And here are some of the names of those who made MMUP16 happen…

We had a great group of volunteers and supporters making Make Music Upper Perk a reality this year.

And here are some of their names;

MMUP16 would like to thank the following people for taking the time to volunteer, and being an integral part of making Make Music Upper Perk 2016 a great success. Everyone who helped out, whether they distributed flyers, put out yard signs, set up chairs, did design work (posters, flyers, program, and map), wrote press releases, served as site hosts, or roadies, or any of the other behind the scene tasks that makes this event work, was important and key to making this Valley wide celebration of music happen.

MMUP16 Volunteers;

Art
Kristy
Beth Anne
Pam
Fred
Homer
Jeanine
Candy
Jake
Margaret
Michaela
Sean
Travis
Jeanne
Payell
Jesse
Priscilla
Teresa
Chelsea
Kelly
Ariel
Kaitlyn
Isabel
Kasey
Sherry
Scott
Tom
Sharon
Tim C.
Tim G.
Jyss
Gary
Chris
Sue
Michele
Robin
Maggie
Ann
Reenie
Ellen
Phil S.
Alex F.
Mark F.
Pence family

Thanks to the wonderful folks who let MMUP16 use their space for music makers this year, some have been with us from the beginning, in 2013, and a few are new to Make Music Upper Perk this year;

MMUP16 Venues;

Java Good Day Cafe
Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center
Upper Perkiomen Valley Library
Upper Perk Community Life Center
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Pennsburg
Pennsburg United Church of Christ
Art on Main
Upper Perkiomen Community Thrift Shop
Upper Perk YMCA
New Goshenhoppen Park

Goodyz
Wing Man Bar and Grill
Mario’s Pizza, East Greenville

And we shouldn’t forget our financial supporters;

Supporters

• Diane E Linden
• Ariel and Domenik Ackermann
• Buckwalter Family
• Katherine Dale
• Bob Dodge
• April Ann Dudko
• Foley Family
• Laura E Goodin
• Amity and Cory Grim and family
• Janet Harris
• Nancy and David Hopkins
• Karin Lea and Rick Hummel
• Tom and Judy Lalinsky
• Pam and Fred Morris
• Jesse and Kat Royer
• Ryan Sweeney
• Gwen and Tim White

Patrons

• Revs. Pence and family
• Margaret Cox
• Frank and Donna Falk
• Jess and Joe Gillespie
• Grafton Piano
• Richard and Rosemarie Hartzell
• Chris and Susan High
• Michele Hohlfeld, Realtor, RE/MAX Reliance
• Forrest and Betty Kreiger
• The Howe Family
• Sherry Laessig
• Zbyszinski family

Producers

• Tim and Rev. Deborah Clemens
• Brenda and Peter Pardun
• Luanne Stauffer

Thank you!

Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate music in our community last Tuesday, June 21st, at Make Music Upper Perk. The skies stayed blue, the audiences were great, and the music was fantastic, resounding all over the Valley.

A special thank you to all the musicians who gave of their time and their talent, all the volunteers who worked behind the scenes (and sometimes in front, in the case of site hosts) without whom this event couldn’t have happened or run nearly so smoothly, and to all the generous folks who provided performance space free of charge.

We also want you to know that we had two roaming photographers this year, Kristi Morris of Littlewing Studio in Pennsburg, and Art Olsen. You can see Kristi’s photos online.

We will let you know when and where you can see the photographs Art Olsen took on Tuesday.

There are also short videos and other photographs taken during the day posted on the Make Music Upper Perk Facebook page. This week’s Town and Country has a multi-page article about the event, and including many photos. Additional photos and the like will continue to be posted on our Facebook page and on ValleyArtScene.wordpress.com – you can also follow us on Twitter @MakeMusicUP

We encourage you to share any all photos and videos of the day’s event with us, on Facebook, or by getting them to us so that we can post them on ValleyArtScene and/or on Facebook. Please let us know if you have posted anything MMUP related on your website or Facebook page, so that we might link to it.

 

Leave the house and celebrate summer!

The Manayunk Arts Festival is one of my favorite events of the year, featuring fine arts and crafts by over 300 extremely talented artists with work ranging from painting to jewelry to mixed media to clothing to sculpture and so very much more. The Festival is held outdoors ,rain or shine, on Main Street on the last weekend of June (Saturday and Sunday, June 25 and 26th, this year) which is closed to traffic for the weekend. There is no admission fee. While many people drive over to Manayunk and find parking up the hill and on the street before walking down to Main Street, I almost always park on the other side of the river by City Line and take a special shuttle bus from the parking lot directly to Main Street – the $4 roundtrip fee goes to charity.

