15th Annual Cape May Music Festival features new world music

Cape May-As the Cape May Music Festival turns 15, the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts (MAC) presents a new World Traditions series featuring Irish, Flamenco, Doo Wop, Italian, Klezmer and Dixieland music.

"The Music Festival is pleased to celebrate the diversity of our community with this new World Traditions Series," said MAC Director Michael Zuckerman. "More than ever, the Music Festival truly appeals to every musical taste."

Gaelic Storm, the world-renown, crowd-pleasing Celtic group, known for their original blend of high-energy, hand-clapping, traditional Celtic music, will open the 15th annual Cape May Music Festival at 8 p.m. Sunday, May 23 in Cape May Convention Hall, Beach Drive at Stockton Place. In 1997, the band was featured in the blockbuster film Titanic, and have since recorded and released four albums.

Gaelic Storm kicks off the 15th annual Cape May Music Festival at 8 p.m. Sunday, May 23 in Cape May Convention Hall, Beach Drive at Stockton Place. The party band in the steerage scene of the 1997 blockbuster film "Titanic," this group brings a unique brand of high energy Celtic music to the stage, with rousing upbeat vocals, wild energetic dance tunes, haunting ballads and infectious madcap humor.

Since the 1998 release of their self-titled first album, which reached number five on Billboard's World Music chart, Gaelic Storm continues to perform around the world. Gaelic Storm released their fourth record, "Special Reserve," a best-of compilation featuring favorites from the group's three previous releases as well as three new tracks.

The world traditions series of the Music Festival continues 8 p.m. Sunday, May 30 with a Memorial Day Weekend celebration featuring the John Breslin Dixieland Band. This popular seven piece Dixieland Band returns to the Music Festival for a rollicking concert.

A night filled with Italian and Irish song, Gala with Three Tenors, is 8 p.m. Sunday, June 6. From New York to Munich, from San Francisco to Cairo, three extraordinary tenors, Thomas Poole, Garry Grice and Paul McIlvaine have thrilled audiences around the world with their celebration of famous songs and arias. The tenors are joined by Hugh Kronrot on the piano.

The program includes Comrades, This is the Life for Me, Rcondita armonia, E Lucevan le stele, Frederico's Lament, Vesti la giubba, La donna e mobile, and a medley of Irish songs including, My Wild Irish Rose, When Irish Eyes are Smiling, Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ra, Danny Boy, Down by the Sally Gardens, Kitty, My Love, Will You Marry Me?

The program also includes a medley of Neapolitan Songs: Funiculi-Funicula, Mattinata, Non ti scorda di me, Marchiare, Core'ngrata, and Torna a Surriento.

On Sunday, June 13 Klingon Klez takes klezmer to warp drive with a contemporary sound infusion at 8 p.m. in Cape May Convention Hall.

Klezmer, or Jewish party music, is a 500-year-old tradition. Klingon Klez, a seven-member ensemble, made up of some of Philadelphia's best-known jazz, funk and Dixieland musicians, keeps the tradition evolving and rocking.

Dancing in authentic costume and displaying dynamic footwork, Flamenco Olé! performs 8 p.m. Saturday, June 19. Founded in 1986 by Spanish native Julia Lopez, Flamenco Ole! is the only company in the region dedicated to flamenco.

Dancing professionally since the age of 17, Julia Lopez trained in Madrid with such notables as La Quica, Paco Fernandez, Ciro, Tomas de Madrid and Antonio Martin. The native Spaniard quickly became known throughout the country, appearing on Spanish television, in film, and on the most prominent stages in Spain including the Corral de La Moreria in Madrid. Internationally recognized, Lopez has graced the cabarets in Paris, and performed at the Expo in Canada; critics have called her "mesmerizing!"

The 15th annual Cape May Music Festival closes with the Doo Wop Cops (a.k.a. D.C's Finest) at 8 p.m. Sunday, June 20. Come enjoy the "arresting" sounds of retired police officers Dean Larkins, Reamer Shedrick, Ron Jones, Avon Barbour, Jimi Bethel and Rich Collins. The Doo Wop Cops--a cappella officers, who have gone from walking their beats to keeping the beat--have entertained presidents and have performed side-by-side with stars of the music world including Chuck Berry, the Dells and the Drifters.

All members of D.C's Finest are Washingtonians who attended local schools and sang at some points in their lives with a doo wop group in the 50s and 60s. Those years are revisited each time the group takes to the stage with their a cappella nostalgic renditions of songs of the past as well as some of the current hits.

All World Traditions Series Cape May Music Festival concerts take place in Cape May Convention Hall, Beach Drive at Stockton Place. Tickets cost $22 for adults, $18 for seniors and $10 for students. A World Traditions Series subscription is available for $110 and includes all six concerts.

The Cape May Music Festival is funded in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. PNC Bank is a Corporate Benefactor of the Music Festival. Comcast is a senior sponsor and Yamaha is the official piano of the Cape May Music Festival.

The 15th annual Cape May Music Festival is sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts (MAC), a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of Cape May's Victorian heritage. MAC also fosters the performing arts. MAC membership is open to all. For more information about MAC's year-round tours, festivals, special events and many volunteer opportunities, call 609-884-5404 or 800-275-4278, or visit MAC's website at www.capemaymac.org. For information about restaurants, accommodations and shopping, call the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Cape May at 609-884-5508.