Patrons are invited to bring their chairs and picnics and find out why The New York Times said it made it “Joyous to be in Jersey” as they watch the sunset on the hills of Morris County.

In its fifth year, the Back Deck concert series returns with a season of 14 concerts featuring familiar favorites from around the country as well as exciting debuts.

Schedule of Events:

June 15, 2024:

7:30 PM: Amani Tribute to Tony Bennett
Jazz on the Back Deck

Opening the fifth season on The Back Deck is the ensemble that first performed there in July of 2020! Amani will pay tribute to the pre-eminent singer of the 20th and early 21st centuries, Tony Bennett, in a performance that highlights their musical versatility and the vocal prowess of lead singer, Stephen Fuller. Hear favorites like “I Left My Heart In San Francisco”, “I’ve Got The World On A String”, and find yourself dancing along to “Cheek To Cheek” as the sun sets on the Museum’s elevated parking deck concert venue!

Bring your own chairs and refreshments and enjoy live entertainment atop the Morris Museum’s elevated parking deck. Patrons are invited to arrive as early as 6:00 PM to set up and enjoy refreshments and stunning sunsets on The Back Deck.

Tickets are $53 for an 8’x8’ block that accommodates up to two patrons or $28 for a block that accommodates one patron. In the event of inclement weather, outdoor performances will be held inside the Museum’s Bickford Theatre as general admission.

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June 20, 2024:

7:30 PM: Publiquartet
Lot of Strings Music Festival

PUBLIQuartet returns to Lot of Strings after rising to stardom having received two Grammy nominations, and critical accolades across the country. Since their debut on the Back Deck in 2021, PUBLIQuartet has become one of the most prominent innovative voices in chamber music today having held residencies at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and National Sawdust, and having performed at venues like Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the Montreal, Newport, and Detroit Jazz Festivals.

Bring your own chairs and refreshments and enjoy live entertainment atop the Morris Museum’s elevated parking deck. Patrons are invited to arrive as early as 6:00 PM to set up and enjoy refreshments and stunning sunsets on The Back Deck.

Tickets are $53 for an 8’x8’ block that accommodates up to two patrons or $28 for a block that accommodates one patron. In the event of inclement weather, outdoor performances will be held inside the Museum’s Bickford Theatre as general admission.

Buy Tickets

June 22, 2024:

7:30 PM: Jazz Goes to the Movies: Lights, Camera, Swing!
Jazz on the Back Deck

From the first talkies to modern movies, some of the most memorable moments of cinema have played out to a soundtrack of jazz. This concert features an all-star ensemble that comes together to take you on a nostalgic journey that pays homage to the greatest artists of the genre and showcases the unique connection between jazz and film.
Featuring

Don Braden, tenor saxophone & flute
David O’Rourke, guitar
Oscar Perez, piano
Bill Crow, bass
Karl Latham, drums
Cydney Halpin, vocals

Bring your own chairs and refreshments and enjoy live entertainment atop the Morris Museum’s elevated parking deck. Patrons are invited to arrive as early as 6:00 PM to set up and enjoy refreshments and stunning sunsets on The Back Deck.

Tickets are $53 for an 8’x8’ block that accommodates up to two patrons or $28 for a block that accommodates one patron. In the event of inclement weather, outdoor performances will be held inside the Museum’s Bickford Theatre as general admission.

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June 27, 2024:

7:30 PM: Antoinette Montague
Jazz on the Back Deck

Named a 2024 Jazz Hero by the Jazz Journalists Association, Newark’s own Antoinette Montague returns to the Back Deck to honor the 125th birthday of the great Duke Ellington, as well as the 100th birthday of another great vocalist from Newark, Sarah Vaughan. Joined by a stellar band, and tap dance sensation, A.C. Lincoln, Antoinette transforms the Back Deck into a party befitting the birthdays of two of the greatest artists of the 20th century.

Equal parts artist and activist, Antoinette is the CEO of the non-profit Jazz Woman to the Rescue, providing musical instruments to young people in need. She is a board member of The Duke Ellington Center for the Arts and advisory board chair for International Women in Jazz as well as WBGO as well as hosting a radio program on WHCR.

Bring your own chairs and refreshments and enjoy live entertainment atop the Morris Museum’s elevated parking deck. Patrons are invited to arrive as early as 6:00 PM to set up and enjoy refreshments and stunning sunsets on The Back Deck.

