Posts in category: Theatre



(BASKING RIDGE, NJ) — Billboard charting quartet, Sons of Serendip, won the hearts of fans and judges alike as finalists on America’s Got Talent with their ethereal and emotionally stirring interpretations of pop music, arranged with a unique blend of vocals, harp, piano, and cello. The Sieminski Theater presents this internationally renowned group on Saturday, November 4th for a 7:30pm performance that will captivate audiences of all ages! Sons of Serendip brings fresh and creative interpretations of the music you love and a soulful harmonious synergy to the stage.

Sons of Serendip is a classical crossover ensemble consisting of lead vocalist Micah Christian, cellist Nathaniel Taylor, pianist Cordaro Rodriguez, and harpist Mason Morton. The quartet who met in graduate school at Boston University, formed Sons of Serendip in 2014 specifically to compete in, America’s Got Talent (Season 9), where they finished in fourth place. Following the finale, the quartet began to tour nationally and internationally, lifting audiences to a sublime experience.

Melding Classical and Pop, Sons of Serendip’s most notable performances include collaborations with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops, Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and Cynthia Erivo, as well as a performance for the Creative Arts Emmy Awards (FXX). Sons of Serendip has been featured guests at several charitable and private events, including Oprah Winfrey’s 2020 Vision Tour closing party, Hank Aaron’s Chasing the Dream Foundation, Inc., the Ron Burton Humanitarian Award Dinner, and One Family’s 15th-anniversary gala, where they opened for John Legend.

In 2019, Sons of Serendip returned to the America’s Got Talent stage, as they were selected to compete in the first-ever America’s Got Talent: The Champions. The quartet competed alongside fifty of the winners and finalists from America’s Got Talent and Got Talent worldwide. In 2022, they were invited to be one of the artists representing the United States in Dubai at EXPO 2020. The group has four successful albums Sons of Serendip, Christmas: Beyond the Lights, Life + Love, and Mosaic. It was serendipity that brought the four members of the Sons of Serendip together! It was talent, dedication, and a desire to share their music with the world that rocketed the quartet to fame!

Located in Basking Ridge, NJ on the campus of Fellowship Village, the Sieminski Theater is an intimate state-of-the-art venue that offers student and senior discounts, dinner and show packages, and free ample parking. Tickets are available at  or call the Box Office at 866-307-8532



Photo by Sam Sirochman

(CAMDEN, NJ) — New Jersey-based professional training orchestra Symphony in C launches its 2023-2024 season with its new Music Director, Noam Aviel, on Saturday, November 4, 2023 at Gordon Theater at the Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts in Camden, New Jersey. The concert features Smetana’s Overture from The Bartered Bride, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 18 performed by piano prodigy Harmony Zhu. Showtime is 8:00pm.

“I am thrilled to begin this season’s musical journey with Symphony in C,” Music Director Noam Aviel said. “We will celebrate with the lively opening of Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, immerse ourselves in the lush melodies of Rachmaninov’s beloved Second Piano Concerto, and sit on the edge of our seats for Tchaikovsky’s dramatic Fourth Symphony. I am looking forward to meeting the wonderful Camden audience there!”

Symphony in C’s Virtuoso Series also returns, highlighting Symphony in C musicians within an intimate chamber music setting, with the first of three concerts at Haddonfield United Methodist Church on Sunday, October 22, 2023 at 4:00pm. The performance includes Brahms’s Horn Trio, Op. 40 and Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 9, Op. 47 “Kreutzer”. The series continues with Mozart’s Divertimento for String Trio, K. 563 and Halvorsen’s Passacaglia for violin and viola (after Handel) on Sunday, February 4, 2024 at 4:00pm and Saint-Saëns’s Piano Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 41 and Fauré’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15 on Sunday, April 7, 2024 at 4:00pm.

Throughout the season, Symphony in C also continues its Music Matters! Educational Outreach Programs including the Symphony in C Youth Orchestra, All-South Jersey Audition Clinics, Symphony Summer Camp, school instrumental lessons at all four Catholic Partnership Schools and our newest program at the Octavius Catto School in Camden that will include Meet the Instruments, instrumental lessons, and Music Together.

