The Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia Presents “A Feast of Carols”, the Holiday Tradition Combines Musical Works from the Past and the Present

By Catherine J. Barrier

The Mendelssohn Club is one of the country’s oldest choruses, having been founded in 1874 by William Wallace Gilchrist (1846-1916), a leading 19^th-century musical figure in Philadelphia, who was also a choral conductor for several choruses, a composer, and the organist and choirmaster for several area churches.  Gilchrist also founded and conducted the Symphony Society of Philadelphia in the 1890s, one of the symphonies that reorganized into The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1900.  Since its founding, the Mendelssohn Club has been a major force in choral music—in Philadelphia and beyond. 

The Mendelssohn Club in Concert
at Holy Trinity Church

The Club started as an eight-voice male chorus, grew in size, and added female voices.  In December 1879, the Club performed its first subscription concert, which included instrument solos as well as choral works.  Today, its programming is innovative and includes the finest choral music of many cultures, traditions, periods and styles, and the Club enriches the lives of its members and the public, enhancing the Club members’ knowledge and experience of music and assisting in the development of new musical compositions, new artists, and new audiences—all to bring fulfillment to those who listen to and love music.

William “Bill” Walkowiak is one past member of the Mendelssohn Club whose life was enriched by his involvement with the group.

“[Performing with the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia] was a fantastic experience,” said Walkowiak, a Club member from 1984 to 1996. “It exposed me to a wonderful, diverse repertoire of music and enabled me to perform with talented musicians in many famous venues, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Philadelphia Academy of Music, and the Mann Music Center, among others. I have many, many exquisite memories of my years with the Mendelssohn Club.”

Walkowiak had sung with his church choir for many years before friends told him about the Mendelssohn Club and urged him to audition. “I thought it would be a big step up for my love of music, and decided to give it a try,” said Walkowiak.  “Fortunately, I passed the audition.”

“Working with the Mendelssohn Club, it’s a delight,” said Alan Harler, the Club’s Artistic Director.  “And it has a wonderful history.  It’s a professional dream for me to have such a big, thriving group of singers, with an orchestra, doing our own productions.” 

Since 1988, Harler has led the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia while both teaching graduate conducting and serving as the Laura H. Carnell Professor and the Chairman of the Choral Department at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance.  He just recently retired from Temple, but his work with the Mendelssohn Club is still almost a full-time job.

“I’d been in Philadelphia—at Temple—for about 3 or 4 years and was asked to put together a chorus to do the Verdi Requiem at the Casals Festival in San Juan, Puerto Rico, with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, so I approached the Mendelssohn Club [to see if they’d be interested],” said Harler.  “At the time, I believe they were between conductors, and they agreed, so I worked with them and several of the choirs at Temple to prepare for that performance.  Soon thereafter, they asked me to stay on and lead them, and I accepted.”

This Saturday, December 11^th, at 4:30 p.m. and again at 7:30 p.m., the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia will present “A Feast of Carols” at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 22 E. Chestnut Hill Avenue, in Philadelphia (Chestnut Hill).  This year’s annual event for the whole family will feature holiday music spanning several centuries, a world premiere—as well as other works—by the Mendelssohn Club’s Composer-in-Residence Donald St. Pierre, Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols (Op. 28), well-loved traditional carols with audience participation, and much more!  General admission: $25; tickets are available online at www.mcchorus.org.  Students receive special discounts; check show time for student ticket price.  For more information, check the Website, e-mail info@mcchorus.org, or call (215) 735-9922.

“We’ve done [these holiday concerts at St. Paul’s in Chestnut Hill] every year, and they’re very popular,” said Harler.  [St. Paul’s] is a beautiful space, a beautiful church, with great acoustics, and there’s a wonderful church organ.  We use the church organ and our Mendelssohn Brass Quintet.  We’ve been going there for a long time.”

“Holiday concerts were always a highlight of the year,” said Walkowiak. “They made the season really feel special, and certainly got me into the ‘Christmas Spirit’. Each year we did a concert in Chestnut Hill at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, where we stood on the altar literally surrounded by an enormous pipe organ. The crescendos with the organ and choir literally vibrated through my entire body. I can still feel the sensation. Being part of such a musical performance is the most spiritual feeling that I have ever experienced.”

There have been numerous changes at the Mendelssohn Club since Harler first became its artistic director.

“It’s a much larger group since I’ve been involved,” said Harler.  “When I first started, there were about 75 members.  We’re a much larger chorus now (currently 135 members).  And the real focus now is that we perform new music and are frequently commissioning new pieces.  I guess what I’ve brought to the group is the performing of American music from the current time.  And the Chorus is being choreographed in movement and the audience is [now often] being actively engaged; for example, they’re given the opportunity to sing along with the Chorus on certain songs during performances.  And in fact, in February, we’ll be doing a program entitled The Audience inCHOIRing.  With that, through Facebook and Twitter, the public will be given the chance to learn several simple tunes and a little play that will be incorporated into our performance program.” Evidently, using modern technology is one way the Mendelssohn Club continues to offer innovative programming.

But Harler normally achieves his innovative programming a bit differently.  He often combines new or rarely heard musical compositions with more familiar, traditional works, believing the combination enhances each of the individual component parts.  He recognizes that such programming also provides the audience with familiar contexts for the newer musical experiences.

“I think it’s just really important that at the same time that our Western European traditional music [continues to be performed] that we do American music,” said Harler.  “After all, it’s the music that comes out of our culture.  It’s important to me to champion American music—and new music.  Normally, until the 20^th-century, that’s what was usually done (an individual country’s new music was performed by its choirs and choruses).  It was only in the 20^th century that we started to focus on repeatedly performing the [older] music of the 18^th and 19^th centuries.  And when I’ve traveled, [I’ve found that] the choirs from other countries are doing mostly music from their countries.  German choirs are performing German music; French choirs are doing French music.  [Performing our new American music] is a way for us to encourage our own American culture.  We’ve done about 45 new commissioned works during my tenure [with the Mendelssohn Club].”

“New commissions were one of the most exciting aspects of the Mendelssohn Club under Alan Harler,” said Walkowiak. “I was very proud that we were able to commission so many new works, and felt that I was part of something historic.  Of course, some turned out better than others, but each one was performed for the very first time by the Mendelssohn Club, and I was part of it. How many people can experience such a thing?”

“Donald St. Pierre has done a lot of commissions for us,” said Harler.  “He’s our Composer-in-Residence, and it’s his 15^th anniversary with us.  He’s also our accompanist.  We’re doing three of his pieces [during this upcoming concert], including his Three Carols, a work to be sung a cappella.  Another, his A Visit from St. Nicholas, is based on what we know as the famous ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas text, and we’re doing his Songs of Sweet Accord for men’s voices and harp.  After we did [Benjamin] Britten’s Ceremony of Carols (Op. 28) a number of years ago, we immediately commissioned Don to write a parallel piece to be scored for men’s voices with harp.  The Britten piece is scored for women’s voices and harp.  So, these are three big pieces of Don’s on this upcoming program.”

