An all-star cast of local performers is taking the stage for the next two weeks performing the classic, Jesus Christ Superstar, now in its 50th years. The production is also a fundraiser for St. Patrick Catholic Church in Norristown, which is in need of repairs in the chapel. Please come out and support the arts, and St. Pat’s at the same time! Get your tickets here!
The Centre Theater production of Chicago HS Edition is almost sold out. Seating is not at full capacity for this production, so tickets are limited to ensure spacing between bubbled groups. Although the state of PA has removed mask mandates – all audience members will be asked to mask up to ensure safety for cast members who have not all completed their vaccination cycle. Audience members are also asked to submit to a temperature check before entering the performance space. Families have purchased almost all of the tickets and only a handful remain to sell to the general public. To get tickets, email us at theartsbubble@gmail.com. Tell us how many seats you would like and what time you would like to come. The show runs July 8, 9 and 10 at 7 p.m., and July 10 at 2 p.m.
The Centre Theater Arts Bubble project is now accepting enrollment for the Jr. Professional Youth Production of Chicago High School Edition. For information on the production, reach out to theartsbubble@gmail.com. The show will go up July 8 through 10. Students aged 13 to 18 will rehearse virtually (to learn music and dance routines) through June 1. After June 1, rehearsals will move to the 4th Floor Theatre Space.
Auditions (one 16 to 32 bar song in the style of Chicago and the dance routine which will be provided to all who email the theatre) will be accepted from May 15 to 22, 2021 via digital upload at theartsbubble@gmail.com. The production is an enrollment based workshop. Fee for participation is $250, but scholarships and work study positions are also available.
To fill out an interest sheet and receive an audition form and information on the dance portion of the audition, please fill out this interest form.
The production is directed by Aileen Lynch-McCulloch, with music direction by Rachel Wilkin and Choreography by Autumn Phillips. Paige Byerly assistant directs. Lionel McCulloch is lighting designer.
Open Air Chamber Music Series
Saturday and Sunday, May 30th and 31st, from 9:00AM-8:00PM
Rittenhouse Square | 210 W Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, PA 19103
During the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the decision has been made to continue the praised Open Air Chamber Music events during the months, June through August, in Philadelphia Center City in Rittenhouse Square, featuring professional musicians and artists. The artist of the month is the brilliant bassoonist, Dominic Panunto. Together, he will perform with the Director of Music and cellist, Steve Kramer, duo repertoire from the Renaissance and Classical periods. The unaccompanied cello suites by Johann Sebastian Bach will be portrayed on Saturday, May 30th. On Sunday, May 31st, the duo will perform highest-class chamber music, 11:00-3:00PM.
Admission is free. Bring your masks and enjoy from a safe distance!
For more information, contact the Director of Music, Steve Kramer at 610-710-6100.
Artist Biography – Dominic Panunto
Dominic Panunto is a freelance bassoonist performing in the Greater Philadelphia area. A student of William Short at Temple University, Dominic performs with the University Symphony Orchestra. He recently became a member of the York Symphony Orchestra as their contrabassoonist. He has performed with Rutgers Symphony, Drexel Symphony, Penn Symphony, PhilOperaCo, Thomas Jefferson University Choir, Swarthmore Symphony and regional orchestras such as Reading Symphony Orchestra, Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, Bay Atlantic Symphony, and Symphony in C. Dominic has played with touring groups in live shows including Lindsey Stirling, Celtic Thunder, and Evanescence. Dominic is also active in the field of contemporary music. He is a permanent member or Arcana New Music Ensemble and played in large-scale productions of works by Stockhausen and Davidovsky.