Tickets are $53 for an 8’x8’ block that accommodates up to two patrons or $28 for a block that accommodates one patron. In the event of inclement weather, outdoor performances will be held inside the Museum’s Bickford Theatre as general admission.

Buy Tickets

July 11, 2024:

7:30 PM: Telegraph Quartet
Lot of Strings Music Festival

San Francisco’s Telegraph Quartet returns to the Back Deck after their stellar performance in 2021. Now celebrating their 10th anniversary, the ensemble the San Francisco Chronicle hailed for their “soulfulness, tonal beauty and intelligent attention to detail,” brings their signature sound to works by Beethoven, Dvo?ák, and the contemporary master, Kenji Bunch.

The Quartet has performed in New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, theSan Francisco Conservatory of Music’sChamber Masters Series, and at festivals including the Chautauqua Institute,Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and the Emilia Romagna Festival. They have collaborated with pianists LeonFleisher and Simone Dinnerstein; cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swensen; and the St.Lawrence Quartet and Henschel Quartett. A fervent champion of 20th-and 21st-century repertoire, the TelegraphQuartet has premiered works by Osvaldo Golijov, John Harbison, Robert Sirota, and Richard Festinger.In August 2023, the Telegraph Quartet released its latest albumDivergent Paths, the first in a series of recordingstitled20th Century Vantage Points, on Azica Records.Divergent Paths, featuring Ravel’s String Quartet in F Majorand Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 1 in D minor, Op. 7, followsInto The Light(Centaur, 2018), an albumhighlighting agripping set of works by Leon Kirchner, Anton Webern, and Benjamin Britten.

Program:

Beethoven: String Quartet No. 6 in B-flat Major, Op. 18 No. 6
Kenji Bunch: String Quartet No. 2
Dvo?ák: String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105 B. 193

Bring your own chairs and refreshments and enjoy live entertainment atop the Morris Museum’s elevated parking deck. Patrons are invited to arrive as early as 6:00 PM to set up and enjoy refreshments and stunning sunsets on The Back Deck.

Tickets are $53 for an 8’x8’ block that accommodates up to two patrons or $28 for a block that accommodates one patron. In the event of inclement weather, outdoor performances will be held inside the Museum’s Bickford Theatre as general admission.

Buy Tickets

July 13, 2024:

7:30 PM: Evan Sherman Big Band
Jazz on the Back Deck

Catch Jersey’s native son, Evan Sherman with his big band for a special appearance between his international tours! Evan returns to the Back Deck after two years of SOLD-OUT performances featuring a multi-generational 16-piece band of jazz veterans and the most dynamic young artists. Evan’s arrangements for music that spans a musical legacy of 100 years are expertly played by his ensemble in a concert that feels more like a party that extends from the stage to the back of the parking lot!

American drummer, bandleader, and arranger Evan Sherman (b.1993) has recorded and toured internationally in the bands of Ron Carter, Cyrus Chestnut, Roy Hargrove, Jimmy Heath, Branford & Wynton Marsalis, the Dizzy Gillespie All-Stars & Samara Joy. Since 2014, the Evan Sherman Big Band is a 16-piece ensemble of jazz veterans and New York’s most dynamic young musicians. Praised in the West Australian as “big band heroes”, they have headlined at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Rainbow Room, Ginny’s Supper Club in Harlem, The Django in TriBeca, Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night Swing, Caramoor Jazz Festival, SteelStacks (PA), and the Perth International Arts Festival (Australia).

Bring your own chairs and refreshments and enjoy live entertainment atop the Morris Museum’s elevated parking deck. Patrons are invited to arrive as early as 6:00 PM to set up and enjoy refreshments and stunning sunsets on The Back Deck.

Tickets are $53 for an 8’x8’ block that accommodates up to two patrons or $28 for a block that accommodates one patron. In the event of inclement weather, outdoor performances will be held inside the Museum’s Bickford Theatre as general admission.

Buy Tickets

July 25, 2024:

7:30 PM: Aizuri Quartet
Lot of Strings Music Festival

Making their highly anticipated Lot of Strings debut, Aizuri Quartet brings their international award-winning musicality to an insightful program that features works by Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn, and Franz Shubert. Praised by The Washington Post for “astounding” and “captivating” performances that draw from its notable “meld of intellect, technique and emotions,” the Aizuri Quartet was named the recipient of the 2022 Cleveland Quartet Award by Chamber Music America, with other honors including the Grand Prize at the 2018 M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition and top prizes at the 2017 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in Japan and the 2015 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition in London.

