Paquito D’Rivera performs with New Jersey Symphony in collaboration with TD James Moody Jazz Festival
NEWARK, NJ—This November, Paquito D’Rivera is set to perform with the New Jersey Symphony in collaboration with the TD James Moody Jazz Festival. Carlos Miguel Prieto will conduct the performances.
The performances will take place Thursday, November 7, 2024, at 1:30 pm and Friday, November 8, 2024, at 8 pm, at New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark; and Sunday, November 10, 2024, at 3 pm, at Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown.
The performance begins with Daniel Freiberg’s Latin American Chronicles which includes three movements that draw on South American folk rhythms, including musical traditions of the Andes, Argentinian rural folk dance and modern jazz. In Adagio on a Mozart Theme, D’Rivera puts his own signature jazzy swing on the enchanting theme from the middle movement of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. The first half closes with Medley for Jazz Quintet and Orchestra, D’Rivera’s four-movement suite that surveys several of Gershwin’s masterpieces, with an emphasis on the opera, Porgy and Bess.
The second half of the program features Mexican favorites, starting with Carlos Chávez’s Symphony No. 2, “Sinfonía India” which is the composer’s best-known composition and is based on the power of his country’s folk melodies. Aaron Copland’s El Salón México takes inspiration from a night in Mexico City where Copland was brought to a dance hall by none other than Chávez. For Danzón No. 2, Arturo Márquez draws inspiration from his friends who are professional ballroom dancers. José Pablo Moncayo’s Huapango composition gets its title from a traditional dance of northern Veracruz and neighboring Mexican states, popular with mariachi bands.
The show on Thursday, November 7, at 1:30 pm at NJPAC will follow a Relaxed Performance format, which is designed to accommodate the differing needs of our patrons. We encourage you to bring your own sensory manipulatives, noise reduction headphones and other tools that will allow you to react and enjoy the music in a way that is most natural for you! For more information about our Relaxed Performances and the resources you can expect to be available, visit njsymphony.org/relaxedperformance.
Visit the instrument discovery zone an hour before the November 7 performance at NJPAC. Concertgoers will be able to explore the makings of orchestral music and try out instruments.
A Classical Conversation will take place prior to the performances on Friday, November 8, at 7 pm at NJPAC. Concertgoers will be able to learn more about the music performed from Symphony musicians, guest artists and other engaging insiders.
Paquito D’Rivera with New Jersey Symphony
Thursday, November 7, 1:30 pm | New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark
Friday, November 8, 8 pm | New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark
Sunday, November 10, 3 pm | Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown
Carlos Miguel Prieto conductor
Paquito D’Rivera guest artist & co-curator
Paquito D’Rivera Quintet
Amber Monroe soprano
New Jersey Symphony
Daniel Freiberg Latin American Chronicles
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart/Paquito D’Rivera Adagio on a Mozart Theme
George Gershwin/Paquito D’Rivera Medley for Jazz Quintet and Orchestra
Carlos Chávez Symphony No. 2, “Sinfonía India”
Aaron Copland El Salón México
Arturo Márquez Danzón No. 2
José Pablo Moncayo Huapango
More information on concerts and tickets: njsymphony.org/events
The November 7 Relaxed Performance is sponsored by the PSEG Foundation and is promoted in partnership with Best Buddies New Jersey, Lifelong Montclair and the P.G. Chambers School.
Carlos Miguel Prieto
Known for his charisma and expressive interpretations, Mexican conductor and GRAMMY-winner Carlos Miguel Prieto has established himself not just as a major figure in the orchestra world but also as an influential cultural leader, an educator, and a champion of new music. In a significant career development, he started his tenure as Music Director of the North Carolina Symphony at the beginning of the 2023–2024 season.
From 2007 to 2022, Prieto was the music director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, the country’s leading ensemble, and significantly raised the caliber of the orchestra. He was also music director of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra from 2006 to 2023, where he helped lead the cultural renewal of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. He led the Louisiana Philharmonic to a successful Carnegie Hall debut and a GRAMMY in 2024. In 2008, he was appointed music director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería (OSM), which he led to a Latin GRAMMY-nomination for Best Classical Music Album and a GRAMMY award for Best Classical Composition. In 2023, Prieto led OSM in a highly successful tour of the United States, and in 2024 had a hugely impactful residence at Vail! Bravo.
Recent highlights include engagements with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Hallé, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, The Spanish National Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Strasbourg Philharmonic and Auckland Philharmonia.