Hailed for her artistic excellence, versatility and charismatic stage presence, Noam Aviel has emerged on the international scene as one of the most dynamic young conductors. She has been recognized for her musicianship, deep understanding of stylistic approaches in a wide range of repertoire from opera and symphonic to jazz, and sensitivity to the needs of the artists with whom she collaborates.

Following her recent debut with the Symphony in C in the US, Noam Aviel has been appointed the orchestra’s Music Director starting from the 2023/2024 season.

Former Associate Conductor of the San Antonio Symphony, Noam Aviel has made successful appearances conducting the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Norrköping Symphony Orchestra in Sweden, KwaZulu Natal Philharmonic and Johannesburg Philharmonic orchestras in South Africa as well as San Antonio Philharmonic. In 2022 Noam made her debuts at Opera Orlando with Thomas Albert’s contemporary music drama Lizbeth and at Mobile Opera in Alabama conducting L’elisir d’amore. Noam Aviel’s future engagements include concerts with Symphony in C, German symphonic debut with Dortmund Philharmoniker, a debut at Opera Tampa conducting Hansel and Gretel, as well as returns to Mobile Opera conducting Marriage of Figaro and Opera Orlando for Massenet’s Cendrillon. Noam Aviel has worked on numerous opera productions including La Traviata, La Bohème, Macbeth, Carmen, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and Lennox Berkeley’s A Dinner Engagement at the Illinois Festival Opera.

Born in Israel, Noam Aviel studied voice performance and orchestral conducting at Tel Aviv University, and later continued her studies in orchestral conducting at Illinois State University in the US. In 2017 Noam Aviel was appointed Assistant Conductor, later promoted to Associate Conductor, of the San Antonio Symphony where she has led the orchestra’s extensive educational, community and outreach concerts programme working closely with Sebastian Lang Lessing. In this role she quickly gained recognition for inventive programming and has been praised in the US press as one of 25 “Renaissance Women” who have shaped the city of San Antonio.

Described by David Dubal as “part of the next great Golden Age of the piano,” Harmony Zhu performs regularly at prestigious festivals and venues worldwide, having appeared with orchestras such as the Israel Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Orquesta Filarmónica de Medellín with such conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and David Alan Miller.

Harmony has performed at many festivals worldwide including the Verbier Festival, Ravinia Festival, Oxford Piano Festival, and Aspen Music Festival. She has been featured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, CBC, CBS, and From the Top, captivating and inspiring people everywhere she goes with her extraordinary musical maturity, charming charisma, and upbeat personality.

Under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Harmony helped open the Philadelphia Orchestra’s 118th season at its Opening Night Gala Concert, three months before touring with the Israel Philharmonic and appearing with the Detroit Symphony for three concerts. In the same year, Harmony performed as the only student pianist at the Juilliard Pre-College Centennial Gala Concert as well as the farewell gala for former Juilliard president, Joseph Polisi. After appearing as a soloist at the Ravinia Music Festival in the summer of 2018 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth, she was invited back to Ravinia again in 2019 to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Marin Alsop. Also that year, Harmony had the great privilege to be invited as the only Pre-College student to perform at Lincoln Center’s 60th Anniversary Diamond Jubilee Gala as well as the Juilliard Spring Gala. Harmony had the honor of co-hosting the Lang Lang International Music Foundation’s Gala Concert, “Lang Lang & Friends: Reaching Dreams Through Music,” which was broadcast globally.

During the 2022-23 season Harmony will be presented in recital with the Harriman-Jewell Series (Kansas City, MO), Hayden’s Ferry Chamber Music Series (Tempe, AZ), and will also perform alongside distinguished YCA alum, pianist Anne-Marie McDermott in a performance of Ravel’s La Valse for two pianos as part of Young Concert Artists’ special season finale performance at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall in May 2023. She will also appear in performances with the Hawaii Symphony.

Harmony won First Prize in the 2021 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, as well as The Alexander Kasza-Kasser Prize, The Brownville Concert Series Prize, Friends of Music Concerts Prize, The Harriman-Jewell Series Prize, and The Hayden’s Ferry Chamber Music Series Prize. In addition to her piano studies with Emanuel Ax and Veda Kaplinsky, Harmony also studies composition with Ira Taxin at Juilliard.

Growing up as a chess prodigy, she was awarded the title of Woman Candidate Master and holds the title of World Champion of her age group after winning the World Youth Chess Championships. In her free time, Harmony enjoys reading, drawing, photography, and birdwatching.

