Music across centuries and cultures. Under the Music and Artistic Direction of Lynn Gumert. Performed April 21 and 22, 2007, Beth Mordecai Synagogue, Perth Amboy, NJ.
2006
Music in the Age of Benjamin Franklin. Baroque Music in Colonial and Federal America, for Orchestra and Chorus, the Garden State Sinfonia. United Methodist Church, Sunday, April 2, 2006.
Outreach: Music in the Big Band Era, performed in the NJ Veterans Memorial Home, Menlo Park, NJ. Audience, disabled seniors, up to age 100.
Outreach: Music for St. Patrick’s Day, performed by Dr. Lynn Gumert and Donna Messer. Elmora School 12, Elizabeth, NJ. Inner-city Audience: Over 650 children, 100 parents and 50 teachers = over 800 people. March 17, 2006.
Outreach: Music of Shakespeare. (Check location.)
2005
The Fairest Isle, A British Musical Miscellany. Conductor John Eisenhauer. Sunday, April 3, 2005, United Methodist Church.
2004
Soft and Suite, Baroque and Modern Music for Recorders and Strings. Sunday, March 28, 2004. United Methodist Church, New Brunswick.
2002
Favorite Suites, Renaissance, Baroque and Folk. Maurice Boyer, Conductor. April 27 or 28, 2002
2001
A Mediterranean Cruise. Music of Sepharad, Israel, Renaissance France, Spain and Italy. Sunday, January 21, 2001.
Polonaises to Polkas. Ukrainian, Russian and Polish Music. Benefit concert for the Children of Chernobyl Relief Fund. Conductor, E. Michael Markwis. Garden State Sinfonia. June 10, 2001. United Methodist Church, New Brunswick, NJ
1998
Minstrel, Minnesinger, Musiker, Music from Renaissance and Baroque Germany. Sunday, May 17, 1998, Bob Butts, conductor. United Methodist Church.
1997
Les Petits Amours. May 18, 1997
1996
La Dolce Impassionata. Sunday, May 5, 1996. Conductor Robert W. Butts. Presbyterian Church, 100 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick.
1995
Oct. 27, 1994. Letter of MCNAC Mini-grant Award. La Contenance Angloise, Three Centuries of English Music. May 7, 1995.
1993
Mini-Grant Project: Guest Conductors and Workshops (Reported in the Highland Park Herald, Feb. 5, 1993.)
1992
Mini-Grant Project: Guest Conductors and Workshops
Children’s Music Workshop, Sat., Nov. 14, 1992, conducted by Lori Goldschmidt. Fourth Annual Highland Park Recorder Society Workshop, Nov. 14, 1992 with noted faculty Deborah Booth, Adam Gilbert, Gene Murrow, John DeLucia. Guest Conductors: Pete Rose, John DeLucia, Lori Goldschmidt, Gene Murrow, Susana Plotquin-Schriftgiser, and Sharon Seeman.
Grant Award from the American Recorder Society to the Highland Park Recorder Society with a letter from Alan G. Moore, Executive Director of the American Recorder Society stating,
The Chapter Committee was impressed with the success of your recent children’s workshop and the publicity it generated. Thank you for the good work you and your chapter are doing.
Feb. 3, 1992.
1991
Grant awarded for the second year in a row, to bring guest conductors Lori Goldschmidt, specialist in Creative Arts Eductaion, Orff Schulwerk Certified music teacher, leader of the Navesink Chapter of the American Recorder Society; leader of our second Adult workshop, and 1st Children’s Workshop, the Big Apple Circus II, an Orff Schulwerk music-drama. Also scheduled: Pete Rose, one of the foremost interpreters of contemporary music, and Joan Wilson, faculty member, Westminster Choir College Conservatory of Music. Recorded in the Highland Park Herald Jan 18, 1991. Children’s Workshop reported on in the Star Ledger, Dec. 26, 1991 with photos of Lori Goldschmidt and children.
Based on the Carl Orff philosophy, the approach is one of utilizing ideas from the children and then learning or improvising songs, dances, accompaniments, scenes. Each child’s particular strengths are utilized and everyone’s part is important. A key ingredient of the method is the exquisitely sounding instrumentarium
Lori Goldschmidt.
1990
Grant from New Jersey State Council on the Arts/ Department of State.
1989
First annual Recorder Workshop, with noted performer/ teachers John DeLucia, Pete Rose, Deborah Booth and Morris Newman, Sat. Nov. 11, 1989. Rebecca Yamin, of HPRS received a letter of congratulations from Highland Park Mayor Jeffrey Orbach for the Society’s approval for funding from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/ Department of State.