St. Pierre is also a faculty member at the Curtis Institute of Music (since 1990) and has served as the principal keyboard player for the Milwaukee Symphony.  Moreover, he served as Music Director of the Skylight Theater in Milwaukee (from 1978-1990), where he composed 3 chamber operas and directed in excess of 50 productions.  He has also held several positions as head voice coach and recital accompanist throughout the United States and abroad.

“And we have a young harpist working with us for the first time,” said Harler.  “Her name’s Coline-Marie Orliac, and she’s a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music.  We’re happy to have her join us for this performance.”

Coline-Marie Orliac began playing the harp at age 7, studied for nearly a decade after that with Madame Fontan-Binoche, and attended the National Conservatory of Nice (in France)—graduating with first prizes in both harp and piano.  She graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music last spring.  Her technique has been praised as being “flawless”, and she has already won top prizes in five international competitions and has performed with some of the world’s greatest orchestras, including The Philadelphia Orchestra in December 2009.

Also an active chamber musician, Orliac has participated in a number of well-known chamber music series and festivals worldwide and is a member of the Dolce Suono Ensemble, a highly praised ensemble.  For Orliac, who says she deeply loves learning new works because of the fascination involved and the need for a completely different approach to the music, this will be her first time performing Ceremony of Carols (Op. 28), as well as St. Pierre’s new works.

“The [Benjamin Britten Ceremony of Carols (Op. 28)] piece was written by Britten after he’d spent a considerable amount of time in America, and he wrote it on a ship, while traveling back to Europe,” said Harler.  “It’s 11 movements long and based mostly on Old English texts.  It’s probably one of the most famous sets of carols, and it’s a beautiful use of harp and women’s voices.”  Britten was traveling back to Britain in 1942 on the Axel Johnson, and while docked at one of the ports during that trip, found Gerald Bullett’s The English Galaxy of Shorter Poems, a collection of medieval poems, and began composing music for them.  Ceremony of Carols has an opening procession and a closing recession, which together serve as the framework for the other otherwise-unrelated songs. 

Over the years, Harler has prepared choruses for many of the leading orchestras and conductors throughout the United States, and he believes that a good conductor’s strongest characteristic is his/her ability to teach.

“I think it’s just part of the work,” said Harler.  “A conductor is constantly informing the performers about everything—the meanings of the texts, the formal structure of the music, etc., and that’s true of any kind of conducting role, for choral works, for orchestral works.”

“I have not had much formal musical training,” said Walkowiak. “Most of my experience had been with school and church choirs prior to the Mendelssohn Club. Alan taught me how to become a much more professional singer and performer. Every rehearsal was a lesson for me. In addition, I greatly expanded my knowledge of the musical repertoire, as we were constantly working on new (to me) pieces of music.”

“We also were required to re-audition for Alan each year,” said Walkowiak. “These re-auditions were like private lessons. Alan pointed to areas that needed improvement, and gave me instruction and materials to practice.”

Alan Harler is also an active guest conductor, performing regularly at the Festival of Casals in San Juan, Puerto Rico and the Aspen Choral Institute.  The Taiwan Philharmonic Association has also sponsored him to conduct performances in Taiwan and China, as well as to give master classes in conducting in both locales.

The Mendelssohn Club offers a conducting apprenticeship program, and within that framework, Harler works with a young conductor apprentice each year, sharing his knowledge and skill.

“We have a wonderful apprentice program called An Apprenticeship in Community Chorus Leadership,” said Harler.  “And in addition to the musical part, [the apprentices] also find out about the workings of the chorus, what is needed to operate a choral group.  They attend Board meetings and learn about how budgets are done.  The first criteria for their being accepted [into the program] is their musicianship, but many of them will most likely want to have their own choruses in the future, . . . it’s a total immersion into what’s necessary for the running of a chorus.”

Harler has played an important role in influencing choral music in the United States.  In 1995, he was elected to the Board of Chorus America, the national professional association of professional and volunteer choruses, and in 2009, he was awarded Chorus America’s Michael Korn Founders Award for Development of the Professional Choral Art.  He is the recipient of a number of other honors and awards as well.

“I had taken a year leave of absence from the Club when my job took me to Washington DC from mid-1987 to mid-1988,” said Walkowiak. “When I returned to the Club in 1988, Alan had become Artistic Director. His positive influence on the Club can never be overstated. He raised us to higher levels in every aspect of our musicality and performance. He truly loves music and his passion to strive for excellence was contagious to all of us. I think that every member of the Club was willing to work very hard -- on very challenging material -- in order to achieve the performance standards that he strived for.”  Bill Walkowiak has recently moved to San Diego, California and is not currently involved with any chorus.

“A lot of people [at these holiday concerts at St. Paul’s] like that we do sing some of the very familiar carols with the Brass [Quintet] and organ, and I weave these into the overall program, and people always seem to respond to and like that part of it,” said Harler.  Some of the traditional carols the audience will be able to sing with the chorus this Saturday are: Silent Night, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (music by Felix Mendelssohn), and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

“A lot of the music for 'A Feast of Carols' is music that goes back to my childhood, and it’s a very joyous but reflective time—to hear this music again,” said Harler.  “Some of it we come back to every year—to these certain arrangements that I know and like.  And there’s a special message that comes through—a message of hope and joy—and that always makes it delightful.”

For a delightful holiday feast of carols, be sure to attend one of the Mendelssohn Club’s performances this Saturday at St. Paul’s in Chestnut Hill.  You will undoubtedly be glad you did.

* Photo by John L. Shipman, Courtesy of the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia.

© 2010 by Catherine J. Barrier.  All rights reserved.

Holly Nights at Pennsbury Manor, a Time to Remember Pennsylvania’s Founder and to Celebrate the Christmas Season in 17th-Century Style

By Catherine J. Barrier

William Penn in King Charles II's Breakfast
Chamber at Whitehall

Although William Penn spent, in total, less than 4 years in America, his influence on what became the U.S. government was great.  During his lifetime, both in England and in his colony of Pennsylvania, Penn fought for freedom of religion, for freedom of assembly, and for the right to a trial by jury.  As a Quaker, he was a pacifist and believed in people being governed by laws of their own making.  When he was first granted the charter for what King Charles II called “Pennsylvania” (literally “Penn’s Woods”), in honor of Penn’s father, Admiral Sir William Penn, the younger Penn wrote to the Swedish, Finnish, and Dutch already living in his colony to assure them that he would allow them a part in making the rules that they would be expected to live by and to state that there would be freedom to worship God according to one’s own conscience there.  Years later, Thomas Jefferson would say of Penn that he was “the greatest law-giver the world has produced”.  Eventually, many of Penn’s values, ideas, and laws for his colony became basic tenets of law in the new United States of America.

