Lauren Sisson and Maribeth Mundell first met when they sang together with the Long Island Consort and Madrigal Singers during the 1990s. With fellow LICMS member Lynda Clements, they went on to form The Ensemble, a vocal trio, later known as Galaxy. After Lynda moved away, the two paired up as The Sopranos and, with accompanist Lea Kendall, give occasional concerts on the North Fork.

Our sopranos are both North Fork residents. Maribeth Mundell is a vocal coach and professional vocalist. She performs with the acoustic duo Diamonds and Rust, sings and writes music for her band, Lesus Mor, and is also the song leader for First Parish Church UCC in Northville. Lauren Sisson has performed leading roles in musicals with North Fork Community Theatre and Riverhead Faculty and Community Theatre. When not singing, she works as the senior associate editor for The Suffolk Times and Riverhead News-Review. Lea Kendall teaches private piano in her Greenport studio, as well as accompanying several choruses and individuals in the area. She is also a roaming substitute organist/pianist for several North Fork churches and has performed numerous times in our Meeting House.

Support our Supporters

We have scheduled events this season so that either before or after the event you will have time to patronize these Jamesport establishments that are supporters of the Meeting House: Bayview Inn, 722-2659; Duffy’s Deli, 722-2150; Grana Wood Fired Pizza Napolitano, 779-2844; Jamesport Country Kitchen, 722-3537; Jamesport Manor Inn, 722-0500; Jedediah Hawkins Inn, 722-2900; Junda’s Pastry Crust & Crumbs, 722-4999. Make your outing really special – combine wonderful music with delicious food!

Spring Schedule

The Jamesport Meeting House announces an exciting program of performances and talks for this spring.  Music at the Meeting House will be back with five concerts to thrill your ears with beautiful music in this wonderful acoustic space.  And, new this year, there will be a three-part series of Wednesday night talks called History at the Meeting House.  Watch for more details, but mark your calendars now.  You will not want to miss anything.

Music at the Meeting House

Sunday, April 15, 4 PM:  THE SOPRANOS.  No, not those sopranos, but our sopranos Maribeth Mundell and Lauren Sisson singing mostly Broadway songs accompanied by Lea Kendall   

Sunday, April 29, 4 PM:  RECORDER ORCHESTRA OF NEW YORK.   Back with another eclectic program of music ranging from medieval to contemporary.

Sunday, May 6, 4 PM:  HIDDEN CITY ORCHESTRA.  This improvisational orchestra was full of wonderful surprises last year and promises even more this time.

Saturday, June 2, 7 PM:  EASTBOUND FREIGHT BLUEGRASS.  Back for their fourth appearance, guaranteed to pack the house.

Saturday, June 30, 7 PM:  OLD, NEW & BLUE.  The future Broadway stars of New York City’s New Face Theater will be back with another exciting program of music from classic, current and forthcoming Broadway shows.

History at the Meeting House

Wednesday, April 18, 7PM:  “YE WESTER MOST MEETIN HOUSE IN SOUTHOLD”  An illustrated talk by Richard Wines about the 281 year history of the building now know as the Jamesport Meeting House.

Wednesday,  May 16, 7 PM:   STORY NIGHT.  We invite old timers and new timers to tell stories about their community — and all who would like to just come and listen.

Wednesday, June 20, 7 PM:  TOUR OF THE 1732 JAMESPORT CEMETERY.  With Danny Griffin, discover the interesting artwork and learn stories of one of the oldest cemeteries on the North Fork.

Supporters of the Meeting House

We have scheduled performances and talks so that either before or after the event you will have time to patronize the following Jamesport establishments that are supporters of the Meeting House:  Bayview Inn, 722-2659; Duffy’s Deli, 722-2150; Grana Wood Fired Pizza Napolitano, 779-2844; Jamesport Country Kitchen, 722-3537; Jamesport Manor Inn, 722-0500; Jedediah Hawkins Inn, 722-2900;  Junda’s Pastry Crust & Crumbs, 722-4999.  Make your outing really special – combine wonderful music with delicious food!

