Violinist STEFAN JACKIW
“one of the greatest young classical artists in the world today.”

Hear this extraordinary young violinist in a rare Philadelphia area recital in the intimate setting of:

We look forward to sharing this exceptional night of music with you. For more info about Stefan go to www.stefanjackiw.com

Pianist and Composer Kit Armstrong
At The Lord’s New Church Social Hall
Friday, March 10th, 2007 8:00 p.m.
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Reservations $25, Seniors $20, Students $15.

Kit Armstrong is a fourteen-year-old pianist and composer who also displays remarkable gifts for mathematics, science, and languages.

At the age of five, he began formal composition and piano studies. At seven, he became the youngest scholarship student in the history of Chapman University in California, attending the university part-time while completing high school. Two years later, he became a full-time undergraduate student, studying piano performance, composition, and science. He now attends the Royal Academy of Music and Imperial College in London, England. Kit performs with major orchestra all over the world.

“Mr. Armstrong is unquestionably a phenomenon... His greatest asset is a mature ear for coloration, balance, and style.”                     - Allan Koznin, The New York Times

“Kit Armstrong isn't your average genius... His towering talents in music and the ease with which he absorbs new concepts have led some to call him a latter-day Mozart.”
                                                                 - Peter Dobrin, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Pianist Natalie Zhu
At The Lord’s New Church Social Hall
Sunday, May 4, 2008 3:00 p.m.
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Donations Welcome.

Natalie Zhu is the recipient of a 2006 Musical Fund Society Career Advancement Award, the 2003 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 2003 Andrew Wolf Memorial Chamber Music Award, pianist Natalie Zhu is a winner of Astral Artistic Services’ 1998 National Auditions.

The Philadelphia Inquirer heralded Astral’s presentation of Ms. Zhu in recital as a display of "emotional and pianistic pyrotechnics"; selections from the recital were later broadcast on National Public Radio’s "Performance Today."

Ms. Zhu has performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. In the U.S. she has appeared as soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony, the Pacific Symphony, the Haddonfield Symphony,the Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Astral Chamber Orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic, China Philharmonic, Riverside Symphony Orchestra, and the Colorado Philharmonic National Repertory Orchestra.

Natalie Zhu began her piano studies with Xiao-Cheng Liu at the age of six in her native China and made her first public appearance at age nine in Beijing. At eleven she emigrated with her family to Los Angeles, and by fifteen was enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music where she received the Rachmaninoff Award and studied with Gary Graffman She received a Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music where she studied with Claude Frank.

Singer Ellis Paul
Presented by Common Grounds Concerts
At The Lord’s New Church Social Hall

> Children's Concert 
Saturday, Nov 7, 2009 - 1:00 p.m.
performing songs from...   The Dragonfly Races
Tickets: $5 child / $10 adult / $25 whole family

> Evening Concert 
Saturday, Nov 7, 2009 - @ 8:00 p.m. - Doors Open @ 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: $ $25

For More Information and Reservation 215-947-3262  ext. 7 or
www.commongroundconcerts.com
or  Buy Ticket online >  www.eventbrite.com

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Ellis Paul is one of the leading voices in American songwriting. He was a principle leader in the wave of singer/songwriters that emerged from the Boston folk scene, creating a movement that revitalized the national acoustic circuit with an urban, literate, folk pop style that helped renew interest in the genre in the 1990's. 

His charismatic, personally authentic performance style has influenced a generation of artists away from the artifice of pop, and closer towards the realness of folk. Though he remains among the most pop-friendly of today's singer-songwriters - his songs regularly appear in hit movie and TV soundtracks - he has bridged the gulf between the modern folk sound and the populist traditions of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger more successfully than perhaps any of his songwriting peers.

Yet to hear him at this crossroads moment in his career, you would think he was just getting started. For years, he has been among the folk circuit's most popular and dependable headliners, with a mailing list of over 20,000 fiercely loyal fans. He has released 14 CDs, and recently explored new media avenues with a documentary/concert DVD called "3,000 Miles," and "Notes from the Road," a critically acclaimed book of poems and stories.

In recent years, he has also departed from his solo career to tour and record with longtime compadre Vance Gilbert, and to indulge his deep respect for American folk icon Woody Guthrie. He appeared with the all-star Guthrie tribute tour, "Ribbon of Highway, Endless Skyway." For his Philo CD, "The Speed of Trees," he wrote a modern musical setting of Guthrie's unpublished lyric "God's Promise."

Nora Guthrie, Woody's daughter, invited Paul to to perform at a Woody Guthrie tribute show held in September 1996 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. The show was part of a 10-day celebration to honor Woody and also included performances by Bruce Springsteen, Ani DiFranco, Billy Bragg and others. In 1998, the quintessential Boston songwriter was also made an honorary citizen of Guthrie's birthplace, Okemah, Oklahoma, in recognition of all he has done to revive interest in the Dust Bowl troubadour.

This may surprise casual fans of Paul's urbane, literate and thoroughly modern folk-pop sound - but not those who knew him well. Among the first to single him out from the vast pack clamoring to rise from Boston's open mics in the early '90s was Bill Morrissey, even then considered the definitive New England ballad writer. He was so impressed, he produced Paul's first record, "Say Something," in 1993.

What did he see, so early in Paul's career? "He was always unique," Morrissey recalls. "He didn't write like anybody, didn't sing like anybody, didn't perform like anybody. So many of the songwriters then were trying to imitate whoever they thought was successful. Ellis was always himself; he didn't try to separate himself from his audiences. Perhaps it's because he's a Mainer; there's no pretense, and I think audiences sense that."

Paul is today regarded as such a classic urban songwriter that it's hard to fathom what a small-town boy he was. He grew up in northern Maine, in a potato farming community so remote that his exposure to music came almost entirely from the one top-40 station he could get on his radio, and his school band, where he played trumpet well enough to earn a summer scholarship to the Berklee College of Music..

Settlement Music School
A Recital of Students from the Jenkintown Branch

At The Lord’s New Church Social Hall
Across from June Fete Grounds


>> April 11th @ 3:30 pm (Sunday) <<

Tickets: FREE

Performing works for Piano, Violin, and Cello


For More Information 215-947-3262  ext. 7 or
www.smsmusic.org


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Settlement Music School
Faculty Recital from the Jenkintown Branch

At The Lord’s New Church Social Hall
Across from June Fete Grounds


>> May 16th @ 7:00 pm (Sunday) <<

Tickets: FREE

Performing ...  


For More Information 215-947-3262  ext. 7 or
www.smsmusic.org


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