Stay tuned for time and ticket information.
Read more about the Maestro and some of his work, below.
Maestro Robert W. Butts & The Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey
Maestro Robert W.
Butts, founder and conductor of The Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey for 20
years, was named one of five 2015 Honored Artists by The American Prize. Maestro Butts was also awarded the 2011
American Prize Citation for Arts and Education outreach. He was named the 2004
Arts Professional of the Year by Morris Arts (then the Arts Council of the
Morris Area), the DeMarsh Award by The American Recorder Society, and twice was
a finalist for The Leo M. Traynor award. For the American Prize,
he has been a finalist as opera and orchestra conductor and as composer. He
also was awarded The 2011 Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award.
Maestro Butts has
developed The Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey from a specialized period
ensemble to one of New Jersey's most dynamic orchestras with the most
far-reaching repertoire. While still performing the music of the 17th
and 18th centuries (Monteverdi through Beethoven), Maestro Butts has expanded
the orchestra to include music of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Further,
he and the orchestra have become leaders in the performance of new music,
having premiered a dozen works by local composers over the past four years.
In
addition to his own compositions, Maestro Butts has led the orchestra in
premiere works by Derwyn Holder, Richard Russell, Amy Reich, and Monsignor
Marco Frisina who visited from the Vatican for the premiere of his work Puccini
Suite. Maestro Butts has maintained a commitment to young artists through
work with The Pearl & Julius Young Music Competition, sponsored by the
orchestra. Finalists of the competition have been invited to play concerti with
the orchestra, and to perform with the orchestra to enjoy the experience of
playing with the more seasoned players Maestro Butts has also
been a leading force in conducting opera in the New York area. Working with The
Little Opera Company, New Jersey Concert Opera, BONJ Opera, Eastern
Opera, Touring Opera Company of New York, and Opera Theater of Montclair,
Maestro Butts has led acclaimed performances of operas from the 17th through
the 21st centuries. He is the only conductor to have conducted concert
performances of three Handel operas (Semele, Acis and Galatea, and Giulio
Cesare) and three Wagner operas (Das Rheingold, Die Walküre,
and Siegfried) in addition to operas by Mozart, Pergolesi,
Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini, Leoncavallo, Bizet, Weber and Johann Strauss. He has
worked with singers and directors from around the world. In March 2015, Maestro
Butts made his conducting debut in Italy with a performance of
Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona. He later conducted the opera with an
international cast at The Bell and Barter Theatre in Rockaway, New Jersey.
As a composer, Maestro
Butts finds influences from all styles of music ranging from the contrapuntal
complexity of Johann Sebastian Bach to the passionate lyrical works of
Tchaikovsky and Puccini to modern composers such as Schoenberg and Stravinsky.
Pop music has also influenced his highly lyrical style, particularly the
compositions of Stephen Sondheim. In 2015, Maestro Butts had his compositions
performed in Italy, England, China and Korea. His chamber operas were performed
in January 2015 at The National Opera Center in New York. His Early
Morning Suite was recently premiered at Schott Recital Hall in London.
His Symphony #1 - The Joshua Symphony, commissioned by the
Plaut family, was premiered in 2014.Other compositions receiving performances
and critical attention include the operas The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask
of Amontillado, and Mark Twain and the General, as we ll
as the popular Browning Songs, Bassoon Concerto, Five Poems on Emily
Dickinson, Suite for Mid-Winter Afternoons, and Saturnalia
Strings.
As an educator,
Maestro Butts has taught courses on music history, conducting, American Music,
Opera, and Early 20th Century Music at Montclair State University, The
Casperson School of Graduate Studies at Drew University, The College of Saint
Elizabeth, and Fairleigh Dickinson University. He has presented musicological
papers at conferences of The American Musicological Society, The Country Music
Conference, The Sonneck Society, The American Byron Society, The Symposium on
New Classicism, and Friends of Mead Hall Annual Meeting. He is renowned
around New Jersey for his passionate and warm teaching and lecturing style
which he has brought to many adult education programs, libraries, and
retirement communities. He lectures regularly for The New Jersey Council for
the Humanities and has lectured for The New Jersey Symphony, New Jersey State
Opera, and Elderhostel. He has participated on opera education panels at The
Metropolitan Opera. With The Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey, he created
the education broadcast series Concerts and Conversations.
Maestro Butts has done
extensive media work - recently appearing on television broadcasts in
Cremona and Castlefranco in Italy; in London, England; as a Comcast
Newsmaker in New Jersey; and on Ask the Expert with Jesse
Frees on WMTR. The November issue of New Jersey Monthly featured
a special story on Maestro Butts and the orchestra.
The American Prize, begun in 2009, is awarded for excellence
in all areas of musical performance and education. Performances are judged on
artistic quality, based on the full breadth of possible criteria, including the
overall effect of the performance, musicality, rhythmic incisiveness, ensemble,
tone quality, accuracy, intonation, knowledge of style. Founder and Director
David Katz was selected as as one of Musical America's "Professionals
of the Year—a Key Influencer" for 2016. The other
"Honored Artists for 2015" include Donald Appert, conductor, of
Vancouver, WA; Peggy Dettwiler, conductor, of Mansfield, PA; Jonathan Handman, conductor,
of LaGrangeville, NY; and Robert Wendel, composer, of New York, NY.
♫ https://baroqueorchestra.org/
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