MUSIC AT THE MEETING HOUSE SERIES

WHO:             Brady Rymer with special guest Claudia Mussen on accordion and vocals

WHAT:           Family friendly music featuring rootsy, accordion-laced pop and rock with hints of alt-country, Cajun and Motown

WHEN:           Saturday, February 11, 11:00 a.m., tickets $15 adults, $10 children, under 2 years old free

WHERE:        Jamesport Meeting House, 1590 Main Road (corner of Manor Lane), Jamesport, NY www.jamesportmeetinghouse.org

Tickets available at

Duffy’s Deli, 1566 Main Road, Jamesport

Cecily’s Love Lane Gallery, 80 Love Lane, Mattituck

Blue Door Gallery, 121 Roanoke Avenue, Riverhead

Rothman’s Guitars, 54189 Main Road, Southold

Bonnie Jean’s, 55765 Main Road, Southold

Awesome music you won’t want to miss.  Seating is extremely limited; tickets will be sold first-come-first-served.  A second performance may be added if 11:00 a.m. concert sells out. 

Brady Rymer’s family friendly music is beyond sing-alongs and clapping – he rocks kids silly and keeps parents entertained in the process.  Grammy nominated Rymer’s (www.bradyrymer.com) down-home, foot stomping, rootsy tunes appeal to kids and families everywhere.  As the New York Times wrote, “his music has a rock ‘n’ roll heart.”  Rymer’s performances deliver a happy, rollicking back porch vibe that gets everyone up and dancing and smiling from ear to ear.  This is awesome music you won’t want to miss. 

For more information contact patriciacruso@optonline.net or 631 909-3744

THE 3RD ANNUAL

Historic Jamesport

House Tour

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24

10 AM TO 4 PM

10 WONDERFUL HOMES

Rain or shine. Tour starts at The Meeting House, 1590 Main Road, corner of Manor Lane

PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT THE

JAMESPORT MEETING HOUSE

Tickets: $40 in advance, $50 at the door.

COMBINED TICKET FOR PRE-TOUR SEPTEMBER 23 COCKTAIL

PARTY AND TOUR: $100.

Tickets can be purchased now by calling 631-902-5848 or sending your check or credit card information to Jamesport Meeting House, PO Box 330, Jamesport NY 11947.  

Shortly you will also be able to purchase tickets online at www.jamesportmeetinghouse.org.

The tour can be walked or bicycled or cars can be parked at several locations along the route.

Painting by Fred Bender.

Historic Jamesport House Tour

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Save the Date!

Dear Friends of the 1731 Jamesport Meeting House, 

Preparations are well underway for the 3rd annual Historic Jamesport House Tour.  This year’s event will be on Saturday, September 24 from 10 AM to 4 PM.  There will be ten houses dating from the late 1700’s to the early 1900’s.  Included will  be sea-captains’  homes, bay-front cottages, farm houses, quaint bungalows and former school houses — all in a part of Jamesport not visited in previous tours.

More information about the tour and a pre-tour cocktail party, including how to purchase tickets, will be forthcoming soon.  But for now, you can reserve your half-price ticket by becoming a volunteer. 

 As in the past volunteers will work either in the morning, 10 AM to 1PM, or the afternoon, 1 - 4 PM. 

The remainder of the day is yours to enjoy the beautiful house tour with a half price ticket of $20.00 .  We so appreciate the excellent job you did in the past.  With your hard work and enthusiasm we raised over $12,000 for the Jamesport Meeting House Preservation Trust last year.

And finally, Please help us spread the word by forwarding this to any of your friends who might be interested.   Encourage them to become part of what has become a great community tradition!

Thank-you for your help.

Don’t miss our very first Ice Cream Social at the Jamesport Meeting House!  It’s going to be a grand affair this Sunday, July 31, from 2 to 4 PM.  Sundaes will be scrumptious and there will be old-fashioned fun and games for all ages.  Just $7 for adults ($5 for children under 12) — and the refills will be free.  Proceeds benefit the preservation and restoration of the 1731 Meeting House.