West Side Story (June 15 – July 3, 2016) and Julius Caesar  (June 22 – July 17, 2016) are on stage at Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, held on the campus of DeSales University, 2755 Station Avenue, Center Valley, PA.

The family show 13: The Musical opens this afternoon in Quakertown at McCoole’s Arts & Events Place (10 S Main Street); 12 noon and 7 p.m. shows on Saturday, June 25th and 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 26, 2016. Tickets may be bought online or at the door.This Jason Robert Brown musical features a cast and band entirely made up of teenagers.

This Jason Robert Brown musical features a cast and band entirely made up of teenagers.

 Story:

When 13 year old Evan Goldman moves from New York City to Indiana, he must escape rumors and blackmail if he hopes to make friends and find happiness at his new school. This play deals with the hardships of leaving familiar places for unfamiliar ones, fitting in with your peers, and transitioning from youth to adulthood.

And  a reminder that the Allentown Art Museum has free admission on Sundays and Thursday evenings.  A brand new exhibit opens tomorrow, Sunday, June 26th; Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art. To celebrate the opening of this exhibit, the Museum is hosting a street party – “It’s an opening-day street party! To welcome our members and the neighborhood to Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art we are closing down Fifth Street in front of the Museum and turning up the fun.” There will be food, live music,dance (and dance instruction), story station for families, a panel discussion, and, of course, the art!

This exhibition presents the rich and varied contributions of Latino artists in the United States since the mid-twentieth century, when the concept of a collective Latino identity began to emerge. It presents works in all media by seventy-one leading modern and contemporary artists. Artists featured reflect the diversity of Latino communities in the United States, showcasing artists of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Dominican descent, as well as other Latin American groups with deep roots here. Our America is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Make Music Upper Perk is today; rain or shine!

Today is the day we’ll be celebrating music throughout the Upper Perkiomen Valley, while others celebrate Make Music throughout the world – towns and cities in over 108 countries will be offering free concerts, and opportunities for folks to join in playing and making music, to the public on June 21st as part of Fete de la Musique. In Upper Perk, music will be playing from 10 a.m. – 10 p.m., spread out among 14 locations.

“National Music Day is music in the streets, music in your church, music in the cafes, the parks, and wherever you feel like playing. National Music Day is the one day a year we celebrate the central role of music in our lives and our country through free, open, and accessible events throughout the U.S. and the world.”  http://nationalmusicday.org/

Musicians come from the Upper Perk Valley and surrounding areas, and include amateurs and professionals; ranging in ages from 5 years old to 80+?, playing and singing all types of music from folk to Celtic to punk rock; jazz to pops orchestra to Sousa. This year there are several opportunities for members of the public to show up and join in the singing; Hymn Sing at 4 p.m. at St. Mark’s Lawn in Pennsburg; and two Campfire Sing-alongs beginning at 9 p.m at Pennsburg UCC Lawn and at New Goshenhoppen Park in East Greenville.

In case of rain, music scheduled for St. Mark’s Lawn will move to New Goshenhoppen Park in East Greenville (where there is a covered bandstand for the performers and a covered pavilion with seating for the audience), and music scheduled for The Porch at Pennsburg UCC will move inside the Pennsburg UCC building (most likely the social hall).

Full list of musicians for 2016.

Full program for MMUP 2016.

Map and full list of venues (scroll down past program).

Every June 21st is National Music Day.

Musical Weekend leading up to Make Music Upper Perk!

Friday night, June 17th, 2016, 4 Seasons, the second free concert in the Chamber Music Summer Concert Series at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Harleysville, PA (2871 Barndt Road) begins at 7:30 p.m.

This trio concert features Keoni Bolding, violin, Peter Lockman, cello, and Seth Trumbore, piano.

The program offers a wide range of classical pieces, including works by Brahms, Piazzolla, Franck, Gliere,  (Vivaldi) and more!

Saturday night, June 18th, is the first of three PREVIEW EVENTS FOR Make Music Upper Perk (MMUP). Beginning at 8:30 p.m., the first half hour of Saturday night’s Open Mic session at Wing Man Bar and Grill, 633 Gravel Pike, East Greenville (Rt 29 by the Walmart), will feature performers who are participating in this year’s Make Music Upper Perk (including Tom Cooney).

Sunday afternoon, June 19th, is Evelyn Gerhart’s flute recital.

This recital is free and open to the public. It is one of the preview events for Make Music Upper Perk. This will be a fantastic chance to enjoy the flair of Evelyn on the flute while we have her talent among us. It is an event not to be missed! Join us at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 19 at Pennsburg United Church of Christ,775 Main Street, Pennsburg, PA.