The Quartet’s sophomore album, Earthdrawn Skies, was released in 2023. Featuring music of Hildegard of Bingen, Komitas Vartapet, Eleanor Alberga, and Jean Sibelius, Earthdrawn Skies was praised by NPR Music as an album that “convincingly connects the dots in wildly diverse music stretching over eight centuries…arousing solemn contemplation, cosmic curiosity, folksy delight and introspective scrutiny.” Aizuri’s debut album, Blueprinting, featuring works written for the Quartet by five American composers, was released by New Amsterdam Records to critical acclaim (“In a word, stunning” —I Care If You Listen), nominated for a 2019 GRAMMY Award, and named one of NPR Music’s Best Classical Albums of 2018.

Aizuri Quartet has previously performed in an eclectic variety of settings: In addition to the world’s great chamber music series, Aizuri opened five nights of performances with legendary Indie Rock band Wilco with quartets by Gabriella Smith, Paul Wiancko, Rhiannon Giddens, and George Meyer at New York’s United Palace Theatre. Aizuri appeared with Wilco on CBS’s The Tonight Show with Steven Colbert. With Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ken David Masur, Aizuri Quartet performed John Adams’s string quartet concerto Absolute Jest in 2022. During the summer of 2023, they appeared in Kronos Quartet’s Kronos Festival at SFJAZZ, where they played works commissioned by Kronos’s groundbreaking 50 For the Future initiative.

Program:

Clara Schumann: Die stille Lotosblume from Sechs Lieder, Op. 13 No. 6 (1844) Silvestre Revueltas: String Quartet No. 4, Música de Feria (1932)
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel: String Quartet in E-flat Major (1834)
Franz Schubert: String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor D. 810, “Death and the Maiden”

Bring your own chairs and refreshments and enjoy live entertainment atop the Morris Museum’s elevated parking deck. Patrons are invited to arrive as early as 6:00 PM to set up and enjoy refreshments and stunning sunsets on The Back Deck.

Tickets are $53 for an 8’x8’ block that accommodates up to two patrons or $28 for a block that accommodates one patron. In the event of inclement weather, outdoor performances will be held inside the Museum’s Bickford Theatre as general admission.

Buy Tickets

August 1, 2024:

7:30 PM: Harlem Quartet
Lot of Strings Music Festival

The Grammy-Award-winning Harlem Quartet returns to The Back Deck with a concert that blurs the lines of jazz and classical and highlights their signature style that bridges both genres.

New York-based Harlem Quartet, currently quartet-in-residence at the John J. Cali School of Music and the Royal College of Music in London, has been praised for its “panache” by The New York Times and hailed in the Cincinnati Enquirer for “bringing a new attitude to classical music, one that is fresh, bracing and intelligent.” It has also won plaudits from such veteran musicians as GRAMMY-winning woodwind virtuoso Ted Nash of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, who declared in a May 2018 Playbill article, “Harlem Quartet is one of the greatest string quartets I have ever heard. They can play anything.” Since its public debut at Carnegie Hall in 2006, the ensemble has thrilled audiences and students in 47 states as well as in the U.K., France, Belgium, Brazil, Panama, Canada, Venezuela, Japan, Ethiopia, and South Africa.

Harlem Quartet has three distinctive characteristics: diverse programming that combines music from the standard string quartet canon with jazz, Latin, and contemporary works; a collaborative approach to performance that is continually broadening the ensemble’s repertoire and audience reach through artistic partnerships with other musicians from the classical and jazz worlds; and an ongoing commitment to residency activity and other forms of educational outreach.

Bring your own chairs and refreshments and enjoy live entertainment atop the Morris Museum’s elevated parking deck. Patrons are invited to arrive as early as 6:00 PM to set up and enjoy refreshments and stunning sunsets on The Back Deck.

Tickets are $53 for an 8’x8’ block that accommodates up to two patrons or $28 for a block that accommodates one patron. In the event of inclement weather, outdoor performances will be held inside the Museum’s Bickford Theatre as general admission.

Buy Tickets

August 3, 2024:

7:30 PM: Erinys Quartet
Lot of Strings Music Festival

The international, Erinys Quartet makes their Back Deck debut! Named for the Erinyes (a.k.a. the Furies) from the Greek tragedy Oresteia by Aeschylus, and with roots in Estonia, Lithuania, Greece, the United States and Finland, the Erinys Quartet was founded in 2018 at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki where they worked closely with cellist Marko Ylönen. Since Autumn 2023 Erinys has been the Nina von Maltzahn String Quartet-in-Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, PA (USA).