On Thursday night, December 9^th and Friday night, December 10^th, Pennsbury Manor, the home of William Penn along the Delaware River, located at 400 Pennsbury Memorial Road in Morrisville, PA (19067), will present its annual Holly Nights, rain or shine, from 5:30-9:00 p.m.  Step back into the 17^th Century, to a simpler time of candlelight in the evenings, season carolers, colonial crafts, period clothing, a crackling bonfire, dramatic skits, and free hot cider.  Adults: $10; Senior Citizens: $8; Children 3-17: $5; Children under 3 are free.  Because the site is along the Delaware River, it can be reached by a short drive from U.S. Route 1, U.S. Route 13, or the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  This is an outside event; dress appropriately.  For directions or more information, call (215) 946-0400, e-mail at willpenn17@aol.com, or see www.pennsburymanor.org.  A coupon, good for $1.00 off an adult admission, can be downloaded from the Website.

“[The Holly Nights at Pennsbury Manor have] been going on for quite some time now—for over 35 years,” said Tabitha Dardes, a spokeswoman for Pennsbury Manor and their Director of Public Relations and Marketing.

“It’s a festive event,” said Dardes.  “And along with the nice holiday event, there’s some education about life in the 17^th-Century,” said Dardes.

The Holly Nights event will include the demonstrations of several colonial crafts.

Open Hearth at Pennsbury Manor during Holly Nights

“We get to educate people about the 17^th-Century,” said Dardes.  “There’ll be an open hearth demonstration, craftsmen in the Blacksmith’s Shop will be working with metals, and joiners will show people the tools they used and the things they made—and there will be tours of the Manor House.”

“The Manor House has been recreated based on [information in] letters and other correspondence; it’s not the original building,” said Dardes, “but we do have period and reproduction furniture from the period—including some original pieces, so the house is furnished.”

“When people did excavation on the site, they found the foundation of Penn’s home, which he had had built in 1682.  [The present-day Manor House] is a reconstructed building of William Penn’s estate.  We found letters and documents, and the house was reconstructed based on the research available.”

Pennsbury Manor was reconstructed from archaeological evidence found mostly in the letters of instruction to James Harrison, the man Penn appointed his overseer at Pennsbury when Penn left for England in 1684 and to James Logan, whom Penn had brought to America as his personal secretary in 1699.

“The house is all decorated for the holidays and lit by candlelight,” said Dardes.  “And we have people stationed around to tell people about the house—for example, the Great Hall, where [Penn and his family] ate, the nursery, where one of Penn’s children [slept]—the only one born in America, and Penn’s bedroom.”  It was Penn’s son John, called “John the American” who was born in the New World.

A Joyner Working in the Shop

“[Pennsbury Manor] was a working estate, or plantation, with animals, gardens, and all the people making things [that the estate needed],” said Dardes.  “The estate wasn’t self-sufficient; they had to bring some things in, but they had crops, orchards, animals, and many people working on the property, working and living off of what they were doing here.”  Penn did send to town (to Philadelphia) for such things as bricks, lime, locks, nails, chocolate, flour, bacon, coffee, and cornmeal, and these would then be delivered by flatboat up the Delaware River to the landing in front of his manor home.

“The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission has administered the property since the 1930’s, when the site was reconstructed,” said Dardes.  In 1932, the Charles Warner Company owned the land and gifted 10 acres of the original site to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  Pennsbury opened in 1939.  But the Commission is not responsible for running the events at Pennsbury Manor.  “We have a non-profit (501)(c3) organization, called The Pennsbury Society [, established in 1966,] that helps administer the site,” said Dardes.  “It’s the organization that runs the special events, such as the Holly Nights, and that’s involved in bringing in the school programs, etc.  Our main focus here (at Pennsbury Manor) is education,” said Dardes.

“What we do is that, throughout the 2 evenings, we have various instrumental and choral groups come in,” said Dardes.  We bring in some local groups, such as the Men of Harmony and some other community groups—and some of the Pennsbury High School and Middle School groups will be performing.”

The Men of Harmony, formerly the United States Steel Chorus, is an organization of singers who exist to preserve the traditional religious, folk, and popular songs of our country while fellowshipping and enjoying the results of learning and performing.  In the 1940’s, many U.S. Steel plants formed choruses to entertain employees, their families, and the communities at large.  Sixty years ago, this group became the sixth U.S. Steel Chorus and from the back of a pick-up truck drove around the construction site singing Christmas Carols for the workers.  After the steel company no longer supported the chorus, the group became independent and today continues the tradition of singing for the enjoyment of others.

“The different groups perform at different spots throughout the [43 acres of the] property, so you can usually find something of particular interest to you going on,” said Dardes.

William Penn was born at Tower Hill, in London, on October 14, 1644.  His father, Admiral Sir William Penn, served in the Commonwealth Navy during the English Civil War and later received estates in Ireland from Oliver Cromwell.  Admiral Penn helped King Charles II return to the British throne, was eventually knighted, and later served in the Royal Navy.  So the younger Penn grew up under the rule of Oliver Cromwell, and he received a strictly classical education and was greatly influenced by Puritan behaviors, such as strictness, somberness, and lack of humor.

At 15, Penn was living with his family in Ireland, where he met Thomas Loe, a Quaker missionary.  During this time, Penn would later say he was “visited by God” and began to understand Him.  Back in England and at Oxford, young Penn rebelled against the rules to worship God only in the way of the official Anglican Church.  Because he was an embarrassment to them, his parents sent him to Paris, where he met a French Protestant theologian, Moise Amyraut, who further influenced Penn’s life.  Penn returned to London, studied law for a while, and lived through the plague in London in 1665, observing the suffering and death caused by it.  He also witnessed the persecution of Quakers who tried to help the sick.

The reign of King Charles II further tightened restrictions against all religious sects except the Anglican Church.  It became illegal to worship any other way, and Quakers were especially targeted.  Their meetings were considered criminal acts.  Despite this, Penn was attracted to Quakerism and began to attend Quaker meetings.  He was soon arrested for doing so, and decided to publically declare himself a Quaker.  So at 22, Penn joined the Quakers (the Religious Society of Friends), and his choice of faith greatly influenced who he was from then on, how he treated the Native American Indians in the New World years later, and eventually the government of the United States of America.

In 1681, King Charles II granted William Penn the charter for “Pennsylvania”, partly in payment for a debt the king owed Penn’s deceased father, the Admiral, and the Founder of Pennsylvania and its first Governor not long afterwards set sail on the “Welcome”, to make the 2-month voyage by ship to come to the New World.  He arrived here in 1682 and began to realize his dream.