Symphony in C provides the next generations of musicians and composers with experiences in performance and in engaging with the community, helping musicians to develop skills and experiences for professional success. The Symphony seeks to support musicians in achieving their visions in the changing world of symphonic music.

Founded in 1952 as The Haddonfield Symphony, Symphony in C began as a community orchestra allowing amateur musicians to pursue their love of music by performing for the Haddonfield and southern New Jersey communities. Its debut performance was in January 1954 under music director Guido Terranova. Since then, it has grown into one of only three professional training orchestras in the United States preparing musicians and conductors who are on the cusp of world-class careers through concert, educational outreach and professional development programs.

In 2004, the Symphony was awarded the national MetLife Award for Community Engagement in recognition of its programs serving people with special needs. In 2006, the Symphony moved its concert series to the Gordon Theater at Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts, and changed its name to Symphony in C to reflect its commitment to the cultural and economic redevelopment of Camden. Symphony in C has been designated a Major Arts Organization by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and was awarded a Citation of Excellence. 

Symphony in C performances and programs are made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, The New Jersey Cultural Trust, the Domenica Foundation, The Presser Foundation, Holman Enterprises,The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, the William G. Rohrer Charitable Foundation, the Connelly Foundation, South Jersey Charitable Foundation, TD Charitable Foundation, and Subaru of America. Symphony in C is a member of the South Jersey Cultural Alliance (SJCA). 



(NEWARK, NJ) — The Newark Public Library is hosting a special event on Wednesday, October 18, 2023 with author Wheeler Antabanez to commemorate the release of his latest book, “Walking the Old Boonton Line: A Photographic Journey on the Abandoned Rails of New Jersey.”

In 2022, Wheeler took one last walk on the abandoned Erie tracks before they were ripped up in preparation for the Essex/Hudson Greenway. The drone images and video he captured on his hike from Montclair to Jersey City resulted in a book and movie about this epic local adventure. Released in October 2022 by Abandoned Books, “Walking the Old Boonton Line” is the definitive last look at this historic railroad.

On October 18, Wheeler will recreate his journey with a narrated video presentation at the main branch of the Newark Public Library, 5 Washington Street, Newark, New Jersey. Audience members will be transported along the abandoned tracks of the Old Boonton Line on a guided virtual tour through the towns of Montclair, Glen Ridge, Bloomfield, Belleville, Newark, Kearny, Secaucus, and Jersey City, emerging from the Bergen Arches and ending up at the Hudson River Waterfront.

Wheeler’s “Walking the Old Boonton Line” tour started in January 2023 at the Jersey City Public Library and will come full circle at the Newark Public Library on October 18th. In between, Wheeler presented his guided tour at libraries and private organizations and performed three nights of sold-out shows at Silver Stream Studio in Montclair. Wheeler’s speaking tour will officially conclude at the Newark Public Library on October 18th at 6:00pm, and it will be the last chance to experience this live presentation.  After the live narrated video, Wheeler will take questions from the audience and sign copies of his new book. This presentation is free and open to the public.

With over 20 years of experience walking the fringes of literature and photography, Wheeler is best known for his Passaic River writings, contributions to Weird NJ magazine, and compelling live performances.

Newark Public Library delivers essential services and resources to everyone seeking opportunities to build a better life. Their dedicated staff bring decades of experience to serving all Newarkers. Their willingness to engage with the community ensures our residents have a voice and that their services and resources are crafted to meet their needs. Their creativity and innovation are phenomenal, and their openness and willingness to experiment allows us to move forward with new programs, events, and activities.

Facing Washington Park, the historic Newark Public Library traces its beginnings to the Newark Library Association, which was formed in 1847. Forty years later, the people of Newark approved the founding of a Free Public Library.



“Undertow,” the title track of Elk City’s recently released seventh album by Montclair-based Elk City, is the Makin Waves Song of the Week. PHOTO BY PHIL SILVERBERG

Montclair-based art-rock outfit Elk City have released their seventh album, “Undertow,” on Magic Door Record Label, an indie the band’s co-founding drummer Ray Ketchem and vocalist Renee LoBue co-founded several years ago with Guided by Voices’ Kevin March.

