NJSO presents ‘Star Power’ family program

• Program features selections from blockbusters throughout history from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony to Williams’ Star Wars
• Associate Conductor Gemma New conducts two performances
• NJSO Accents include interactive Pre-Concert Adventures

Sat, Feb 27, at NJPAC in Newark

NEWARK, NJ (January 14, 2016)—The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra presents “Star Power”—a family concert program featuring great composers throughout history, with selections from blockbusters like Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5and Williams’ Star Wars. Performances take place on Saturday, February 27, at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. New this season, the Orchestra will present two performances of each family concert program, with show times at 2 pm and 3:30 pm in NJPAC’s Victoria Theater.

NJSO Associate Conductor Gemma New leads the program; actor Sid Solomon hosts. New says: “I love being involved in the NJSO Family series —it’s always wonderful to see kids having fun and enjoying classical music with the orchestra. ‘Star Power’ is an exciting program that presents some of the biggest rock star composers and popular melodies in music history.”

The program also features selections from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake; Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World”; Bernstein’s Candide Overture and Mozart’s Symphony No. 35, “Haffner.”

 

Pre-Concert Adventures

Interactive Pre-Concert Adventures begin at 1 pm for the 2 pm performance, and at 2:30 pm for the 3:30 pm performance. The activities, which are free to all ticketholders, include ready-to-play, child-sized orchestral instruments provided by Touch the Music with Claudia Baumgaertner Lemmerz, a Hollywood-inspired composer walk of fame and more.

 

TICKETS

Tickets are $10 for children and $20 for adults, available for purchase online at www.njsymphony.org or by phone at 1.800.ALLEGRO (255.3476).

 

THE PROGRAM

NJSO Family: Star Power

Saturday, February 27, at 2 pm | NJPAC in Newark
Saturday, February 27, at 3:30 pm | NJPAC in Newark

Gemma New, conductor
Sid Solomon, host
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra

Program features selections from:

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 5
BERNSTEIN Candide Overture
DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 9, “From the New World”
MOZART Symphony No. 35, “Haffner”
TCHAIKOVSKY Swan Lake
WILLIAMS Star Wars

Full concert information is available at www.njsymphony.org/events/detail/star-power.

Full information for the three-concert Family Series is available at www.njsymphony.org/family.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey sponsors the 2015–16 NJSO Family Series.

 

THE ARTISTS

Gemma New, conductor

Renowned for her insightful interpretations and thrilling performances, New Zealand-born conductor Gemma New is music director of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra in Ontario, Canada; associate conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and director of the Lunar Ensemble, a contemporary music collective in Baltimore, Maryland. This season, New has additional engagements with several ensembles, most notably the Long Beach and Toledo symphonies and the Chamber Orchestra of San Antonio.

New was a Dudamel Conducting Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the 2014–15 season. As a fellow, she led nine LA Phil concerts and was mentored by its music director, Gustavo Dudamel. In September 2014, at the invitation of Kurt Masur, New was a Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Fellow in Leipzig, Germany, where she studied Mendelssohn’s music under Masur and led the Leipziger Symphonieorchester in the historic Lindensaal of Markkleeberg.

New has most recently guest conducted the Atlanta and Miami symphonies, as well as the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and Opus Orchestra in New Zealand. In 2013, she made her Carnegie Hall conducting debut, leading works by Adams, Norman and Ives on the American Soundscapes series.

 

Sid Solomon, host

Brooklyn-born actor and teaching artist Sid Solomon returns to the NJSO. As an actor, he has performed with theater companies across the country, including The Acting Company, New York Classical Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Virginia Stage, Florida Rep, Georgia Shakespeare and Florida Stage, among many others.

As a teacher, he has worked with students from grade school to grad school in cities and towns from Arkansas to Ontario. From 2007–10, he served on the faculty of the Theatre Arts Training Program of the Tony Award-winning Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis. Currently, he is a member of the teaching staff of The Acting Company, and he has taught classes and workshops for Williamstown Theatre Festival, New York Classical Theatre, Northern Stage and The Studio in New Canaan, Connecticut.

Solomon is currently in his fourth year as the host of Musical Explorers, a concert series for elementary-school students at Carnegie Hall. He received his training at the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater BFA Actor Training Program and LaGuardia Arts High School in New York. He has been a member of Actors’ Equity Association since 2010; he was elected to its National Council in 2015.

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.

Under the bold leadership of Music Director Jacques Lacombe, the NJSO 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, reaching as more than 22,000 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

National & NYC Press Representative:

Dan Dutcher, Dan Dutcher Public Relations | 917.566.8413 | dan@dandutcherpr.com

Regional Press Representative:

Victoria McCabe, NJSO Communications and External Affairs | 973.735.1715 | vmccabe@njsymphony.org

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