Penn, though deeply religious, was not an ascetic, and he wanted to establish a new society based on more freedom in his colony—and to see if people would be better and happier because of this freedom.  Penn believed good government was part of God’s plan for humanity, so he called this plan his “Holy Experiment”.  And Penn, as a Quaker, believed God’s communication came to each individual directly, and consequently, he believed in the rights of the individual, which later became important when Penn was setting up the government for his new colony.  He was a gifted administrator, and unlike many, did not seek personal power.

Penn was also committed to treating the local Native American Indians fairly; it was a Quaker principle to deal justly with neighbors, so he met with them and got their blessing to settle the new land of Pennsylvania.  Although he was given the land by King Charles II, Penn paid the Native American Indians for it, recognizing that they had been there first and would not recognize the validity of the King’s charter.  Thus, Penn was very fair with the Native American Indians, and no treaty he made with them was every broken during his lifetime.  His unfailing sense of fair play won him the Indians’ respect and affection, and his work with the Indians saved Pennsylvania from Indian wars for about seventy years.  After purchasing the land from the Indians, Penn then mapped out the town of Philadelphia, between the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers and called for an election of representatives for a provincial Assembly before turning to the building of Pennsbury Manor in 1683.  It was also in 1683 that the first Quaker Meeting House was built in Philadelphia.

It took 4 years for Penn to build his country estate along the Delaware; it was completed in 1686, when Penn was abroad in England, and during that time, before sailing for England, Penn was often in Philadelphia, from where he governed his colony.  Once completed, Pennsbury had not only its Manor House, but a large stable, and many small buildings for various tasks, such as brewing and baking.  The original Manor House was a 2-story, Georgian-style home made of the typical 17^th-century red brick.  Today, the reconstructed Manor House is a three-story building rebuilt on the foundations of the original house.  It has dormer windows in the roof and is surrounded by the many estate buildings.  And it boasts more than 30,000 visitors per year.

Penn married Gulielma Maria Springett in 1672 and the couple ended up having 7 children, among them William Penn, Jr.  In 1683, Penn began the building of Pennsbury Manor, expecting that he and Gulielma would spend their days there, but circumstances in England forced Penn’s return there in 1684 before Gulielma ever came and before he’d been in the New World for a full 2 years.  Penn did not return to Pennsbury until 1699, fifteen years later.  Penn administered his colony of Pennsylvania via mail across the Atlantic during this time of much political unrest in England.  Political power changed in England while he was there, and Penn found himself suspected and finally accused of treason.  Shortly after being acquitted of those charges, Penn suffered the death of his Gulielma.

When Governor William Penn returned to Pennsylvania in 1699, it was with his second wife, Hannah Callowhill, and his grown daughter, Letitia.  The following year, on January 29, 1700, his son John, called “John, the American”, was born.  It was also during this time, between 1699 and 1701, that the Penns entertained distinguished guests from Europe, the Indian Nations, and even governors of other colonies. 

Bust of William Penn

And during this second visit to Pennsylvania, Penn drew up his Charter of Privileges, a new from of government which outlined a type of self-government for the colony of Pennsylvania and which remained in effect for almost 75 years, until the beginning of the American Revolutionary War.  A type of constitution, the Charter of Privileges was adopted in October 1701.  Year’s later, in 1751, a bell was cast for the 50^th anniversary of the Charter of Privileges.  Today, we know this bell as the Liberty Bell, and it is engraved with the words “Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof”, words taken from the Book of Leviticus (in the Bible), from Chapter 25, Verse 10.

Also during this second visit to Pennsylvania, Penn influenced the governors in neighboring New York and in Virginia to start increasing co-operation with one another.  While true unity between the colonies did not truly happen until later in the century, Penn was already pushing for it in the New World in the beginning of 18^th-Century.

Because the administration of Pennsylvania was in danger of politically being taken over by the Crown back in England, Penn needed to cross the ocean again in 1701.  He hoped to return to Pennsylvania quickly, but he never saw America, or Pennsbury, again.  Political machinations, Pennsylvania-Maryland boundary quarrels in England, increasing poverty, bad health, and general old age kept Penn away.  The only Penn to live at Pennsbury after 1701 was Penn’s son, William Penn, Jr. who arrived there in February 1704, but only remained for about a year.  Penn’s wife Hannah and daughter Letitia had insisted on returning to England with Penn in 1701.  In 1711, William Penn had his first stroke.  The following year, he had 2 other attacks and soon became incompetent.  He died on July 30, 1718, at the age of 73.  In 1792, after the United States was established, Penn’s heirs sold the family estate along the Delaware.

“[At Holly Nights,] we have a big bonfire, and there’s free cider, … and the pathways and buildings are lit by candlelight, so people can roam about and see all the wonderful things on those evenings,” said Dardes.

“There will also be 17^th-century Mummers present,” said Dardes.  “They’re role players who do little skits, giving people [a visual demonstration] of what went on in the 17^th-Century.  It’s just another little thing to see and do.”

Stringing Cranberries at Holly Nights

“I love [Holly Nights] because, … obviously, I work here, but there are people who have been coming for years, and who now bring their kids—kicking off the season,” said Dardes.  “They return every year and say, ‘We look forward to this year-after-year’.  It’s nice to hear the people are so fond of it.  They say, ‘We’re making it a tradition’.  And new people who attend say they’ll be coming back.”

“It’s an absolutely wonderful event!” said Dardes.  “And it’s a rain or shine event.  We’ll be here regardless.  But since it is an outside event, people should dress appropriately.”

“[The Holly Nights are] the only time you can come [to see Pennsbury Manor] at night,” said Dardes.  “It gives you a different feel and air about the place.  It’s a special and festive event.”

So, why not come experience William Penn’s home along the Delaware in much the way he would have known it this holiday season—at Holly Nights on December 9^th and 10^th.

* Photos of Docents & Craftsmen at Pennsbury Manor, Courtesy of Pennsbury Manor, Administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC).

© 2010 by Catherine J. Barrier.  All rights reserved.

A Traditional Christmas Love Story, the Walnut Street Theatre Presents Irving Berlin’s Holiday Classic WHITE CHRISTMAS

By Catherine J. Barrier



Irving Berlin

Irving Berlin was born Israel Baline in the town of Tyumen, the first Russian outpost in Siberia, Eastern Russia, in 1888.  His very strict Jewish family immigrated to the U.S. in 1893, and after his father died, Berlin began to help support his mother and family on the streets of New York City at the age of 8. He later became a singing waiter.  He only went to school formally for 2 years, and it was while working as a waiter that he began to write songs.

Although Berlin never learned to read and write music, he was a prolific writer.  He wrote more than 900 songs, 19 musicals, and 18 movies.   His first world-famous hit song was “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (1911), from his musical of the same name.  The song became internationally popular almost over night, and it got people enthusiastically dancing.  But Berlin also created simple and romantic ballads based on his own life and sadness, such as the sadness he felt after the death of his first wife, Dorothy Goetz, who died less than a year after they were married.  He later married the Catholic heiress Ellin Mackay—in 1926—and the couple had 3 daughters.