Artist Biography – Steve Kramer
Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, Steve Kramer started playing the violin at the age of three with his grandfather, Vladimir Yeshayavitch Novak. Picking up the cello at age five, Steve Kramer soon continued his studies with his first formal cello teacher, Erling Blondal Bengtsson, pupil of the legendary Gregor Piatigorsky at Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. It was with him that Steve Kramer perfected the unaccompanied suites by J. S. Bach. He made his debut at 12 years of age, playing as a soloist while touring with orchestras in Scandinavia. He further developed his musicianship under the supervision of five other giants of classical music: violinist Yehudi Menuhin and pianist and composer Peter Norris, with whom Steve Kramer studied chamber music at the Yehudi Menuhin School in London; cellist Karine Georgian at the Hochschule fur Musik-Detmold in Germany; and private lessons with cellist Boris Pergamentshikov in Berlin, Germany, and cellist Alexander Sinelnikov in Jerusalem, Israel. Steve Kramer has collaborated with composers from all over the world. Steve Kramer performs contemporary music by composers Jennifer Higdon, David Finko, Ben Steinberg, Daniel Dorff, Sidney Grolnic, Eleonor Sigal, Andrea Clearfield, Cynthia Folio, Nimrod Borenstein, Eugene Magalif, Michael Shingo Crawford, and Victor Frost as well as compositions by Scandinavian composers and composers who lost their lives in World Wars I & II
First Sunday | Thursday, May 21st, 2020 from 9:00AM-8:00PM
Additional performances on May 24th through May 27th.
Rittenhouse Square | 210 W Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, PA 19103
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the decision has been made to move the First Sunday events during the months, April-July to Philadelphia Center City in Rittenhouse Square, featuring professional musicians and artists including featured artist of the month, violinist Zhanara Makhmutova and cellist, Steve Kramer, Director of Music.
Admission is free. Bring your masks and enjoy from a safe distance!
For more information, contact the Director of Music, Steve Kramer at 610-710-6100.
The performance will include masterworks from Renaissance to contemporary, including arranged works by Michael Shingo Crawford.
Artist Biography – Zhanara Makhmutova
The Kazakh violinist, Zhanara Makhmutova, was born in 1997 in Kazakhstan. At the age of 7 she began violin studies at the Kazakh National University of Arts. Aged 8, she was invited to play solo with the Kazakh State Chamber Orchestra “Academy of soloists”. In 2017 graduated from college in the class of Raissa Mussakhadjayeva. Took master-classes from V.Tretyakov, S.Kravchenko, E.Grach. As a soloist of “Capricci” violinists ensemble, she performed in USA, France, England, Germany, India, Jordan, Italy and other countries. At the present time, she is a student of Temple University (USA) in the class of Professor Dr. Eduard Schmieder.
Artist Biography: Michael Shingo Crawford
Michael Shingo Crawford is a Philadelphia-based composer and violinist who explores narrative and extramusical ideas through sound. His work is inspired by literature, visual art, dance, and his Japanese heritage.
Michael holds a Master’s in Music Composition from Temple University, where he studied with Emiliano Pardo-Tristan, Jan Krzywicki, and Adam Vidiksis. Within these two years, he received twenty-four premieres of his works, presented by performers including the PRISM Quartet, Sound Energy Trio, and Philadelphia Orchestra Musicians. His opera scene, Maximum Capacity, produced in collaboration with writer Traci Williams, was performed by ENAensemble as part of their Serial Opera Project and received repeat performances as part of the Fringe Festival in Philadelphia. His interest in collaborations has also led him to work with choreographers in projects that brought together live musicians and dancers. He has been commissioned by the Network for New Music and OWLchestra.
First Sunday | Saturday April 4, 2020 at 6:00PM
Centre Theater in Norristown
208 DeKalb St, Norristown, PA 19401
The Centre Theater’s Director of Music, Steve Kramer, will be performing a recital of the unaccompanied suites by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Admission is free, and donations are appreciated. For more information, contact the Director of Music, Steve Kramer at 610-710-6100.
Artist Biography – Steve Kramer
Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, Steve Kramer started playing the violin at the age of three with his grandfather, Vladimir Yeshayavitch Novak. Picking up the cello at age five, Steve Kramer soon continued his studies with his first formal cello teacher, Erling Blondal Bengtsson, pupil of the legendary Gregor Piatigorsky at Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. It was with him that Steve Kramer perfected the unaccompanied suites by J. S. Bach. He made his debut at 12 years of age, playing as a soloist while touring with orchestras in Scandinavia. He further developed his musicianship under the supervision of five other giants of classical music: violinist Yehudi Menuhin and pianist and composer Peter Norris, with whom Steve Kramer studied chamber music at the Yehudi Menuhin School in London; cellist Karine Georgian at the Hochschule fur Musik-Detmold in Germany; and private lessons with cellist Boris Pergamentshikov in Berlin, Germany, and cellist Alexander Sinelnikov in Jerusalem, Israel.
