Gordon Thomas Ward
Contact Information: Gordon Thomas Ward, P.O. Box 226, Pottersville, NJ 07979; www.gordonthomasward.com; [email protected]; 908-295-2391
Programs–
Story-Songs of History
Audiences adore this evocative presentation of original songs and their inspiring stories celebrating the rich histories and secreted tales of our shared past. Many of the songs Gordon performs are from his CD Welcome to the Past. Presented in brilliant detail, Mr. Ward uses a “behind the music” format combining enchanting anecdotes, vocals, and a multi-instrumental accompaniment to transport listeners on a captivating journey through various time periods and historic events including the Revolutionary War, the Civil Way, railroads in NJ, Trail of Tears, the Lenape, Robert Frost, and more!
History on the Hoof
An educational performance troupe that employs storytelling, roleplay, displays, and music to illustrate historical topics. Stacy Roth and David Emerson offer a variety of their own separate programs as well as programs done together.
Roth is an interpreter, museum educator, historian, and information specialist who has performed and presented for museums, libraries, schools, civic organizations, and festivals throughout the area. Emerson has worked at living history museums for over 25 years as an independent storyteller, teaching history through the eyes of a “person of the past.” He is a veteran of Colonial Williamsburg, Plimoth Plantation, Morristown National Historical Park, and the Old Barracks Museum. They will appear in period costumes.
Contact Information: Stacy F. Roth / B. David Emerson, P.O. Box 421, Burlington, NJ 08016;
609-239-2706 voicemail; [email protected]
Stacy Roth’s Programs-
Colonial Frolick: Early American Songs, Singing Games and More
Stacy Roth and music therapist/trumpeter Flora Newberry present their favorite rhymes, riddles, rounds, ditties, instruments, and dances from the 17th to early 19th centuries. Lots of audience participation. For kids, their parents, and their grandparents!
Fife and Drum
Revolutionary War and general repertoire available for festivals, event openings, etc.
Stacy Roth and David Emerson Programs-
Legends and Lore of the Winter Holidays
Join Interpreters Stacy Roth and Dave Emerson as they conjure the ghosts of Christmases past. Hear the traditional songs and stories, learn of archaic customs and carols and discover how the Victorians in general — and three authors in particular — revitalized and reinvented our favorite holiday. A veritable cornucopia of holiday treats certain to delight the entire family.
Christmas Carols * Tavern Songs * Songs of the Sea: Spiced Punch
Quartet with David, Stacy, and musicians and puppeteers Tom & Marianne Tucker. Costumed performance of Victorian (and earlier) Christmas Songs, Colonial Tavern Ditties, and Sea Songs of all periods — in appropriate historical dress. Our programs can include anecdotes and introductions of musical selections, if desired.
John Burkhalter III
Independent scholar and lecturer
Contact information: [email protected]
Programs–
Tuneful Felicity: Francis Hopkinson and Musick
Francis Hopkinson is best known as an ardent patriot, one of New Jersey’s Five Signers of the Declaration of Independence, Delegate in 1778 to the Continental Congress and later an active member of the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Like his friends Franklin and Jefferson, music and the social harmony it engendered held pride of place. Hopkinson, who maintained residences in Philadelphia and Bordentown, was a proficient harpsichordist and is credited as the first native born composer in America. The program will survey Hopkinson’s musical world and will draw specifically on printed music he is known to have purchased in Philadelphia and from London publishers and from his ca. 1764 manuscript volume of music for [or arranged for] the harpsichord.
Musical Life in Colonial Williamsburg
In 18th-century Williamsburg the study of music was a subject of serious interest and social refinement. Harpsichords and other musical instruments were imported for Williamsburg’s town houses and nearby plantations. The presentation will be based on one of the most important Colonial music inventories known, that of “Mr. Ogle, musick master lately arrived in Williamsburg from London.”
Mr. Jefferson and His Music
Polymath Thomas Jefferson, the “Sage of Monticello” was ardent in his devotion to music. Jefferson owned numerous instruments imported from London and an extraordinary collection of printed music. He believed that music was indispensable to the fabric of culture and civilization in fact “a most delightful recreation.” A brief illustrated lecture will be complemented with a performance of music drawn from Mr. Jefferson’s 1783 inventory of musical holdings.
The Fifes and Drums of the Old Barracks
The Fifes & Drums of the Old Barracks are a group of musicians who perform late 18th-century music that would have been performed by a military corps of music during the Revolutionary War. Beyond their well-researched repertoire of colonial music, their uniforms are those that would have been worn by the musicians of the 2nd New Jersey Regiment. Four of the eight companies of this regiment were raised at the Trenton barracks in December of 1775. The Fife & Drum Corps made their debut at the Old Barracks Association’s 2004 Capital Ball. Comprised of middle and high school students and professional musicians from the Trenton area, they have been organized and trained under the direction of Stephen Hudak, Andrew Wierzbowski, John Lane, James Fultz, and Timothy Ross.
They are available to perform at events.
Contact Information: [email protected] or call 609-396-1776