She will be presenting all three movements of Mozart’s Flute Concerto No.1, along with music by several other composers. One of those is Ian Clarke, who authors fascinating flute selections. Another is Fred Moyer, local composer and retired music educator, living in Pennsburg, who has written a piece specifically to feature the talent of Miss Gerhart.

And finally, on the night before Make Music Upper Perk, folks are invited to come to the First Monday  Community Meal at Pennsburg UCC, 775 Main Street, Pennsburg, PA, from 6 p.m. – 7 p.m. The meal, and the music provided by Make Music Upper Perk, are both free and open to the public.

And then on Tuesday, June 21st, beginning at 10 a.m. – music can be found and heard all around the Upper Perkiomen Valley throughout the day and into the night as part of the free, public celebration of music that is Make Music Upper Perk.

Don’t wait until the weekend!

The SouthSide Film Festival in Bethlehem, PA started today, and continues through Saturday, June 18th, 2016.

This is a really interesting (and surprisingly low cost) event, featuring movies you’ve never heard of and might never get a chance to see if it weren’t for this great local festival. There are full length films, but what I have found most interesting are the blocks of short films (each film roughly 5 – 20 minutes long); blocks are organized by themes ranging from comedy to animation to drama to documentary to experimental. The Festival has kindly provided synopsis for all the films, long and short, appearing over the course of the five day festival (and that alone is a fun read, whether you get to see some or none of the films).

Ticket prices range from $5 – $10 (all access passes are available for $50; $40 for students), and films are shown in the afternoon and in the evening. There is also a Children’s Film Festival where animated and short live films are being screened at Godfrey Daniels (7 E. Fourth Street, Bethlehem, PA) on Friday and Saturday morning and afternoon.

Muhlenberg Summer Music Theater lifted the curtain on their first production of 2016 on Wednesday night, June 15th. Gypsy runs through July 3rd at the Baker Theater on Muhlenberg College campus, 2400 Chew Street, Allentown, PA. West Side Story is running at Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival during the same time, June 15 – July 3, 2016, on the campus of DeSales University, 2755 Station Avenue, Center Valley, PA. The Festival will also be performing Julius Caesar this month, from June 22 – July 17, 2016.

Chapter Two opens on Thursday, June 16th and runs through July 10, 2016, at Montgomery Theater, 124 Main Street, Souderton, PA. Tickets may be bought online or at the door.

Recent widower, author George Schneider, is encouraged by his younger brother Leo to start dating again. A series of bad matches threatens to send George into an even darker depression Enter the beautiful and quirky Jennie Malone. This turning-point play from America’s most prolific and beloved playwright, explores the bumpy trip on the road to Dreamland for these not-so-young lovers.

   Read about more theater happenings this summer.

Songwriters Circle at Y on June 21st

You may, or may not, remember an earlier post by Tom Cooney about “Songwriters in the Round” (listed in the MMUP program as Songwriters Circle, scheduled for 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. at the Upper Perk YMCA). This is a new offering for Make Music Upper Perk;

One of the special sessions at this year’s Make Music Upper Perk festival on June 21 is a “Songwriters in the Round” session. It’s an opportunity for songwriters of all levels, including beginners, to share songs with each other in a relaxed and informal environment.

The “in the round” format is fun! Everyone sits in a large circle with their instruments and we “pass the song” … Meaning, we go around the circle and each share one song at a time. Each person sets up the song they are sharing with a brief intro, and then they play it live. (If you have any pre-recorded accompanying track(s) you want to use, that’s ok.)

It’s a supportive setting where fellow songwriters express their appreciation for what you play. It’s NOT a songwriting workshop or a critique session. It’s just playing and sharing. There’s usually a small audience at these sessions too.

A nice mix of songwriters have signed up to participate in this event next Tuesday evening, as part of MMUP. However, I have been reliably informed that folks wishing to share an original song may join in on that night.

Here are the names of those who have signed up to be part of the Circle, as of today;

Tom Cooney – Judy Lalinsky – Justin Leigh Walters and Kelly Joy Klein – Bob Grover – Chris Macy – Alan Kent – Bob Grover – Al Fox – Steve Walker

Flute Recital on Father’s Day – June 19th

Blog post by Susan Royer

A local rising star is offering an opportunity for the public to enjoy some very lively and exciting music on Father’s Day. Evelyn Gerhart will be presenting a flute recital on June 19th at Pennsburg United Church of Christ. Her talent is both stunning and exciting! She will be presenting all three movements of Mozart’s Flute Concerto No.1, along with music by several other composers. One of those is Ian Clarke, who authors fascinating flute selections. Another is Fred Moyer, local composer and retired music educator, living in Pennsburg, who has written a piece specifically to feature the talent of Miss Gerhart.