While we have experienced an interruption with the corona virus, and several performances have been cancelled, we are confident we will have an incredibly successful year. Mark you calendars to come out to one of our shows!
First Sunday | March 1, 2020 at 5:00PM
Centre Theater in Norristown
208 DeKalb St, Norristown, PA 19401
In celebration of Black History Month, Independence String Ensemble performs a First Sunday concert featuring works by African American composers who have shaped the course of music in the United States and around the world. The Centre Theater’s Director of Music, Steve Kramer is joined on stage by composer, violinist, and pianist, Michael Shingo Crawford. Listeners will be delighted by ragtime works by Scott Joplin, in their original form played by Michael Shingo Crawford on the piano, as well as a version arranged for the violin and cello duo. The program also showcases Michael’s riveting arrangement of Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal.
Admission is free, and donations are appreciated. For more information, contact Steve Kramer at 610-710-6100 or visit the ensemble’s website at www.independencestringensemble.com.
Please note that this concert begins at 5:00PM—a change from the usual First Sunday schedule.
Artist Biography: Michael Shingo Crawford
Michael Shingo Crawford is a Philadelphia-based composer and violinist who explores narrative and extramusical ideas through sound. His work is inspired by literature, visual art, dance, and his Japanese heritage.
Michael holds a Master’s in Music Composition from Temple University, where he studied with Emiliano Pardo-Tristan, Jan Krzywicki, and Adam Vidiksis. Within these two years, he received twenty-four premieres of his works, presented by performers including the PRISM Quartet, Sound Energy Trio, and Philadelphia Orchestra Musicians. His opera scene, Maximum Capacity, produced in collaboration with writer Traci Williams, was performed by ENAensemble as part of their Serial Opera Project and received repeat performances as part of the Fringe Festival in Philadelphia. His interest in collaborations has also led him to work with choreographers in projects that brought together live musicians and dancers. He has been commissioned by the Network for New Music and OWLchestra.
Michael is active as a violinist and performs with cellist, Steve Kramer, as part of the Independence String Ensemble. The ensemble performs in both classical and popular styles, bringing a unique array of arrangements and original compositions to their audiences, reaching their home in Philadelphia as well as the neighboring cities of New York, Baltimore, and Washington D.C. Michael also performs regularly with ENAensemble, a multimedia chamber opera company. Recent engagements include a recital of Baroque and Classical works presented at the historic Laurel Hill Mansion’s Concerts by Candlelight series with internationally recognized pianist, Lance Wiseman, as well as a performance in Yerevan, Armenia as a member of the 2019 World Congress for Information Technology Orchestra. For both 2018 and 2019, he was concertmaster of Temple Composers Orchestra, a chamber orchestra dedicated to performing Temple student compositions. While studying at Emory University, he served as concertmaster of the Emory University Symphony Orchestra and was the winner of the 2015-2016 Concerto and Aria Competition with his performance of the Barber Violin Concerto. Over the summers, he has attended the Dalí Quartet International Music Festival, Fresh Inc Festival, Eastern Music Festival, National Symphony Orchestra Summer Music Institute, and Franklin Pond Chamber Music College Festival. He currently teaches private violin and piano lessons at Music & Arts Lawrence Park.
During his undergraduate studies at Emory University, he studied composition with Richard Prior and John Anthony Lennon and violin with Shawn Pagliarini. He presented an honors composition recital in his senior year, where his music was performed by the Vega String Quartet, Elena Cholakova, and Emory’s student and alumni musicians. He was a recipient of the Louis B. Sudler Prize in the Arts, a prestigious award presented to the graduating senior who demonstrated the highest proficiency in one or more of the performing or creative arts at Emory.
