He’s playing
for a cause

By Lauren Fritsky
Times Staff Writer

Northeast native Jonathan Miles Freeman plans to combine chamber music and charity during a special benefit concert in Willow Grove next month.
The Freeman Camerata, which includes Freeman, a concert pianist and composer, and soprano Constance Kyriacos, will perform Saturday, March 3, at Jacobs’ Music, 1135 N. Easton Road. Proceeds from the show go to Pegasus Riding Academy, a Northeast group that provides therapeutic riding lessons to disabled individuals. It is located at 8297 Bustleton Ave.
"Our goal is to raise money for the good of society," said Freeman, 55, who now lives in Glenside.
Freeman started playing piano and composing music around the time he began attending Fox Chase Elementary School. He’s studied with several teachers, such as Maryan Filar and Eleanor Sokoloff, since his mother first taught him as a youngster.
"My father bought (a piano) thinking I could learn on it. He took one lesson and I took over," Freeman said.
Freeman first appeared on the Academy of Music stage at age 15, when he was invited to perform in a Hanukkah concert. The virtuoso made his formal debut at the Academy at age 20.
As a teen, Freeman appeared three times on WFLN-FM, a now-defunct local classical music station, and played with the Philadelphia Orchestra, through which he also won second prize in a competition contest.
After attending George Washington and Lower Moreland high schools, Freeman studied at the Juilliard School of Music in New York and later received first place in piano in the Greater Philadelphia Liberace Keyboard Search.
Now a teacher himself — he instructs classes and began working with Kyriacos last summer — Freeman also regularly composes and produces CDs. Freeman also plans to complete a Broadway-style musical about the late Judy Swan, an opera and pop standards performer from Lafayette Hill.
"He will write songs on Chinese menus," Kyriacos said of his unceasing creativity.
While he’s schooled in the classical music of composers like Chopin and Schubert, Freeman now also churns out pop melodies to bring his music to a wider audience.
"In order to make my music more accessible, I should write it into pop melodies," Freeman said. "People say it sounds familiar."
Kyriacos, a Richboro resident, was a state champion accordionist and began teaching the instrument at age 16. She also studied at Juilliard, in addition to the Alliance Française in New York and the Institute Catholique in Paris. She currently studies under Esther Kulp.
As a vocalist, Kyriacos performed with the Coro Lirico Opera Company at Carnegie Hall, and appeared with the New Jersey State Repertory Company and New Jersey State Opera. She became a fashion designer and now creates computer software, but she never turned her back on music.
"I always kept music in my life," Kyriacos said.
In the future, the duo hopes to pair up for another charity event, possibly targeting autism. Kyriacos’ 11-year-old daughter Nikki has the disorder.
In the past, Freeman and the fellow musicians he sometimes plays with have performed benefit events to raise money for a Conshohocken church destroyed by a fire and Hurricane Katrina/Rita relief efforts. ••
The Jacobs’ Music benefit concert will begin at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25 and will be sold at the door until a half-hour before show time. They can be purchased in advance by calling 215-884-1025 or 215-354-0592.
Reporter Lauren Fritsky can be reached at 215-354-3038 or lfritsky@phillynews.com