Rocket Shop 7/1/2012: Steve Hartmann; Jack Chicago; Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival

Words by Suzanne Friedman. Photo by Kendra Merrill.

Steve Hartmann is a local Burlington singer/songwriter with an engaging raspy tone and limitless passion as well as extreme musical talent. He is impressively self taught and attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. Steve is a family man and showed great charisma, both giving him an amiable quality.

Steve can be heard at the Maritime Festival on August 19th at 5:00pm on the Great Long Stage. He also hosts an Open Mic Night at Chow Bella in St. Albans on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday evening of every month. Hartmann will be performing at the Bee’s Knees in Morrisville on August 4th and this is the only time that he will play the piano so make sure to check it out. The debut album ‘Waking Up The Echoes’ will be released at Burlington’s First Night.  His performance on Rocket Shop consisted of original songs “Sweet Angel”, “My Family”, and “Waking Up The Echoes”.

Words by Suzanne Friedman and Fabian Rainville. Photos by Kendra Merrill.

The final performance on Rocket Shop tonight came from some classical music phenoms. After hearing the music that these teens produced, it was hard to believe that they were only in high school. The first group to perform consisted of Hanan Mundiya  on first violin, Nina Paul on second violin, Deychen Volino-gyetsa  on viola, and  Paul Shubat  on cello. Their rendition of “Borodin String quartet No.2” brought chills to everyone in the studio. They are from various locations ranging from New York to Southern Germany.

The second group to perform consisted of Clare Armenante on violin, Daniel Baer on cello, Max Kerr on violin, and Chris Alley on viola. They performed “Beethoven’s String Quartet Opus 59 Movements 1 and 3” which was beyond excellent. All of the above classical musicians can be found at the Green Mountain Music Chamber Festival which is ongoing from June 24-July 21 in the Recital Hall on Redstone Campus at the University of Vermont.  They are also performing  in the Junior Virtuoso New York Tour in France. The musicians were assigned their pieces, but did not know each other prior to the festival which reveals how adaptable and truly talented they are. The festival has been a great experience and wonderful opportunity to meet fellow classical musicians as well as professional musicians.

The Rocket Shop playlist: Steve Hartmann, "Sweet Angel" (Live) Steve Hartmann, "My Family" (Live) Steve Hartmann, "Waking Up With the Echoes" (Live) Jack Chicago, "Busking Life" (Live) Jack Chicago, "Girl I Wanna Party with You Tonight" (Live) Jack Chicago, "Fae's Gone" (Live) Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, "Borodin String Quartet No. 2 in D Major" (Live) Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, "Beethoven String Quartet No. 8 Op. 59 No. 2 (Live) Rocket Shop playlists are logged with RadioActivity.