First Sunday | February 2, 2020 at 3:00PM
Centre Theater in Norristown
208 DeKalb St, Norristown, PA 19401
The Centre Theater’s Director of Music, Steve Kramer, welcomes three exceptional musicians, all three with whom he will collaborate with on stage artistically. Bassoonist, Dominic Panunto, pianist Nam Hoang Nguyen, and composer and violinist Michael Shingo Crawford perform on the First Sunday of February. Dominic and Nam will perform Michael Shingo Crawford’s Bicycle for bassoon and piano.
Admission is free, and donations are appreciated. For more information, contact the Director of Music, Steve Kramer at 610-710-6100.
Artist Biography – Dominic Panunto
Dominic Panunto is a freelance bassoonist performing in the Greater Philadelphia area. A student of William Short at Temple University, Dominic performs with the University Symphony Orchestra. He recently became a member of the York Symphony Orchestra as their contrabassoonist. He has performed with Rutgers Symphony, Drexel Symphony, Penn Symphony, PhilOperaCo, Thomas Jefferson University Choir, Swarthmore Symphony and regional orchestras such as Reading Symphony Orchestra, Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, Bay Atlantic Symphony, and Symphony in C. Dominic has played with touring groups in live shows including Lindsey Stirling, Celtic Thunder, and Evanescence. Dominic is also active in the field of contemporary music. He is a permanent member or Arcana New Music Ensemble and played in large-scale productions of works by Stockhausen and Davidovsky.
Artist Biography – Nam Hoang Nguyen
Born in Hanoi, Vietnam, Nam Hoang Nguyen studied piano at Vietnam Academy of Music before matriculating at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance where he is presently a doctoral student in Piano Performance. His principal teachers have included Ha Thu Tran, Harvey Wedeen, and Ching-Yun Hu; he also studied collaborative piano with Lambert Orkis. Besides playing traditional piano repertoire, Nguyen enjoys playing chamber music, participating in different ensembles of various sizes, as well as studying early keyboard music. He also has interest in music research, and has lectured on Vietnamese music for piano.
Artist Biography – Michael Shingo Crawford
Michael Shingo Crawford is a composer and violinist interested in exploring narrative through his concert music, creating representational works that correspond to concepts and concrete events and objects. This often involves working with musical processes that generate material and symbolic structures. His work is inspired and informed by literature, visual art, dance, and his Japanese heritage.
Under Construction, performed by PRISM Quartet, explores the concept of a work in progress, using additive processes that generate harmonic, rhythmic, and melodic material. In a similar vein, teru teru bouzu, written for Fresh Inc. Music Festival, is a colorful reimagining of a Japanese children’s song that incorporates quotations and effects that contribute to its symbology.
Michael is pursuing a Master’s in Music Composition at Temple University. His works have been performed by the New Music Ensemble, Sound Energy Trio and Temple Composers Orchestra. He was also selected as a finalist in the Costello Competition for Harp Composition and received a commission from OWLchestra. During this time, he studied with Emiliano Pardo-Tristan, Jan Krzywicki, and Adam Vidiksis.
During his undergraduate studies at Emory University, he studied composition with Richard Prior and John Anthony Lennon and violin with Shawn Pagliarini. He presented an honors composition recital in his senior year, where his music was performed by the Vega String Quartet, Elena Cholakova, and Emory’s student and alumni musicians. He was a recipient of the Louis B. Sudler Prize in the Arts, a prestigious award presented to the graduating senior who demonstrated the highest proficiency in one or more of the performing or creative arts at Emory.
As a violinist, he served as concertmaster of the Emory University Symphony Orchestra and was the winner of the 2015-2016 Concerto and Aria Competition with his performance of the Barber Violin Concerto. Over the summers, he attended Franklin Pond Chamber Music College Festival, National Symphony Orchestra Summer Music Institute, and Eastern Music Festival, where he was assistant concertmaster.
Photo with Jennifer Higdon and Steve Kramer from the Independence String Ensemble Fundraiser Concert for CHOP at the Philadelphia Ethical Society. (December 15, 2019)