Among his many songs are numerous patriotic songs, such as “God Bless America”, introduced to the public on the 20^th Anniversary of Armistice Day 1938, by Kate Smith, and “This is the Army, Mr. Jones” from his morale-boosting WWII-era musical This is the Army (1943).  Some of his other well-known classic tunes include: “There’s No Business Like Show Business”, “Angels of Mercy”—written for the American Red Cross, “Easter Parade”, “Puttin’ on the Ritz”, and of course, “White Christmas”. 



Julie Reiber as Betty Haynes
--Photo by Mark Garvin--

 “I think people come to see the show partly because of the season (Christmas), . . . and because of the White Christmas movie—the iconic movie that’s brought to life on stage,” said Julie Reiber, who plays Betty Haynes, one of the leading female characters.  “A lot of people have sentimental connections to the movie, and I think that will bring some of them to the show.”  The 1954 movie White Christmas starred Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen and was directed by Michael Curtiz.

“Many people come with their families,” said Reiber.  “The story just brings out feelings, and love, and helps the connecting with family.”

“I saw White Christmas in New York at the Marquis [Theatre], and I saw the tour [last year], and I went after the rights right after I saw it,” said Bernard Havard, the Walnut Street Theatre’s President and Producing Artistic Director, when asked how and why White Christmas was chosen to be part of the Walnut Street Theatre’s season this year.  “The rights became available when the tour closed.”

“One hallmark of our work is honesty,” said Havard.  “We strive to be very honest with the piece, and there are 3 love stories in it, and it has a happy ending.  It’s about the holiday.  I saw it and liked White Christmas, and I thought the audience would like it as well.  So far, I’ve been proven to be right.  The show has broken 2 [ticket sales] records already.”  Early in the third week of November the show set a record for weekly ticket sales and then set a daily ticket sales record shortly thereafter.

Now, through January 9^th, The Walnut Street Theatre, now in its 202^nd season, presents Irving Berlin’s White Christmas on its Mainstage.  The Walnut, the oldest theatre in America, is located at 825 Walnut Street (at 9th), in Philadelphia (19107).  The intimate venue provides excellent acoustics and good views from virtually every one of its 1,100 seats, all of which are within 80 feet of the stage.  Tickets: $10-$95 (prices vary by performance); Premium tickets are available for $130 and include a tax deductible donation.  For dates and times of specific performances, or for additional information, including parking, see www.walnutstreettheatre.org.  For tickets, call (215) 574-3550 between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. (10 p.m. on performance nights), 7 days a week, or Ticketmaster at (800) 982-2787.  Tickets are also available at the Walnut Box Office or online at the Website.  The ticket price includes a $2.50 historic facility fee, and the show runs for 2 hours and 30 minutes.

The holiday classic White Christmas is full of song, dance, and romance, and is set in a Vermont lodge owned by the leading male characters’ former Army commander, General Henry Waverly.  Bob Wallace (Jeffrey Coon) and Phil Davis (David Elder), two former war buddies are now a successful entertainment team and become romantically interested in a two-sister act, that of Betty Haynes (Julie Reiber) and her sister, Judy Haynes (Vanessa Sonon).  This production of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas is a musical based on Paramount Pictures’ 1954 film of the same name, which was written for the Screen by Norman Krasna, Norman Panama, and Melvin Frank.  Its incredible score contains songs, such as “Blue Skies”, “I Love Piano”, “How Deep is the Ocean?”, and of course, the title song.  Of this last number, Berlin once said, “[It is] the greatest song I have ever written.”

“I’m one of the sisters, the eldest, in this show,” said Reiber, who acted in her first show at 12 and has been acting professionally since she got out of college.  “I play the part that Rosemary Clooney played in the movie [version] (Betty Haynes).  Betty’s given up on love and is all business.  The whole story’s about Bob and Betty and about how these 2 people have given up on love, but how they find they need each other.  It’s about how they can find love again.”

“My first experience at the Walnut Street Theatre was in Curtains, their previous show, and I just had a great time doing that, and I was asked to stay on, so I did,” said Reiber, who played Niki Harris in that previous production. Reiber has lived in New York for some time and has been involved in 3 Broadway shows to date, most recently playing Elphaba in Wicked, and previously appearing as Natalie in All Shook Up and as Brooklyn in Brooklyn.  “[Working at the Walnut Street Theatre is] a great gig when you’re out of the city (New York City).  I felt like part of the family there.  Now, with this show,. . . it’s a great role, . . . and there are great tunes.  I like the holidays, and I was happy to stay on and have another experience with the Walnut.”

Vanessa Sonon, David Elder, Jeffrey Coon & Julie Reiber
and the Cast of White Christmas at the Walnut Street Theatre
--Photo by Mark Garvin--

“I love this character—of Betty—because she’s a little close to me,” said Reiber.  “She has an ‘edge’ to her, and she’s a little sassy at times.  I like her realism, the fact that she’s grounded in the reality of the world.  But love loosens her up, and she gets to sing some great songs, such as “Love You Didn’t do Right by Me”, a type of nightclub number in the show, like in the movie.  This production does something a bit different though.  In this show, there’s a combining of that song with [the character Bob] singing ‘How Deep is the Ocean’.  [And then we get to do] the whole classic Christmas thing at the end.  We wear read dresses and sing.  It’s really a feel-good role I get to play.”

“And the audience is jumping to their feet [during the performances] and singing along,” said Reiber.  “They seem to be having a wonderful time.  Around the holidays, with this music, you just can’t help but feel good.

“And vocally, it’s a nice break from some more challenging roles I’ve done.  It’s more traditional, and I can have fun with it,” said Reiber.

“Psychologically, it’s good to laugh, and this show will definitely put you into the holiday spirit if you aren’t in it already,” said Havard, who has been in theatre all his life and who, during a nationwide search, was headhunted out of Georgia, where he was the Managing Director at The Alliance Theatre, to become the Walnut’s Artistic Director.  This past November 15^th, he celebrated his 28^th year at the Walnut. “Seeing the show is a good way to get into the Christmas spirit.”

“It makes me very proud [to be the Artistic Director of the State Theatre of Pennsylvania],” said Havard.  Pennsylvania House Resolution No. 197, passed by the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives, made the Walnut Street Theatre the State Theatre of Pennsylvania a number of years ago.

The Walnut Street Theatre opened on February 2, 1809, with its first theatrical production: Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The Rivals.  In 1964, the Walnut Street Theatre was designated a National Historic Landmark.  The Walnut became a self-producing, non-profit regional theatre when Havard arrived in 1982, founding the Walnut Street Theatre Company.  Its Mission Statement is “. . . to sustain the tradition of professional theatre and contribute to its future viability and vitality”. Over the years, the Theatre has undergone a number of renovations, including a remodeling of the Mainstage area in 1998.  Today, the Walnut currently has more than 56,000 subscriptions annually, more than any other theatre in the world, and is the most active theatre company in the region.