The Erinys Quartet has performed throughout Finland, the rest of Europe, and in the United States. They have been featured at festivals and concert series including Indiana University Summer Music Series (USA), Mimir Chamber Music Festival (Texas, USA), and Festival Groba (Ponteareas, Spain). They have also taken part in the inaugural Dover Quartet Workshop at the Curtis Institute of Music as well as the Professional String Quartet Seminar with the Pacifica Quartet and Atar Arad (Cleveland Quartet) at Indiana University.

At the Bad Tölz International String Quartet Competition in 2023 they were awarded the Audience Prize Award of the City of Bad Tölz, as well as the Esterházy Foundation Special Prize for best interpretation of a Haydn string quartet.

Since 2021 Erinys Quartet has been supported by Le Dimore del Quartetto where they are also a part of the European Union-sponsored MERITA platform.

In 2023-2024 season the Erinys Quartet will present concerts in Philadelphia, Madrid, Eisenstadt, and Helsinki. In addition to their studies at Curtis with the Dover Quartet, Erinys is pursuing a diploma in chamber music at Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain under the tutelage of Professor Günter Pichler (Alban Berg Quartett).Bring your own chairs and refreshments and enjoy live entertainment atop the Morris Museum’s elevated parking deck. Patrons are invited to arrive as early as 6:00 PM to set up and enjoy refreshments and stunning sunsets on The Back Deck.

Program:

Saariaho:Terra Memoria
Bartok: String Quartet No. 3, Sz.85
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 12 in E-flat major, Op.127

Tickets are $53 for an 8’x8’ block that accommodates up to two patrons or $28 for a block that accommodates one patron. In the event of inclement weather, outdoor performances will be held inside the Museum’s Bickford Theatre as general admission.

Buy Tickets

August 10, 2024:

7:30 PM: Laura Anglade Quartet
Jazz on the Back Deck

Jazz vocalist Laura Anglade is a promising storyteller with a lot to say. She draws inspiration from Carmen McRae, Blossom Dearie, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Shirley Horn, Nancy Wilson, and Anita O’Day. She has been charming audiences by bringing a fresh face to classic jazz numbers in both French and English.

Laura has made a mark in the vibrant music scenes of New York, Paris, Toronto, and Montreal. She leads an active international touring schedule and has performed at renowned venues like Olympia (Paris), the Royal Festival Hall (London), Town Hall (New York City), the Ace Theatre Hotel (Los Angeles), and the main stage at the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal. She will be joined by a stellar ensemble, including Ben Rosenblum on piano and accordion, Marty Jaffe on bass, and drummer Ben Zweig.

The Laura Anglade Quartet will perform their own arrangements drawing from the Great American Songbook as well as some French classics inspired by Edith Piaf, Charles Trenet, Carmen McRae, Barbra Streisand and more.

Bring your own chairs and refreshments and enjoy live entertainment atop the Morris Museum’s elevated parking deck. Patrons are invited to arrive as early as 6:00 PM to set up and enjoy refreshments and stunning sunsets on The Back Deck.

Tickets are $53 for an 8’x8’ block that accommodates up to two patrons or $28 for a block that accommodates one patron. In the event of inclement weather, outdoor performances will be held inside the Museum’s Bickford Theatre as general admission.

Buy Tickets

August 15, 2024:

7:30 PM: An Evening of String Sextets
with Lyrica Chamber Music
Lot of Strings Music Festival

Co-Artistic Director of Lyrica Chamber Music, cellist Ani Kalayjian curates a vivacious program of sextets including the triumphant A major Dvorak sextet, stunning Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian, and the gorgeous B flat Sextet by Johannes Brahms performed by world-class chamber musicians. An incredible performance you will not want to miss!

Bring your own chairs and refreshments and enjoy live entertainment atop the Morris Museum’s elevated parking deck. Patrons are invited to arrive as early as 6:00 PM to set up and enjoy refreshments and stunning sunsets on The Back Deck.

Tickets are $53 for an 8’x8’ block that accommodates up to two patrons or $28 for a block that accommodates one patron. In the event of inclement weather, outdoor performances will be held inside the Museum’s Bickford Theatre as general admission.

