A cornucopia of music will fill the acoustically sublime Whitney Chapel on Sept 27 at 8pm, as the Centenary Stage Company and Performing Arts Guild presents a very special Benefit Concert for the 2003-04 season. Instigated by CSC friend, Richard Cox, the evening will be comprised of a variety of genres and styles, performed by leading artists from NY and the region. The concert is open to the public and will begin at 8 pm. Admission is by tax-deductable donation.

Gene Bertoncini
The seductive strains of the jazz guitar, performed by jazz great, Gene Bertoncini, will highlight the CSC Benefit evening. Bertoncini is one of the pre-eminent jazz guitarists active today. His fluid technique and lyricism have won him international praise and accolades as the “Segovia of Jazz”.

An elegant and versatile improviser, Bertoncini has been heard with an extraordinary range of jazz greats, including performances and recordings with Benny Goodman, Buddy Rich, Wayne Shorter, and Paul Desmond, among others, as well as with such distinguished vocalists at Carmen McRae , Lena Horne, Vic Damone and Edye Gorme.

The Washington Post proclaimed his last solo appearance in New York as the "...best jazz concert of 1999". Bertoncini has been named “Number one jazz guitarist on classical guitar” by the brazilian Critic’s Poll, and his unique stylings bridge jazz, classical, pop and bossa nova styles while integrating improvisations into his performance. Bertoncini’s just released striking new CD on Ambient Records, Body and Soul, features his own innovative solo arrangements of classic jazz and popular songs.

Also see: Meet the Artist - Gene Bertoncini

Shellie Bransford and Vaughn Bryner
An exciting medley of Songs from Musical Theatre will be performed by Shellie Bransford and Vaughn Bryner. Bransford is the Director of Artist and Curriculum Development at the Metropolitan Opera Guild, where she has also been Program Director and Teaching Artist. She oversees the international and national programs, Urban Voices and Creating Original Opera.

As a performer, Bransford’s work includes music theatre and nationwide concert tours with Columbia Artists. She divides her active career time between New York City and Stroudsburg, where she is also on faculty at Paynter Music.

Bariton Vaughn Bryner has been noted by Nuvo Arts Magazine as “Especially Outstanding.” He has performed numerous roles in opera, including the title role in The Marriage of Figaro and Marullo in Rigoletto. His oratorio work includes solo performances in Haydn’s Seasons, Schubert’s Mass in G., Bach’s Magnificat, Mozart’s Requiem and Handel’s Messiah. Bryner is a member of the professional choir “Cantabile” and teaches voice full-time at Paynter Music in Stroudsburg.

Nanette O’Brien, Elizabeth Breslin, Vennie Murthy and Nick Bodnar, accompanied by Linda Cox on the harpsichord
In a classical mode, the performance of Bach’s Double Violin Concerto will feature young emerging artists Nanette O’Brien, Elizabeth Breslin, Vennie Murthy and Nick Bodnar, accompanied by Linda Cox on the harpsichord. O’Brien is a senior at Princeton Day School and was the concert mistress of the Greater Princeton Youth Orchestra this past year. She studies violin with Herold Klein of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Dr. Bertram Greenspan at Rowan University. O’Brien plays first violin in the Philadephia Youth Orchestra and has attended the renown Tanglewood Institute in Lenox, Mass.

Beth Breslin is also a senior at Princeton Day School. She attends the School for Strings in New York City, where her chamber group was selected to participate in the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society. She and is a member of the Pathos Quartet, formerly known as the Scherzo Quartet, and has performed at Carnegie hall, Breslin was the concert mistress of the Frenchwoods Festival Symphony Orchestra.

Linda Cox (harpsichord), is a graduate of Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. She has played with numerous baroque and classical ensembles, and currently sings with the Summit Chorale at Drew University. She was Director of the Library at Blair Academy for 13 years, where she was also co-music director and accompanist for 13 musicals, accompanist for the Blair Academy Singers, organist for special chapel events.

Scott Besser, Pianist
The works of Chopin will come alive as pianist Scott Besser performs on the exquisite Baby Grand piano provided by Vienna Piano in Hackettstown. Besser is best known for his recital work throughout the Pocono area. He has appeared as a soloist with the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra and recently performed the Shawnee Opera Company’s La Boheme. Besser teaches piano at Paynter Music in Stroudsburg.

Gina Fearn, Linda Cox and Richard Cox
The evening will also include a lively variety of Jazz and Pop Standards, performed by Gina Fearn and Linda Cox, as well as Neapolian Songs, performed by Richard Cox.

About The Project Coordinator
The Benefit for CSC has been organized and produced by Richard Cox, in response to threatened budget cuts to the arts and cultural institutions by the State of New Jersey this past spring.

Richard, a resident of Panther Valley, formally a professional harpsichord builder for sixteen years, has worked as a choral musician for almost twenty years directing community madrigal groups, church music programs, and school music programs. His passion for vocal music began early in life and was greatly enhanced by vocal studies in college, in Munich Germany, and again later in New Jersey.

While most of his public performance has been as a choral director in the church music setting, he has also performed in dramatic productions over the years (e.g., The Wizard of Oz, A View from the Bridge, Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Fantasticks) as well as hosting and performing in benefit concerts for environmental organizations. As head of the music department at Blair Academy, he directed the Blair Academy Singers and the Chamber Singers, and, with his wife Linda, was co-music director for the production of ten musicals.

Richard is a recent graduate from Drew University with a masters degree in Eco-theology and is continuing to pursue his deep concern for the ecological well-being of the Earth which so greatly impacts human life, health, and long term survivability. He is also teaching Ancient Civilizations as an adjunct instructor this semester at Centenary College.

Tickets / More Information
For more information about the Benefit Concert for CSC, contact Catherine Rust at the CSC Administrative Offices at 908-979-0900 x 5.

Advance reservations for the CSC Benefit Concert may be obtained using any of three methods:

1. As you order regular 2003-04 CSC Season individual tickets and/or season subscriptions using our Secure Online Ordering System, you can add a tax deductible donation to that order along with your request for tickets to this benefit noted in the order comments. Tickets will be held in the CSC Box Office, in an envelope with your name on it.
    
2. Sending a tax deductible donation with request for tickets to Attn: Catherine Rust, Assoc. Producer, Centenary Stage Company, 400 Jefferson St., Hackettstown, NJ 07840.
    
3. At the door with a tax deductible donation. We strongly urge that you reserve ahead of time as admission the night of the event is on an as available basis.