The Walnut is a non-profit (501)(c3) institution, relying on contributed income to reach into the community.  It does 5 productions each season on its Mainstage and is one of only a few remaining “hemp houses” in the country, which means the theatre uses the original grid, rope, pulley, and sandbag system used 200 years ago.

“We’ve been challenged technically [with this production],” said Havard.  The show requires a revolve and a lift (elevator), as well as snow machines.  “But we’re getting everything to work.”

Most known American actors of the 19^th- and 20^th-centuries have played at the Walnut, actors such as the Barrymores, George M. Cohan, Will Rodgers, Fanny Kemble, Lilly Langtry, The Marx Brothers, Helen Hayes, Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, Marlon Brando, Audrey Hepburn, Sidney Poitier, Lauren Bacall, Robert Redford, Julie Harris, and Edwin Forrest, after whom the Forrest Theatre is named, just to name a few.  The curtain call, now a regular theatre tradition, started at the Walnut Street Theatre with the post-play appearance of noted 19^th-century actor Edmund Kean.

This production of White Christmas’s creative team includes the multi-award-winning Director and Choreographer Marc Robin, who is the current Artistic Director of the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster, PA, and Vocal Director Douglass G. Lutz, who has been involved with a number of Walnut productions in the past few years.  The show’s designers are: Scenic Designer Robert Andrew Kovach (Curtains, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Producers, Hairspray, Peter Pan); Lighting Designer Paul Black (The Producers, Hairspray, and Peter Pan); Costume Designer Colleen Grady (a recent Barrymore Award Winner for Fiddler on the Roof) and new-to the-Walnut Sound Designer Ray Nardelli.  Moreover, most of the members of the supporting cast and the ensemble have either strong ties to Broadway and/or to the Walnut Street Theatre.

“We create a family relationship [at the Walnut], and everyone is made to feel very much at home,” said Havard.  “We house all the actors at The Windsor [Suites], at 17^th and the Parkway, and we have what I call our ‘floating ensemble’.  For example, Jeff Coon is creating his 19^th role with us [in White Christmas], and this is the 6^th role with us for David Elder.  So, the audience recognizes the actors.  [The actors] have had a long relationship with us.  It’s like a family getting together for the holidays, and the fun and feelings that exist backstage flow out to the audience during the performances.”

But the Walnut Street Theatre is not just about theatrical performances.  It also has a Theatre School and is involved in numerous community outreach programs.

“I founded the Theatre School at the end of the second year I was at the Walnut (1984),” said Havard.  “And it’s non-accredited for a reason.  I wanted to hire actors, stage managers, professional workers to teach young people.  I also wanted to surround myself with artists, and many of the teachers have been with us for the whole time.  Then when we hire kids for [our productions, such as] Peter Pan or Oliver, which we did last year, many of them we’ve trained ourselves.”  Last year, enrollment in the School was up to 1,200.

“The School is very much a holistic approach to theatre,” said Havard.  Students at the Theatre School get involved in every area of theatre—working behind the scenes, as understudies, and in small parts.  “There’s a continuity; they move from one thing to another in the theatre,” said Havard.  “There’s the idea of a family.  There are lots of children at the Walnut.”

Courses are normally offered evenings and weekends throughout the year:  Fall Session – September to December; Spring Session – January to April; and Summer Session—May to August.  Weekday classes begin January 31^st and weekend classes on February 5^th.  For more information, or to register online for the Spring 2011 Session, go to www.walnutstreettheatre.org or call (215) 574-3550, ext. 510 or 511.

“Our community outreach is very important to us,” said Havard.  “As you know, the schools in Philadelphia are stressed financially, and many of the students are African-Americans or people of color.  The school audience is very important to us.  We’re going into the schools and providing programs for the students, and our instructors are from a mixture of races.”

“The programming has a lot to do with overcoming conflict,” said Havard.  “We’ve addressed that issue and take it into the schools, and our work’s been well received there.  One of our programs is about bullying, which has, as you know, reached catastrophic proportions.”

“We adopt a school every 2 years; currently, we’ve adopted the [small, K-8] Chester A. Arthur School, [located in Southwest Philadelphia (19146)]” said Havard.  “Theatre is integrated into every course in the school, and we get tangible results for attendance.  The attendance rises when we’re there.  Havard would like to believe that academic performance is improving as well but admits that assessing that accurately is somewhat harder to do at this time.”

“And we have several requests for scholarships,” said Havard.  “One of the programs helps identify a challenged youth, and we offer him/her a scholarship to attend the Theatre School.  The scholarship is made possible from an endowment fund.  One young girl in our Theatre School died tragically, and her parents started the endowment fund at the Theatre.”

“There’s another aspect of White Christmas I’d like to mention—the men and women in the Armed Forces,” said Havard.  “The timing of White Christmas is 1944, and there’s a scene with the soldiers and the general celebrating Christmas, and then another [scene, from several] years later, when the soldiers have a reunion, so our Armed Forces are ‘included’ in the celebration.”

“And there’s an audience sing-along in the show, as if [the members of the audience] were members of the Armed Forces,” said Havard.  “It’s amazing to have hundreds of voices singing in the theatre.  It’s really great!”




Edwin Forrest in 1836

The Walnut’s Edwin Forrest Award was established in 1990 and is awarded in recognition of a long-term significant contribution to American theatre by an individual or organization.  It was named in honor or Edwin Forrest (1802-1872), who is often described as America’s first great tragedian.  Forrest made his debut in 1820 at the Walnut Street Theatre and later did much to encourage the development of a truly American theatre.

“I hope people will come and have a good time; I can almost guarantee [them] a wonderful time,” said Reiber.

During his lifetime, Berlin wrote incredible music.  He also supported not only Jewish charities and organizations but a lot of other charitable work, and he raised millions of dollars for both the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts.  He died in his sleep in 1989, at the advanced age of 101.  His music lives on, and Christmastime is an ideal time to enjoy it—perhaps by attending a performance of White Christmas at Philadelphia’s own Walnut Street Theatre.

* Photos of Walnut Street Theatre White Christmas cast by Mark Garvin, Courtesy of the Walnut Street Theatre

© 2010 by Catherine J. Barrier.  All rights reserved.

Bucks County Winemakers Continue a French Tradition, Crossing Vineyards and Winery Festively Celebrates the Release of its Le Nouveau 2010

By Catherine J. Barrier

Wine in Pennsylvania?  Most definitely!  And the Pennsylvania wine industry is prospering—in Bucks County and elsewhere.