Evelyn has been playing flute for five years. She has just completed 8th grade at Upper Perkiomen Middle School . She is a flute student of Dr. Susanna Loewy and a member of the Philadelphia Sinfonia Players Orchestra. Evelyn competed, and was selected as the winner, in the Junior Novice Division of the 2013 and 2014 Flute Society of Great Philadelphia’s Young Artist Competition and the Junior Advanced division in 2015. She has also performed in master classes with Susan Milan and Katherine Borst-Jones. In 2015 and 2016 Evelyn was awarded first chair in the Tri-County Junior High Honors Band. This summer she will be attending the Kinhaven music camp and performing as a member of the Quakertown Band. Evelyn is the daughter of Chris and Dana Gerhart of Pennsburg.

This recital is free and open to the public. It is one of the preview events for Make Music Upper Perk. This will be a fantastic chance to enjoy the flair of Evelyn on the flute while we have her talent among us. It is an event not to be missed! Join us at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 19 at Pennsburg United Church of Christ,775 Main Street, Pennsburg, PA.

Free Outdoor Concerts, Friday and Saturday

For the next five Fridays, there will be a free concert in the Sculpture Garden next to the Bethlehem City Hall (and public library) at 10 E. Church Street, from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. Folks are encouraged to bring a blanket or lawn chair, and maybe even a picnic to the event – in case of rain the music will play on, in the Bethlehem City Hall Rotunda. The Craig Thatcher Acoustic Band will kick off the concert series this Friday night, June 10, 2016 will their mix of classic rock, blues standards, and original music. Mark your calendar for the entire Friday night series;

June 17 – Lehigh Valley Folk Music Society
This eclectic blend of folk music will be followed by a ukulele jam open to all. Bring a uke if you have one!
June 24 – Charlie Brown’s Notorious Groove
You’ll be grooving in the garden to some old-school R&B, funk, jazz and Motown tunes.
July 8 – The Monkeephiles
We’ll all be “daydream believers” at this faithful tribute to the music and fun of the Monkees!
July 15 – Hector Rosado y su Orquesta Hache
The concert series will close with salsa, merengue and Latin jazz – including a group dance lesson for anyone who wants to salsa!

 

The Hickory Project Band will be playing at the Amphitheater at Green Lane Park on Saturday night, June 11, 2016, beginning at 7 p.m. (2144 Snyder Rd, Green Lane, PA). Free.

What started as a routine experiment has turned into a revolutionary project, henceforth known as Hickory Project.  Formed in 2001, the band features hard–driving traditional and original acoustic music deeply rooted in bluegrass. Hickory Project is a powerhouse of musical prowess with the expert licks of  National Mandolin Champion Anthony Hannigan, Jillian Hannigan, Ed Lick, Steve Belcher, and Josh Sudigala.

Festivals in Red Hill and Saucon Valley

Starting off the first weekend in June are two local outdoor festivals (one more local than the other).

The Strawberry Festival at New Goshenhoppen Park, 3rd Street, Red Hill takes place from 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. on Saturday, June 4th, 2016. There will be food, fun, crafts, and live music ending with the Red Hill Band playing under the bandshell from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m.

The “New Item” Auction will still start the day at 10:00 a.m.; the Variety Show will now begin at 1:00 p.m. this year. Our children and youth show off their many talents on the stage at the bandshell –and maybe some will even do a “Lip Sync Challenge!” A Moon Bounce for children will still be available most of the day from 12:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. There will also be Face Painting and a Petting Zoo as usual, BUT instead of the Dunk Tank, we are hoping to have a new type of game. The planning committee is looking at a possible basketball free throw shoot, or maybe a Skee Ball game, or maybe even a photo booth, who knows?!

Juli Kells Dancers will perform at 1:45 p.m. Then at 3:00 p.m. we plan to have a new band play live music on the stage. This band plays Christian music, folk music, rock music –so something for everyone! For the end of the day, we will once again enjoy having the Red Hill Band play from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

A little further up the road, also this Saturday, June 4th, in Lower Saucon Township is the Saucon Creek Arts Festival featuring over 50 juried artists, and several local musicians; Jason Hahn (10 a.m.), The Dulcimer Boys ( 11 a.m.), 99 Strings (noon), children’s musician Dave Fry (1 p.m.), Ed Saultz (2 p.m.), Mike Holiday (3 p.m.) and Piper’s Request (4 p.m.). The event will be held rain or shine at Heller Homestead, 1890-92 Friedensville Road (Water Street), Lower Saucon Township, Bethlehem, PA. Food and guided tours of historic grounds also available.