This is your only chance to taste the fabulous Bruster’s Ice Cream on Long Island.   Anthony Trubisz, who grew up on Sound Avenue, is donating it.  He now lives in Virginia and owns three Bruster’s stores there.

Celebrate an old-fashioned summer pleasure in the heart of historic Jamesport. 

See you there!

  We have good news.  The Adopt-a-Pew campaign has been very successful.  The pews are adopted, the new pew cushions are ordered – in a beautiful shade of moss green – and will be delivered sometime in July.

Now we need to restore the 150-year-old pews themselves.   We need to scrape, sand, wash, prime and paint them.  To do this, we will need to remove them, carry them outside for work, remove attachments.   Along the way, some minor repairs need to be performed. 

This is where you come in.   Just as the pioneers of Riverhead town came together in 1731 to cart the stones and cut the timbers for the building, the community will come together again to  cart, sand, scrape and paint – on June 11, pew restoration day at the Jamesport Meeting House.    We will begin at 9 AM, breakfast snacks, beverages and lunch will be provided.  This will be an opportunity to work together with your neighbors just as our predecessors did 278 years ago on their very first public effort.

So that we can plan appropriately, please let me know ASAP if you can help.

Also, please bring your own gloves, scrapers and favorite paintbrushes.   Let me know if you can bring a finish sander and other useful tools.  We will have tools for those who can’t bring their own.

Thanks so much.  See you on June 11th.

Richard

Coming Up at the Jamesport Meeting House

June 4:  Eastbound Freight Bluegrass Band at 7 PM.  Limited tickets still available.

June 11:  Pew Restoration Day.  Starting at 9 AM, the community will come together to restore the historic pews at the Meeting House.  

June 25:  “Old, New & Blue: Broadway Classics, Current Shows and New Music” performed by NYC-based New Face Theatre’s rising Broadway stars, 7 PM.  Ticket information forthcoming shortly.

The Hidden City Orchestra will present a reenactment of an early music program from the history of the Jamesport Meeting House on Saturday, May 28^th at 7pm. The program will be loosely based on the “Concerte of Musicke” performed at the Meeting House in 1880 featuring music of 1780 and 1680, reenacted and reinterpreted as only The Hidden City Orchestra can do.

Organized by composer George Cork Maul, the Hidden City Orchestra is a performance art group surrounded by an improvising orchestra. The number of musicians changes on any given day due to the availability of its members who are all professional musicians from the New York metropolitan area. The ensemble also may include painters, actors, poets, dancers, writers, sculptors and video artists. Anything is possible and the Hidden City Orchestra dwells in possibility as a musical performance art collective.

“Improvisation has always been a part of music,” observes George Cork Maul. Improvisation was surely a part of the original program in 1880. As the nature of music changes in the twenty-first century, so does the nature of improvisation. In this concert we will present some of the ways improvisation is commonly used in all music.”

The evening will end with a “Paint and Play” collaboration between a painter and the musicians. In this piece, the painter paints what he hears and the musicians play what they see; the two mediums feed off each other.  Example of paint and play:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkZtEZPfdqc  

Tickets are $15 (students $10).  Advance tickets are available at Duffy’s Deli in Jamesport, Blue Door Gallery in Riverhead and Cecily’s Love Lane Gallery in Mattituck.   The Jamesport Meeting House is at 1590 Main Road (corner of Manor Lane).

About George Cork Maul

George Cork Maul is an East End composer, pianist, and performance art specialist. He studied music composition with Isaac Nemiroff at Stony Brook, where he earned a B.A., and went on to do graduate work in electronic music with Bulent Arel and classical style with Charles Rosen. After touring for several years and working as a studio musician, he began composing a wide range of serial and tonal music. His credits include modern songs, suites and dance pieces, contemporary operas, musicals, music for software, and, recently, pieces for string orchestra. His compositions have been performed in Italy, Ireland, Canada and the United States. 

Coming Up at the Meeting House

 May 28: George Cork Maul and his Hidden City Orchestra. 

