Artists of the Season: Fall 2004

   
 
 Pete Flynn
Flynn's Flowers and Fruit Baskets

Flynn's Flowers is a full service retail florist specializing in weddings, funerals and corporate accounts.  Originally located in Newark in 1919 by my grandfather, we have been serving the Edison community for almost 40 years.

My father, Peter, and his brother John were partners for many years.  They raised 11 children between them and we all attended St. Matthew's school right here in Edison.

It was not preordained that I would take over the family business.  On the contrary, I attended Seattle University and studied political science.  I lived there for five years and met my future wife in the process.  In the end, I missed the east coast and returned.  While working with my father, I soon came to realize that I had a knack for the business.  A few years later, my father retired and I was running the business.  Since then, Flynn's Flowers has grown.  Currently, we are a top 500 FTD florist in the nation (out of 10,000 members) and strive for continued success.

I mentioned my beautiful wife, Ana, and I am further blessed with two sons, Peter (age 8) and Jack (age 3 1/2).  I am also part of a loving and caring family which includes my Dad and three sisters, Patricia, Kathleen, and Eileen.  My interests include reading, rose gardening, sports and fine dining.  My wife and I are also studying French together.  We support the Edison Arts Society and all of their fine work.  Thank you so much for the honor of being chosen as an EAS Artist of the Season.

Pete Flynn and Flynn's Flowers have donated flowers for our Gala Fundraising Balls and for our "Gardens of the Garden State" Art Exhibits at Menlo Park Mall center court every spring.  Many thanks for caring about EAS and the Arts in our community!
 Virginia Ann Moravek
Chorus Conductor, Educator and Clinician

Virginia Ann Moravek, recently retired, taught in the Edison Tounship Pulbic Schools for the past thirty-seven years.  During the past Twenty-eight years she was the Director of Choral Activities at John P Stevens High School in North Edison where her distinguished choirs consistently received superior and overall choir ratings in competition.  The choirs at John P Stevens have performed under Ms. Moravek's direction in Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Disneyland in Califormia, The Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg, and Trinity Church at Copley Square in Boston.  The Music Department at John P. Stevens was awarded the Grammy Award of Distinction for being one of the top one hundred High School Music Departments.

Ms. Moravek has been a passionate advocator for fine music in the schools as witnessed by her membership and leadership in Central Jersey Music Educators Association, the New Jersey Music Educators Association, and the American Choral Directors Association.  She has served on the Board for all of the aforementioned and has been President of CJMEA and ACDA.  She was a member of the 1958 NJ All-State Chorus, served as manager for the 1983, 1984, and 1985 Choruses and most recently conducted the 2001 NJ All-State Chorus.

Ms. Moravek has been a member of the American Choral Director Association for the past 30 years serving as President of the NJ Chapter three times and President of the Eastern Division of ACDA sitting on the National Board of Directors.  Her reputation for performing the finest choral music is nationally known.

As an accomplished choral singer she sang with the Rutgers University Choir under the direction of the late F. Austin Walter performing the major choral works with the finest conductors and orchestras of the world.  She has worked with Leopold Stokowski, Leonard Bernstein, Erich Leinsdorf, Eugene Ormandy, Robert Shaw, Zubin Mehta, Sir Simon Rattle, George Solti, Gennady Rosztezvensky, Michael Tilsson Thomas, William Steinberg and Robert Craft.  She has been Assistant Director of the Kirkpatrick Choir formerly directed by David Drinkwater.  She has also performed with the Desoff Choirs of New York City, the Los Angeles Master Chorale at the Hollywood Bowl, the St. Charles Borromeo Choir under the direction of Paul Salamunovich who remains her mentor, colleague and close friend.  Most recently Ms. Moravek sang with the Princeton Singers under the direction of Steven Sametz.

Ms. Moravek has received The Distinguished Service Award and the Master Music Teacher Award given by NJMEA, the Master Teacher Collaborative Award given by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and most recently the Edison Arts Society "Artist of the Season" Award for Outstanding Service.  Now that
Ms. Moravek is retired she will maintain a private music studio for music instruction.  She also will devote more time to her collection of Hollywood memorabilia and sheet music of the early twentieth century.  When traveling she is an authority on the famous cemeteries of the United States and Europe.  She would like to be a spokesperson for the Gift and Life Organization, an organ-donor agency to whom she owes her newly found second chance at life.
 Joanne Stern
Middlesex County College
Marketing and Public Relations


“I remember my first classical record album, my first Broadway play, my first poetry book and my first dancing and art classes. Years of exposure to the arts plus examples of volunteerism and community service are what prepared me to take my place as an active advocate and board member of the Edison Arts Society.”

Joanne Tischler Stern, New Brunswick-born and Elizabeth-bred, was raised by first generation American parents and European grandparents whose cultural values were shaped by genuine appreciation not remotely connected to economic privilege.  Hours were spent in front of the phonograph, at the public library, in great conversations and in museums and outdoor concerts, always tempered by the ideal that there is always time to do things for others who may have greater needs.

Her lifelong interest in the theater was begun in high school, where she also wrote poetry, sang in the chorus, played sports and was an editor of the school paper. After earning a bachelor’s degree from the Newhouse School of Syracuse University, Joanne attended graduate school at Columbia University, where the cultural wonders of New York were at her finger tips.

Professionally, Joanne has had careers in publishing, education, public relations and for the last 17 years, in the Marketing and Public Information office of Middlesex County College.

In an exciting life, Joanne and Bill Stern have lived in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Boston and northern New Jersey and now make their home in Metuchen. They are the parents of two adult children, Emily of Maplewood, a vice president of Saatchi and Saatchi Healthcare and David of New York City, a mortgage broker and consultant. They have two most adored grandchildren, Rebecca, 8, and Jake, 4.

Joanne has always been an active volunteer with civic, charitable and religious organizations and whenever she has seen a need, has stepped in to fill it. In addition to the Edison Arts Society, Joanne is on the Board of the Metuchen-Edison-Woodbridge YMCA and volunteers for Women Helping Women and Women Aware. The Sterns have been members of Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel in South Orange for more than 30 years.

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