2011  ASBURY PARK 

MUSICAL HERITAGE CELEBRATION

Join us in celebrating Musical Heritage Year 2011 in Asbury Park! We are excited to announce the Smithsonian Institute selected Asbury Park as a site for its traveling musical heritage exhibit: New Harmonies. The exhibit will come to Asbury Park in March of 2011 and we will be the first urban city to host this display. In honor of this award, we have decided to create a year-long series of events that embrace the rich musical heritage of our great city. It is our intention to brand Asbury Park as a musical mecca. Although we are very early in the planning stages we expect this celebration to include concerts, art exhibitions, plays, educational programs, lectures, films and much, much more. From bandleaders John Philip Sousa and Arthur Pryor in the early days to modern musical icons, like Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Southside Johnny and many others, Asbury Park has always been at the forefront of the music scene at the Jersey Shore. Big-band leaders like Glen Miller, Benny Goodman, and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, brought their bands to the city as did jazz and blues greats like Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Lionel Hampton and many others. Gospel music still thrives in Asbury Park as it has for more than 100 years!  Venues like the Convention Hall, the Paramount theatre, the Stone Pony, The Saint, the Wonder Bar, Asbury Lanes, and the expected preservation of the old Upstage Club downtown, allows Asbury Park to continue to attract all the new talent. 

 The Smithsonian exhibit is entitled "New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music" and explores the growth of American music, as rich and eclectic as the country itself.  This exhibit is part of the Museum on Main Street: a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and the Federation of State Humanities Councils and in our case, the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. The main beat of the exhibition is the ongoing cultural process that has made America the birthplace of such great music. An inspiring and toe-tapping examination of America’s multi-cultural exchange, New Harmonies is full of surprises about familiar songs and instruments while exploring the continuity of musical roots – from the flourishing of sacred music to the emergence of commercial folk and country. This national exhibition is curated by Robert Santelli, former director of the Rock & Roll Museum & Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio and director of the Experience Music Project in Seattle, Washington . “Of all the urban areas in New Jersey, Asbury Park has an extraordinary musical heritage that touches upon many facets of the New Harmonies exhibit, from blues to gospel and rock ‘n roll, not to mention ethnic music of all kinds," he said. Santelli, who is a Jersey Shore native and is also the curator of the exhibit, said that Asbury Park has always been a melting pot for music and music-lovers.  “It has an incredibly rich musical heritage for the size of the city.”  New Harmonies will travel statewide, where each site will host it for six weeks.  Asbury Park will be the first New Jersey stop.  The exhibition will be housed in the Asbury Park Library. We plan on creating a companion exhibit that will focus on the roots music themes that are such an important part of the city’s heritage.  This will include a special display in the Asbury Park Library of items from the library’s vast collection of printed Bruce Springsteen memorabilia. We are projecting thousands will come to the city during the New Harmonies visit. The city hopes to write about, and record on film, the story of  Asbury Park ’s famous musical tradition.  Plans on having a companion exhibit about the city’s own unique musical heritage is also in the works.  A memorabilia trade show is in the plans and a documentary will be created to capture the year-long celebration.  It will be a musical trip down memory lane.  The idea of creating a year-long musical celebration will pre-promote the New Harmonies and leverage its success.   This type of celebration is long overdue and will position the City of Asbury Park as a musical mecca that will help us continue our robust economic recovery.  We have selected a motto to rally our residents, businesses, visitors, children and all music lovers:  Asbury Park “Where Music Lives.”    In the next few months, we will begin to announce and promote the many elements of the celebration that will make Asbury Park the musical destination to visit in 2011. *

Stay tuned!

Tom Gilmour

Director of Commerce City of Asbury Park

*Special thanks to Don Stine of Antic Hay Books for his contribution to the above.

City of Asbury Park

2011 Musical Heritage Celebration

Steering Committee

Tom Gilmour

Chairman

Dennis Carroll

Eileen Chapman

Cindi D'Onofrio

Johna Karpinski

Robert Mc Garry

Caroline O’Toole

Susan Pellegrini

Helen Pike

Terry Reidy

Kevin Sanders

Bob Stewart

Asbury Park : Where Music Lives.

Mayor Ed Johnson announces at the July 2^nd SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY CONCERT, Asbury Park’s initiative to create a year-long celebration of the city’s rich musical heritage. With him is Cindi D’Onofrio, Eileen Chapman, Susan Pellegrini, Tom Gilmour and Dennis Carroll. Photo by John Cavanaugh

The crowd at the July 2, 2010 Southside Johnny Concert.

AP Press Article