Buy Tickets

August 17, 2024:

7:30 PM: The Fumos
Jazz on the Back Deck

Back Deck debut! THE FUMOS are an NYC-based band reviving the glorious horn-heavy dance music of the 70s. From funk to rock, soul and jazz; the 4-piece rhythm section lays down heavy grooves to surround a 3-piece horn section on an array of memorable classic tunes that are danceable and straight up fun! From Kool & The Gang, Maceo Parker, Average White Band, B.T. Express, The Crusaders, Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Jeff Beck and The Band; THE FUMOS bring a loose, fun vibe to their shows that people love to party and dance to. THE FUMOS feature veterans of NYC’s live music scene including (L to R) Jack Walsh (guitar), George Wurzbach (keys), Tony Orbach (tenor sax), Paul Vercesi (alto sax), Kevin Bachelor (trumpet), Charlie Sands (bass) and Gary Ciuzio (drums).

Bring your own chairs and refreshments and enjoy live entertainment atop the Morris Museum’s elevated parking deck. Patrons are invited to arrive as early as 6:00 PM to set up and enjoy refreshments and stunning sunsets on The Back Deck.

Tickets are $53 for an 8’x8’ block that accommodates up to two patrons or $28 for a block that accommodates one patron. In the event of inclement weather, outdoor performances will be held inside the Museum’s Bickford Theatre as general admission.

Buy Tickets

August 24, 2024:

7:30 PM: Life's a Gig with Vanisha Gould
Jazz on the Back Deck

Vanisha Gould brings her lustrous voice to the Back Deck for an exciting debut. Vanisha came to New York in 2015 from Simi Valley, California. Inspired by artists like Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell, Carmen McRae, and Ella Fitzgerald – Vanisha has successfully curated her sound as a composer and band leader. Performing originals and music from the Great American Songbook on several groundbreaking stages both in New York and overseas, she aspires to continue sharing her voice with audiences in New York and beyond.

Bring your own chairs and refreshments and enjoy live entertainment atop the Morris Museum’s elevated parking deck. Patrons are invited to arrive as early as 6:00 PM to set up and enjoy refreshments and stunning sunsets on The Back Deck.

Tickets are $53 for an 8’x8’ block that accommodates up to two patrons or $28 for a block that accommodates one patron. In the event of inclement weather, outdoor performances will be held inside the Museum’s Bickford Theatre as general admission.

Buy Tickets

September 14, 2024:

7:30 PM: Blanc Apres Labor Day with Mike Davis and the New Wonders
Jazz on the Back Deck

Celebrate the end of the season with a 1920s jazz party! Don your summer white clothes one more time before packing them for winter for this stylish Back Deck Gatsby style party in Jazz! Mike Davis and The New Wonders will play works they have never performed at the Morris Museum before in this upbeat and glamorous Celebration of the Jazz Age and the end of summer!

“Eloquent trumpet prodigy” Mike Davis (Wall Street Journal) has a voice beyond his years on his instrument. His playing is imbued with the sounds of prohibition-era speakeasies, Hoovervilles of the Depression, and glittering jazz palaces of the swing era, creating a timeless cocktail of American music. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, Mike began his trumpet instruction at age nine with Jerry Oram in Seattle and went on to study with Laurie Frink during his undergraduate years. Both encouraged his interest in early jazz styles, which led to his beginning to work professionally in New York City while still in college. He now appears regularly around New York City as the leader of the New Wonders and with Dandy Wellington and his band, Emily Asher’s Garden Party, Glenn Crytzer, Terry Waldo, Baby Soda, Dan Levinson, and many other traditional jazz and swing bands. A regular at the celebrated jam session at Mona’s Bar, Mike is one of the vanguard of young musicians bringing traditional jazz to the forefront of the NYC music scene.

Bring your own chairs and refreshments and enjoy live entertainment atop the Morris Museum’s elevated parking deck. Patrons are invited to arrive as early as 6:00 PM to set up and enjoy refreshments and stunning sunsets on The Back Deck.

Tickets are $53 for an 8’x8’ block that accommodates up to two patrons or $28 for a block that accommodates one patron. In the event of inclement weather, outdoor performances will be held inside the Museum’s Bickford Theatre as general admission.

Buy Tickets

Dates: June 15, 2024 - September 14, 2024

Location:

Morris Museum,
6 Normandy Heights Road,
Morristown, NJ 07960.

Click here for more information.