NJSO presents Tchaikovsky’s Fifth, East Coast premiere of Steven Mackey Piano Concerto

NEWARK, NJ (April 11, 2013)—Music Director Jacques Lacombe and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra present Tchaikovsky’s mighty Fifth Symphony on a concert program that features the East Coast premiere of Steven Mackey’s Stumble to Grace Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with pianist Orli Shaham. The Orchestra performs the Princeton University professor’s concerto as part of the New Jersey Roots Project, which celebrates the music of composers whose artistic identity has been influenced by their time in the Garden State.

Performances take place on Thursday, May 16, (1:30 pm) and Saturday, May 18, (8 pm) at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark; Friday, May 17, (8 pm) at the Richardson Auditorium in Princeton and Sunday, May 19, (3 pm) at the State Theatre in New Brunswick. A Classical Conversation about the music on the program begins one hour before the May 17–19 performances.

“Steve Mackey is a very interesting figure,” Lacombe says. “He is someone who doesn’t think in boxes and limitations—he teaches at Princeton University, he plays guitar, he has connections he has to rock music and jazz. I think Stumble to Grace reflects that personality.

“This project originated with the St. Louis Symphony, and the piece was written for Orli Shaham. The premiere was very successful, and we are excited to be a part of this project with St. Louis and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Our New Jersey Roots Project draws on music from the past from composers like Antheil and Cone, but the project is also about stimulating the creation of new works—[Mackey] and his relationship with Princeton University fit perfectly.”

The NJSO opens the program with the Prelude from Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg as part of a celebration of the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The program’s finale, Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, is “a powerful masterwork,” the music director says. “It’s a beautiful symphony that is really Russian but has the structure and influence of the German school in it. Following the Wagner and Mackey works, the symphony creates an interesting contrast.”

TICKETS
Tickets start at $20 and are available for purchase online here or by phone at 1.800.ALLEGRO (255.3476).