According to the Pennsylvania Wine Association’s Fact Sheet, Pennsylvania actually ranks 4^th nationally in the production of grapes, most of which are used for juice, but the state ranks 7^th nationally in the production of wine from grapes.  There are currently 123 wineries in Pennsylvania and more in Pennsylvania than in most of the other individual states in the Union.  And Pennsylvania’s tasting rooms were already receiving more than half a million people per year throughout the state’s 7 wine regions and 4 wine trails in 2003.  Today, there are 11 wine trails throughout the 7 wine regions of the state.

The Winery at Crossing Vineyards

This weekend, both Saturday and Sunday afternoons November 20 & 21, from Noon to 6 p.m., Crossing Vineyards and Winery, located at 1853 Wrightstown Road, in Washington Crossing, PA, will celebrate the first fruits of the season’s grape harvest with the release of its Le Nouveau 2010—just in time for Thanksgiving.  Live entertainment will be provided both days from 1-5 p.m., and wine tastings, by the glass and bottle, will be available for purchase.  For more information, see www.crossingvineyards.com, call (215) 493-6500, ext. 19, or e-mail to info@crossingvineyards.com.

“The Festival is a [Bucks County] Wine Trail event,” said Chris Carroll, one of the principals of Crossing Vineyards and Winery and its Director of Marketing/Public Relations.  “Maybe not all the vineyards [on the Trail] are making a new wine, but they’re all participating in the event in some way.  People should check the individual vineyards for the event schedules.”  To do so, see www.buckscountywinetrail.com.

 “What we are doing is to draw from the tradition in France, where they release the Beaujolais Nouveau each year—on the third Thursday in November,” said Carroll.  “We’re doing a wine that represents the first fruits of the vine for the year.  It’s typically not a wine geared for aging, although it can be aged.  It’s a very fruity, refreshing wine, lower in tannic structure and lower in alcohol content—about 11-1/2% to 12%.”

“On Friday night [November 19], we are hosting a special event for our Wine Club members,” said Carroll.  “The members are invited to a private event, where we offer them a tasting of the Le Nouveau wine.  It’s a kind of pre-release party and is complimentary to our Wine Club members.  We’ll serve hearty hors d’oeuvres with the wine.  [The Wine Club members are] good customers, and they know our wines.  This is something special we’re doing for them.  Of course, we offer special wine-purchasing discounts to our Wine Club members throughout the year. ”

“We’ll release the Le Nouveau wine to the public on that Saturday (November 20^th), and it’s a celebration of all our hard work over the growing season; it’s our ‘baby’, and we’re very proud of it,” said Carroll.

“Our 2010 Le Nouveau wine is made 100% from [our] estate fruit, that is, all the fruit used to make it is from our vineyards (15 active acres),” said Carroll.  “The name of the grape that the Le Nouveau wine is made from is chambourcin.  French winemakers whose wine bears the Beaujolais Nouveau appellation use gamay grapes to make their wine.  This Le Nouveau 2010 event, it’s our way of honoring the French tradition.”

The Harvesting of the Grapes in the Vineyard

Crossing Vineyards is dedicated to creating world class wines from the finest Pennsylvania fruit.  At Crossing Vineyards, the winemaking begins with fresh, hand-picked grapes that are processed within hours of being harvested.

“The method we use to make our wine is the French traditional method,” said Carroll.  “It’s called macération.  It’s basically a beaujolaise macération carbonique.  It’s a natural process of fermentation.  You don’t add any yeast.  In America, winemakers typically use yeast, but we use the French method.”

“Here’s the beauty of it for Thanksgiving,” said Carroll.  “It’s the perfect wine to pair with Thanksgiving dinner.  This wine is perfect, fruity, light, a ‘sauce’ for your turkey.”

“We are having live music [at the Le Nouveau Festival],” said Carroll.  “On Saturday, Karen Rodriguez’s Latin Jazz Ensemble will be performing between 1:00 and 5:00 p.m.  They’re great—so entertaining!  We have them for summer events, too.  We use her [and her Ensemble] for a lot of things.  On Sunday, Café Duo will perform, also from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.  They play flute and accordion, and it’s very French—like in a French café.  It’s a perfect match with our event.  The live music always makes the event very festive.”

On Saturday afternoon, the Karen Rodriguez Latin Jazz Ensemble returns to Crossing Vineyards for this festive event.  The Ensemble, which plays a lot of the jazz venues in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, features Karen Rodriguez, who can sing in Spanish, English, and/or Portuguese.

The Karen Rodriquez Latin Jazz Ensemble

“We’ve been together since 2000, and we play a lot of different kinds of music, such as the Salsa and the Cha Cha,” said Karen Rodriguez.  “We do some Brazilian rhythms, such as the bossa nova, but we also do Cuban rhythms.”

“For the 20^th [of November], we’re going to be in a trio arrangement,” said Rodriguez.  “We’re usually a 5-piece ensemble, but we’ll still do a mix of our Latin, Brazilian, and Cuban rhythms.”

“Crossing Vineyards has had us there numerous times over the past year and a half,” said Rodriguez.  “The property is gorgeous, breathtaking, and the people, Chris and Tom, are welcoming of all kinds of music.   It’s fantastic there!  We [always] have a wonderful time.  They just make us feel like family.  We just love it!” 

“And the wine is fantastic!” said Rodriguez.  “I’ve sampled the wine, and if one hasn’t done so, I’d say you should.  It’s well worth the trip there [to do so].”  For more information about the Karen Rodriguez Latin Jazz Ensemble, see www.gigmasters.com/latin/KarenRodriguez/ or www.myspace.com/karenrodriguezlatinjazzensemble.

On Sunday afternoon, Cathy Block on flute and Dallas Vietty on accordion, as Café Duo, will create a European atmosphere for the festival.

“[As] Café Duo[, we perform] French and Italian music,” said Cathy Block, an accomplished flutist, in both classical and jazz music.  “They are popular melodies that most people recognize and often get very excited to hear again.”

Café Duo has been together for about 5 years, and both Block and Vietty work with several other ensembles as well.  Cathy Block graduated magna cum laude from the Berklee College of Music with a degree in Jazz Composition and Arranging.  She has also studied at The Boston Conservatory of Music and has orchestrated for symphonic orchestra, big band, and small combos.  She is a music educator on faculty at Solebury School, and is the director of the jazz ensemble.  She also teaches songwriting and composition, and some of her songs have been recorded by well-known artists such as Diana Ross, Kool & the Gang, and Al Jarreau, just to name a few.  For more information about Café Duo, see www.buildingblockmusic.com/cafeduo/ or call (215) 794-2517.

“We help create a fun, European, and romantic ambience,” said Block.

“And we enjoy the people who visit Crossing Vineyards, as well as the staff there, who have always been very friendly,” said Block.  “We have performed [at] Crossing Vineyards many times and are always happy to return.”         

At Crossing Vineyards, music and wine mix to create a pleasant, festive afternoon.    