Prieto is in demand as a guest conductor with many of the top North American orchestras, including Cleveland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Dallas, Toronto, Minnesota, Washington, New World and Houston. He has enjoyed a particularly successful relationship with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the North Carolina Symphony. In 2023, Prieto made his hugely successful BBC Proms debut at Royal Albert Hall, and at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2024.
Since 2002, Prieto has conducted the Orchestra of the Americas, which draws young musicians from the entire American continent. A staunch proponent of music education, Prieto served as principal conductor of the YOA from its inception until 2011 when he was appointed music director. In 2018, he conducted the orchestra on a tour of European summer festivals, which included performances at the Rheingau and Edinburgh festivals as well as Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. He has also worked regularly with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and the NYO2 in New York.
Prieto is renowned for championing Latin American music as well as his dedication to new music. He has conducted over 100 world premieres of works by Mexican and American composers, many of which were commissioned by him. Prieto places equal importance on championing works by Black and African American composers such as Florence Price, Margaret Bonds and Courtney Bryan, among others.
Prieto has an extensive discography that includes Deutsche Gramophone, Naxos and Sony labels. Prieto was recognized by Musical America as the 2019 Conductor of the Year. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard University, Prieto studied conducting with Jorge Mester, Enrique Diemecke, Charles Bruck and Michael Jinbo.
Paquito D’Rivera
Paquito D’Rivera has won a combined 16 GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY Awards (5 GRAMMY and 11 Latin GRAMMYs). He is celebrated both for his artistry in Latin jazz and his achievements as a classical composer.
Born in Havana, Cuba, he performed at age 10 with the National Theater Orchestra, studied at the Havana Conservatory of Music, and at 17, became a featured soloist with the Cuban National Symphony. As a founding member of the Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna, he directed that group for two years, while at the same time playing both the clarinet and saxophone with the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra. He eventually went on to premiere several works by notable Cuban composers with the same orchestra. Additionally, he was a founding member and co-director of the innovative musical ensemble Irakere.
His numerous recordings include more than 30 solo albums. In 1988, he was a founding member of the United Nation Orchestra, a 15-piece ensemble organized by Dizzy Gillespie to showcase the fusion of Latin and Caribbean influences with jazz. D’Rivera continues to appear as guest conductor.
While D’Rivera’s discography reflects a dedication and enthusiasm for Jazz, Bebop and Latin music, his contributions to classical music are impressive. They include solo performances with the London Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. He has also performed with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, the Costa Rica National Symphony, the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, the Bronx Arts Ensemble and the St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra, among others. In his passion to bring Latin repertoire to greater prominence, D’Rivera has successfully created, championed and promoted all types of classical compositions, including his three chamber compositions recorded live in concert with distinguished cellist Yo-Yo Ma in September 2003.
In addition, to his extraordinary performing career as an instrumentalist, D’Rivera has rapidly gained a reputation as an accomplished composer. The prestigious music house, Boosey and Hawkes, is the exclusive publisher of D’Rivera’s compositions. Recent recognition of his compositional skills came with the award of a 2007 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition, and the 2007–2008 appointment as Composer-In-Residence at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. His numerous commissions include compositions for Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Library of Congress, the National Symphony Orchestra and Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Turtle Island String Quartet, Ying String Quartet, the International Double Reed Society, Syracuse University, Montreal’s Gerald Danovich Saxophone Quartet and the Grant Park Music Festival. In the 2021–22, season finale D’Rivera performed “Dali in the Tropics” with New Jersey Symphony.
D’Rivera is the author of two books: My Sax Life, published by Northwestern University Press, and a novel, Oh, La Habana, published by MTeditores, Barcelona. He is the recipient of the NEA Jazz Masters Award 2005 and the National Medal of the Arts 2005, as well as the Living Jazz Legend Award from the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. in 2007. His numerous other honors include Doctorates Honoris Causa in Music (from the Berklee School of Music in Boston, the University of Pennsylvania), and the Jazz Journalist Association’s Clarinetist of the Year Award in both 2004 and 2006. In 2008, D’Rivera received the International Association for Jazz Education President’s Award and the Frankfurter Musikpreis in Germany, the Medal of Honor from the National Arts Club in 2009. In 2010, he was named a Nelson A Rockefeller Honoree and given the African-American Classical Music Award from Spelman College.