June 4:  East Bound Freight, with more of their popular bluegrass music. 

June 25:  “Old, New & Blue: Broadway Classics, Current Shows and New Music” performed by NYC-based New Face Theatre’s rising Broadway stars.

All concerts are at 7 PM.

Come and enjoy this wonderful music in the historic and acoustically vibrant space of the Jamesport Meeting House.

Spring has arrived at the Jamesport Meeting House — for the 280th time.  You may have noticed the daffodils and dandelions heralding the season on our lawn.   More important, it is time to tell you of the plans for our exciting 2011 season.

So, start marking your calendar.  This year’s Music at the Meeting House series begins on May 28 with Corky Maul and his Hidden City Orchestra.  Two weeks later on June 4,  the local band East Bound Freight will be back with more of their popular bluegrass music.  Then on  June 25 South Jamesport resident Peter Susser is bringing some of New York based The New Face Theatre’s rising Broadway stars to perform a program of “New and Classic Songs.”   These programs will all be at 7 pm and all promise wonderful music in our acoustically alive space.

This summer we are planning an Old Fashioned Ice Cream Social at the Meeting House.  Tony Trubisz, whose roots are here on the North Fork, will be providing some fantastic Bruster’s  ice cream from his shop in Richmond, Virginia.  And we plan a program of interesting activities for the young and not so young.  Also this summer, we expect return performances by South Jamesport postmaster Kevin Ford’s “Jus B’cus” gospel singers, Jamesport vintner Sal Diliberto and the Long Island Opera Company.

Fall will begin with the third annual Historic Jamesport House Tour on September 24.  Again this year there will be a Cocktail Party the night before for our special supporters.   And we are very excited about two more fall events.  On October 30, (Sunday afternoon) Patsy Rogers will bring the acclaimed Recorder Orchestra of New York to the Meeting House.  Then on November 4 & 5 East End Shakespeare will put on a special show called “Shakespeare: In the Company of Performers.”  Our season will end in December with Carols & Cookies, which in two short years has become a beloved local tradition.

Two Major Restoration and Repair Projects

We also plan two major restoration projects this season.  Thanks to a grant obtained by County Legislator Ed Romaine and many generous donors to our annual appeal in December, we are finally able to undertake much needed work on the historic windows that bring so much light and character to the building.    These150-year old windows desperately need reglazing and repainting.  Moreover, replacing broken and missing panes of glass and calking around the sash and storms will make the building considerably more energy efficient.

Our second major project is the restoration of our 150-year-old pews.  Pieces have fallen off, joints have come apart and paint is peeling and chipped.  Continuing the do-it-yourself sprit of  area’s pioneers who built the meeting house, we will tackle this project in community work day on June 11. 

We also need to replace the tattered seat cushions.  The current ones are probably over a century old and were acquired second hand from a church in Southampton many years ago.  Again following the lead of the builders of the meeting house, we will be “selling” the pews to community members.  In return, we will create a “pew chart” in the 18th century manner listing the “owners” of each pew. 

So put all these dates on your calendar and watch your (e) mail box and Facebook pages for more detailed announcements of the exciting events planned for the Meeting House in 2011.

Be part of a holiday tradition at the historic Jamesport Meeting House.  Celebrate the season in this community landmark at “Carols and Cookies,” Friday, December 17 at 6:30 PM.     The East End Arts Council chorus conducted by Anne Webb will perform seasonal selections and lead attendees in a sing-along of popular carols.   Lea Kendall will be on the piano.  Again this year, there will be a guest musical appearance by local vintner Sal Diliberto.  Following the singing, we will all share cookies and cider in the Lecture Room.

Suggested $5 donation for adults.  Bring the family.  All children welcome.  Invite your friends.   And, if you would like to bring a few cookies to share, please let me know.

This will also be the debut performance on the Meeting House’s beautifully restored “new” 1922 August Forster baby grand piano — a recent donation from Paul Ebbitts. 

We had a wonderful time last year.  Mark your calendar now.  See you there on the 17th.