NJSO hosts College Night at State Theatre in New Brunswick | Sep 24

Sat, Sep 24, at the State Theatre in New Brunswick

• Special $10 student tickets include exclusive post-concert party
• NJSO to provide free round-trip bus transportation from select New Jersey colleges
• Opening-weekend concert features violin superstar Sarah Chang, music from Bernstein’s On the Town and Copland’s Rodeo

NEWARK, NJ—The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra hosts its first College Night of the 2016–17 season on opening weekend, Saturday, September 24, at the State Theatre in New Brunswick. A special $10 student ticket includes entrance to the Orchestra’s 8 pm performance featuring virtuoso violinist Sarah Chang, as well as a post-concert all-student party with light refreshments and live entertainment.

The NJSO will provide free round-trip bus transportation to the concert venue from select New Jersey college campuses. Departure times and locations will be posted at www.njsymphony.org/college as buses become available.

Chang performs a pair of showpieces by Piazzolla and Ravel on a program that also includes Bernstein’s On the Town: Three Dance Episodes and Copland’s Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes. Teddy Abrams, who has garnered critical attention as a conductor, composer and instrumentalist, makes his NJSO debut at the podium.

Chang, a frequent NJSO guest, last appeared with the Orchestra in an acclaimed two-week Winter Festival residency in 2015. The Star-Ledger has praised her “stunning,” “thoroughly impressive and entertaining” performances with the NJSO and hailed the violinist’s “characteristic athleticism and firepower” in her most recent New Jersey concerts. She solos in Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires (this program marks the first time the NJSO will perform the work) and Ravel’s Tzigane.

NPR writes that Abrams, the music director of the Louisville Symphony, is “brimming with ideas.” Abrams has been the subject of a PBS documentary; The Wall Street Journal has called his energy “prodigious.”

The NJSO will host a second College Night this season at its Friday, April 7, performance at 8 pm at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. Music Director Xian Zhang conducts a program that includes Ravel’s Boléro, Vaughan Williams’ Tuba Concerto (featuring NJSO Principal Tuba Derek Fenstermacher as soloist), Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals and Tan Dun’s Internet Symphony No. 1, “Eroica.”

For more information on College Night, visit www.njsymphony.org/college.

 

TICKETS

College Night student tickets are $10 and include the concert and a post-concert party. Regular concert tickets start at $20. Student tickets are available for purchase online at www.njsymphony.org/college (using promo code COLLEGENIGHT) or by phone at 1.800.ALLEGRO (255.3476).

 

THE PROGRAM

Opening Weekend with Sarah Chang

Saturday, September 24 at 8 pm | State Theatre in New Brunswick

Teddy Abrams, conductor
Sarah Chang, violin
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra

BERNSTEIN On the Town: Three Dance Episodes
PIAZZOLLA The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires
RAVEL Tzigane
COPLAND Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes

The NJSO also performs this program on Friday, September 23, at 8 pm and Sunday, September 25, at 3 pm, at NJPAC in Newark. Full information is available at www.njsymphony.org/events/detail/opening-weekend-with-sarah-chang.

 

NEW JERSEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Named “a vital, artistically significant musical organization” by The Wall Street Journal, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra embodies that vitality through its statewide presence and critically acclaimed performances, education partnerships and unparalleled access to music and the Orchestra’s superb musicians.

The NJSO welcomes new Music Director Xian Zhang in the 2016–17 season. The Orchestra presents classical, pops and family programs, as well as outdoor summer concerts and special events. Embracing its legacy as a statewide orchestra, the NJSO is the resident orchestra of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark and regularly performs at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, Richardson Auditorium in Princeton, Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown and bergenPAC in Englewood. Partnerships with New Jersey arts organizations, universities and civic organizations remain a key element of the Orchestra’s statewide identity.

In addition to its lauded artistic programming, the NJSO presents a suite of education and community engagement programs that promote meaningful, lifelong engagement with live music. Programs include school-time Concerts for Young People performances, NJSO Youth Orchestras family of student ensembles and El Sistema-inspired NJSO CHAMPS (Character, Achievement and Music Project). The NJSO’s REACH (Resources for Education and Community Harmony) chamber music program annually brings original programs—designed and performed by NJSO musicians—to a variety of settings. In the 2015–16 season, Orchestra musicians performed at nearly 200 events, reaching more than 34,000 people in nearly all of New Jersey’s 21 counties.

For more information about the NJSO, visit www.njsymphony.org or email information@njsymphony.org. Tickets are available for purchase by phone 1.800.ALLEGRO (255.3476) or on the Orchestra’s website.

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s programs are made possible in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, along with many other foundations, corporations and individual donors.

 

PRESS CONTACT

Victoria McCabe, NJSO Senior Manager of Public Relations & Communications | 973.735.1715 | vmccabe@njsymphony.org

###