Guitarists Laura Oltman and Michael Newman to Perform Free Concert on April 17, 2005

The Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo- Ensemble-in-Residence at Mannes College of Music- will perform in concert on Sunday, April 17 at 4:30 PM at the Mannes Concert Hall, Mannes College of Music, 150 West 85th Street in Manhattan. Admission is free to the public. The program will feature music 18th- and 19th-century classics by Rossini, Sor, Carulli, Giuliani, and Gragnani. Special guests are graduate students from Mannes- flutist Lauren Settino and clarinetist Erin Finkelstein.

Oltman and Newman traded in their guitars and music for shovels and hand trucks last week, as the Delaware River flooded their tiny historic hamlet of Carpentersville in rural Warren County, New Jersey with the third highest crest of the river in recorded history. Their own home had six feet of the muddy, oily river in the basement.

Two 20-hour days of moving everything from the basement and woodshop to the first floor and then from the first floor to the second floor with help from generous friends were followed by evacuation the night the river crested. The following evening began two more non-stop days of clean up just to get the river out of the basement. Then came a week of organizing local efforts to help neighbors completely devastated by the flood, many with three feet of mud in their homes' lower level and a horrible muddy mess on the upper levels of homes where the river came in three feet high. Some houses foundations sank around them. Many lost most of their personal belongings.

In the midst of this mayhem, Newman and Oltman were unable to leave for the greener pastures of Manhattan for their rehearsals and April 8 concert, which has now been rescheduled for this weekend.