The Wine Tasting Room at Crossing Vineyards & Winery

 “We offer several wine-tasting options,” said Carroll.  “For our Standard Wine-Tasting option, we offer a sampling of 8-10 different wines.  The cost is $8.00.  Our Premium Wine-Tasting option offers a sampling of between 12 and 14 different wines, some, such as sparkling wines, not included in the Standard option.  The cost for the Premium Wine-Tasting option is $15.00.  Then we always have a wine and chocolate-paired tasting for $20.00.  It includes a box of chocolates, all arranged and paired with the wines.  That’s very popular!”  These tasting options are available this weekend and throughout the rest of the year.  The tasting room is open daily, seven days a week.  Private tastings with a certified wine educator can be arranged.

“We have a big variety of wines: our American Originals Series is our fruity wines, and then there are several other categories organized by pricing and the complexity of the wine,” said Carroll.  “There’s our Vintner’s Select [Series] wines, which are the medium-tier of wine, including some blends and some less complex wines.  We then have our Signature [Series] Wines, made with vinifera—these are the European wines, the wines with the European names that people recognize and are accustomed to; and then we have our Premium [Series] Wines, which are the estate wines.”

“Our Chardonnay ’08 won a Silver [Award],” said Carroll.  “Our Chardonnay is probably our most popular wine.  It has won all over—in California, in the Finger Lakes, and in regional competitions.  It doesn’t have too much of an oak taste.  It’s a good wine and a good value at $18.00.”

“We’ve done very well in competitions,” said Carroll.  “One of the most interesting recently is an award for our 2008 Riesling.  It won a Top Gold Award in a California competition in the spring of last year.  There were consumer judges, which means a lot to us because they are the kinds of people who come out and buy and drink our wine.  It’s a really good, ‘off-dry’ wine, and we still have some left.”  To date, Crossing Vineyards and Winery has won more than 90 awards for their wines.

“The winery is on the property of The David Barton Taylor House, which is on the Bucks County Registry of Historic Places,” said Carroll.  Crossing Vineyards and Winery is located less than one mile from where General George Washington crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night in 1776.  One man who participated with the General in that historic crossing was Benjamin Taylor, and the house belonged to his son, David Barton Taylor.  While the exact age of the house, an excellent example of the Federal architectural style, is not known, the original farm was known as “Longmeadow” and was part of the King of England’s land grant to William Penn.  It has been listed as a County historical home since 1983, and Crossing Vineyards and Winery uses a picture of The David Barton Taylor house on its label.



Crossing Vineyards

 “We moved to the property in 1986, and when our then 10-year-old son Tom looked out the window one day, he just said, ‘Wouldn’t this make a great vineyard and winery’,” said Carroll.  “We don’t have a winemaking tradition in our family, and Pennsylvania is not really known for wine, but he just never forgot about that.  In his mid-twenties, he called us and said he wanted to come home and be rooted in the area.  He wanted to plant vines and start the vineyard and winery.  Mom and Dad were not sad to hear those words.  So, it’s a family business, but it’s his dream.”

“We incorporated in 2000 and opened in ’03, so we just celebrated our seventh year,” said Carroll.

Tom Carroll, Jr. the Crossing Vineyards and Winery’s vintner was born in 1975 and graduated from Vassar College in 1997 with a double degree in English and Film.  He subsequently lived in California for 3 years, during which he learned as much as he could about viticulture—the science, production and study of grapes—and enology—the science and study of all aspects of wine and winemaking except vine-growing and grape-harvesting.  Then he came home and, in partnership with his parents, realized his dream.

“This gives the wine a story,” said Carroll.  “And I’m interested in the story [of the wine], sometimes even more than the wine itself.

Crossing Vineyards launched its Wine Institute in September 2004 and offers a number of wine courses.

“We do a variety of things to educate people about wine,” said Carroll.  “First, we have our ‘Wine 101’, which is a 6-week course offered twice a year.  The instructor, Eric Cavatore, is French-born and educated.  It’s a great course!  It’s perfect for beginners.”

“We also have a ‘Wine-Tasting for Dummies’, which is held once a month,” said Carroll.  “My husband, Tom [Carroll, Sr.], teaches that.  He’s funny and entertaining.  There’s a lot of wine, and we offer cheese with it.  It’s always a lot of fun!”

“Then newly offered, in the spring of 2010, is our ‘A Tasting Tour of Spain’, a course on Spanish wine,” said Carroll.  “It’s very popular [,too]!”

“And new this winter will be our ‘Pairing Wine with Dessert’,” said Carroll.  “Our event manager, Kate Sielski, is teaching that.  We’re going to talk about what kinds of wine to serve with desserts.  In this struggling economy, people might have a dessert and wine party instead of a dinner party.  A dessert and wine party makes a lovely presentation and is less costly and less work.  Kate organizes our events and is very knowledgeable about food, wine, and entertaining, so she’s the perfect one to teach this.”

Pennsylvania Grapes Make Delicious Wines

 “The more people know about wine, the more open they are to wine from Pennsylvania,” said Carroll.

“In the summer of ’08, we opened our wine and cheese store (Crossing Vineyards Wine and Cheese Shop) in the Mohegan Sun Casino [at Pocono Downs],” said Carroll.  “Table gaming has been approved recently in Pennsylvania, and the casino’s been there for awhile, but there’s a new building.  We’re beginning to see more interest there.  We don’t have the emphasis on wine and cheese pairing at our main location that we have at Mohegan, although we do sell cheese at the winery.”

“Four times a year, we hold winemakers’ dinners,” said Carroll.  “These are 5-course meals.  This year, between Christmas and New Year’s, on December 28^th, we will hold a winemaking dinner called ‘A Colonial Christmas’, with special guest speaker ‘General George Washington’.  Washington will be talking about colonial Christmas traditions and will bring a few of his military men.  These events are ‘first come, first served’, and sadly [for many who are interested in attending] they sell out quickly.”  For more information, see the Web site at www.crossingvineyards.com.

“People like to taste and drink wine, but they also like to learn [about wine],” said Carroll.  “We’re very passionate about it, and I think that’s why they come back.”

“Since we’ve been making the wine, the thing that I enjoy the most is the different cultures, learning about geography, and the meeting people,” said Carroll.  “Every year it’s a brand new thing.  It’s just fascinating!  It’s interesting to me that an agricultural product can lead to all that.”

“[The release of the Le Nouveau wine] is a very festive time!” said Carroll.  To join in the festivities, head out to the celebration at the Crossing Vineyards and Winery this weekend.

*   Photos of the Vineyards and Winery are "Courtesy of Crossing Vineyards & Winery"
** Photo of the Jazz Ensemble is "Courtesy of the Karen Rodriquez Latin Jazz Ensemble"

© 2010 by Catherine J. Barrier.  All rights reserved.