Press Release - September 24, 2009
BAY-ATLANTIC SYMPHONY GALA HONORS “KING OF SWING” WITH DAVE BENNETT SEXTET LIVE AT BORGATA, SEPT. 24
Atlantic City, NJ (8/11/2009) - Tickets are available now for this year’s cultural blockbuster event, “Swing with the Symphony!”—the Bay-Atlantic Symphony’s gala tribute to the “King of Swing” Benny Goodman featuring the renowned Dave Bennett and his Sextet and world-famous pianist Jeffrey Biegel on Thursday, September 24, at 8 PM in The Music Box at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City.
Tickets are $65, $50, and $35 and are available for purchase by calling (866) 900-4849, online at www.theborgata.com, or in-person by visiting the Borgata Box Office. The ticket price is subsidized by a generous grant from the PNC Arts Alive grant program.
The Bay-Atlantic Symphony, under the direction of Music Director Jed Gaylin, will collaborate with one of today’s premiere jazz swing artists in a program featuring many of the signature tunes of “The King of Swing,” the centenary of whose birth is being celebrated this year. Biegel will join the Symphony, performing George Gershwin’s popular Rhapsody in Blue.
Clarinetist Dave Bennett is an authentic musical prodigy who brings to life the classic sound and music of Benny Goodman with incredible technique, style, beauty of tone, and naturalness. With his sextet and septet, Bennett has brought his Salute to Benny Goodman to venues throughout and United States and Canada, with a live recording on RKO Records.
Thrill again to those beautiful melodies and swinging rhythms that kept Goodman at the top of the charts during that wonderful era of the big bands.
Also, enjoy one of today’s great pianists as he joins the spectacular Bay-Atlantic Symphony in a true American musical classic blending classical music and jazz. Biegel has created a multi-faceted career as a pianist, composer, and arranger. His performances of the standard repertoire and contemporary classical works have been heard worldwide and in several recordings on the Naxos label. He performed the restored, original 1924 manuscript of the Rhapsody in Blue with the Boston Pops.
PNC Financial Services Group (NYSE: PNC) is the presenting sponsor for this concert. The support is part of PNC Arts Alive, a five-year, $5 million investment from The PNC Foundation, to help area residents gain access to the arts, and help arts organizations expand and engage audiences.
The Bay-Atlantic Symphony, which gives performances in four South Jersey counties, was established in 1983 as the Bridgeton Symphony with Russell Meyer as its Music Director. During this period, the orchestra achieved significant growth, attracting players from throughout the Delaware Valley region and renowned soloists in a wide and varied repertoire. The orchestra at this time also established outreach relationships with Cumberland County College, Rowan University, and the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. It became the orchestra in residence at Stockton’s Performing Arts Center in 1993.
Under Jed Gaylin, the orchestra’s Music Director since 1997, the orchestra has grown to an impressive ensemble with national recognition. The orchestra changed its name in 1998 to the Bay-Atlantic Symphony to reflect this artistic growth and the regionalization of its stature.
The Bay-Atlantic Symphony has been broadcast repeatedly on National Public Radio, including a segment on Weekend Edition 2004—a feature also broadcast by Voice of America in English and translated throughout Europe and the former Soviet Union.
Among world-renowned soloists collaborating with the orchestra have been Hilary Hahn, Eugenia Zukerman, the Eroica Trio, Stefan Jackiw, Awagadin Pratt, Shai Wosner, Chee-Yun, and Adam Neiman, among others.
In addition to its continued relationship with Richard Stockton College, the Bay-Atlantic Symphony has been the resident symphony of the Guaracini Fine and Performing Arts Center at Cumberland County College since 1999, orchestra-in-residence of the Cape May Music Festival since 2003, and the resident orchestra of Avalon’s “Symphony by the Sea” summer series. During the 2009-10 season, the Symphony is adding Rowan University’s Pfleeger Concert Hall in Glassboro to its regular subscription concert performance venues.
This outreach also includes music education programs and four-county monthly lecture series. It has been further strengthened through active membership in the South Jersey Cultural Alliance, Jersey Arts Communicators, League of American Orchestras, Art Pride New Jersey, Arts and Business Partnership of Southern New Jersey, as well as various local chambers of commerce, and community-based groups.
Gaylin, now entering his 13th season as Music Director of the Bay-Atlantic Symphony, is also the Principal Conductor of the Cape May Music Festival. He has been the Music Director of the Johns Hopkins Symphony Orchestra since 1993 and, since 2007, the Principal Guest Conductor of the National Film and Radio Philharmonic in Beijing, China.
A sought-after guest conductor, Gaylin has led orchestras including the Sibiu Philharmonic of Romania—where he served as Principal Guest Conductor, Shanghai (China) Conservatory Orchestra, Bucharest (Romania) Radio Orchestra, Academia del Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona, Spain), Lodz and Pomorska (Poland) Philharmonics, Gnessin Institute Orchestra and Moscow Chamber Symphony (Russia), Orquesta Sinfonica de Guanajuato (Mexico), Orvieto Festival Orchestra (Italy), and the Naples Philharmonic (Florida). He also maintains a close association with Baltimore’s Opera Vivente. A much sought-after guest conductor throughout Europe, he has appeared with such orchestras as the Academia del Gran Teatre del Liceu of Barcelona, Spain, for repeat engagements, as well as the Bucharest (Romania) Radio Orchestra, Lodz (Poland) Philharmonic, and the Moscow (Russia) Chamber Symphony.
“The PNC Foundation has a long history of providing grants to non-profit organizations that strengthen and enrich the lives of our neighbors,” said Bill Mills, president of PNC for Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey. “We understand the valuable return that investing in the arts can deliver. Today more than ever, the businesses we attract, the jobs we create and the visitors who extend their stay are drawn by what South Jersey has to offer.”
The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (www.pnc.com) is one of the nation’s largest diversified financial services organizations providing retail and business banking; residential mortgage banking; specialized services for corporations and government entities, including corporate banking, real estate finance and asset-based lending; wealth management; asset management and global fund services.
For more information on the Bay-Atlantic Symphony’s exciting 2009-10 season, please call the Bay-Atlantic Symphony at (856) 451-1169 or visit the Symphony’s website at www.bayatlanticsymphony.org.
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