In 1999, and in celebration of its 500-year history, the Universidad de Alcala de Henares presented Paquito with a special award recognizing his contribution to the arts, his humane qualities, and his defense of rights and liberties of artists around the world. The National Endowment for the Arts website affirms “he has become the consummate multinational ambassador, creating and promoting a cross-culture of music that moves effortlessly among jazz, Latin, and Mozart.”
Amber Monroe
A native of Youngstown, Ohio, Amber R. Monroe has been recognized as “a crystalline lyric soprano and a superb singing actress” (Seen-and-Heard-International).
She is a recent alumna of the Cafritz Young Artists Program with Washington National Opera, where she made her Kennedy Center debut as Ines in Il trovatore, followed by Isabelle in Carlos Simon’s The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson and Mimì in La Bohème. In summer of 2023, she joined Santa Fe Opera as an apprentice artist, covering the Second Wood Sprite in Rusalka.
An enthusiast of contemporary opera, Monroe originated the role of Clarissa in the world-premiere of Gregory Spears’ Castor and Patience (Cincinnati Opera) and performed the title role in the Midwest premiere of Nkeiru Okoye’s Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed that Line to Freedom (Cleveland Opera Theater). She has also workshopped Blue by Jeanine Tesori (The Glimmerglass Festival) and The Hours by Kevin Puts, commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera.
On the concert stage, she has been a featured soloist at the US Naval Academy and the University of Maryland for Mahler’s Symphony No. 2. She was also the soprano soloist of Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Capital City Symphony. Other performances include Schubert’s Mass in G Major, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Stephen Hartke’s Symphony No. 4 with the Oberlin Orchestra, Ricky Ian Gordon’s and flowers pick themselves with the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra, as well as in a Lincoln Center performance of Roland Carter’s Hold Fast to Dreams with the Tuskegee University Golden Voice Concert Choir.
In 2023, Monroe was named the winner of the Sullivan Foundation Awards and George and Nora London Foundation Competition. She is a 2021 recipient of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant from The Shoshana Foundation. She has also been awarded and placed in competitions such as the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Annapolis Opera Voice Competition, the Mildred Miller International Voice Competition with the Pittsburgh Festival Opera and the Classical Singer Competition.
Monroe completed her Master of Music degree and Artist Diploma in opera at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
She earned her Bachelor of Music in voice from Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
New Jersey Symphony
The Emmy and GRAMMY Award-winning New Jersey Symphony is redefining what it means to be a nationally leading, relevant orchestra in the 21st century. The Symphony is renewing its deeply rooted commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion by championing new, and often local, artists; engaging audiences for whom the inspiring depth and breadth of classical music will be a new experience; and incorporating the broadest possible representation in all aspects of our organization-all to better reflect and serve our vibrant communities.
Internationally renowned Chinese American conductor Xian Zhang began her tenure as the New Jersey Symphony’s current music director in 2016. Since her arrival, Zhang has revitalized programming with an industry-leading commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in mainstage concerts. Since 2021, Zhang has worked together with composer, violinist, educator and social-justice advocate Daniel Bernard Roumain, the orchestra's Resident Artistic Catalyst, to offer programming that connects with diverse communities in Newark and throughout New Jersey. In 2024, Allison Loggins-Hull will succeed DBR as the orchestra’s next Resident Artistic Partner.
In the 2024–25 season, the New Jersey Symphony will present Voice of Nature: the Anthropocene with Renée Fleming, Billy Childs’ Diaspora, Daniel Freiberg’s Latin American Chronicles, Allison Loggins-Hull’s Can You See?, Qasim Naqvi’s God Docks at Death Harbor and Gabriela Ortiz’s Kauyumari. Classical favorites on the season include Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, “Choral,” Gustav Holst’s The Planets—An HD Odyssey, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade and Igor Stravinsky’s Suite from The Firebird. Artistic partnerships include Paquito D’Rivera and his quintet, as part of the TD James Moody Jazz Festival; Nimbus Dance performing with The Firebird and God Docks at Death Harbor; Montclair State University Choruses performing on three programs; as well as Peking University Alumni Chorus and Starry Arts Children’s Chorus appearing on the Lunar New Year Celebration concert with Xian Zhang.
For more information about the New Jersey Symphony, visit 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.
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Ali Harrison, New Jersey Symphony, Communications Manager
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Geoffrey Anderson, New Jersey Symphony, Vice President of Marketing & External Affairs
973.735.1713 | ganderson@njsymphony.org
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