The LP’s opening title track is the Makin Waves Song of the Week.

As the Makin Waves Song of the Week, “Undertow” also can be heard between 6 and 8 p.m. on Sept. 29 on “Radio Jersey” at ThePenguinRocks.com. If you miss it, you can tune in any time in the archives at The Penguin and MixCloud.

“‘Undertow’ is the companion piece to our 2022 album ‘Above the Water,’” said Ray, whose production credits include Guided By Voices, Luna, and Gramercy Arms. “Both albums were recorded simultaneously. We actually considered releasing them together as a double album. ‘Undertow’ is the darker of the two. Numerous songs on ‘Undertow’ are long and sprawling and take the listener on unexpected adventures. Of course, there are a few pop songs too. Like all our albums, there are pop songs, but ‘Undertow’ has a musical darkness that is unique to this release, yet lyrically it seems to be about independence and personal strength.”

In the lead up to the album, the band chronicled the theme of strength with the singles “Tried to Move On” and “Strong (You’re Not Alone).”

Like “Above the Water,” “Undertow” is inspired by the band’s love of documentary films that explore the allure of cults and extreme alternative lifestyles, such as like “The Source Family” and “Wild, Wild Country.”

Renee said, “The most interesting thing about these records to me is that the water theme was not planned. The water theme revealed itself to us after. Even more ironic: The cover art pieces that were chosen for both records have water themes. I created both pieces of art before the records were done. At the time, I didn’t realize they were part of a larger water theme expressed in the music. Upon completion, we were able to look at both the art and the music with a way more objective lens. We could see the hidden theme looking back at us. It had been there all along.”

The album was produced, recorded, mixed and masted by Ray in his Montclair-based Magic Door Recording studio, which legendary studio designer George Augspurger helped transform into a freeform space where vintage microphones, modern studio gear, and bespoke sound tuning elevate and inspire.

Elk City is rounded out by bassist Richard Baluyut (Versus) and guitarists Sean Eden (Luna) and Chris Robertson (Feed, Punch Havana). They will perform Sept. 30 at Bowery Ballroom in New York City opening for a reunion of the ’90s band Velocity Girl. Elk City also will open Dec. 1 for Ted Leo at Outpost in the burbs in their hometown of Montclair.

For more about the band, click https://linktr.ee/elkcity. For more about the Magic Door label, check out https://magicdoor.bandcamp.com. And for the studio, visit https://www.magicdoorrecording.com. 

Bob Makin has produced Makin Waves since 1988. Follow Makin Waves on Facebook and contact Bob at makinwaves64@yahoo.com. 



(TEANECK, NJ) — The 18th annual Teaneck International Film Festival will be held in partnership with the Puffin Foundation, Ltd., November 5-12, 2023.  This year “the film festival with a social conscience” will be dedicated to the late Bob McGrath, beloved resident of Teaneck and Sesame Street.

It all begins on Sunday afternoon, November 5th, at 1:30pm, in the Teaneck Public Library Auditorium, with the return of the popular program (long emceed by Bob) for our youngest audiences, Kid Flicks One, the hour-long collection of incredible shorts which was included at the 2023 New York International Children’s Film Festival.  It will be free for children 5-10 years old and the adults who accompany them.  Space is limited, and advance registration is required.  Go to www.teaneckfilmfestival.org and look for the prompt to tickets (via Eventbrite).

The virtual part of the festival will begin Sunday, November 5th, and those who buy tickets will be able to watch three films at any time between November 5-12 and enjoy a pre-recorded talkback following each screening.  The virtual films this year are the Pakistani feature, Joyland, and two documentaries: Las Abogadas, about immigration, and Jews of the Wild West.

For November 9-12, buy tickets for the “live” films which will be shown at Teaneck Cinemas, Temple Emeth, and the Puffin Cultural Forum.  There will be features, documentaries, and shorts from around the world that address important issues of the day and encourage discussion and involvement.  Highlights include talkbacks with filmmakers, actors, and activists; a Saturday night centerpiece event with food, drink, and a film; and a closing night film at which WOW (Women of Wisdom) will honor the National Council of Jewish Women, Bergen County Section.  Tickets are now on sale.  Again, check the website – www.teaneckfilmfestival.org – for complete details about films, venues, ticket prices, and sponsorship opportunities.