Press preview Sep 27 Opening Night

Time Out New York names the NJSO’s opening-weekend program, “Promise of the New World,” a Critic’s Pick, writing:

the hardy and reliably adventurous New Jersey Symphony Orchestra kicks off a new season with a characteristically intriguing program. Marking the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Jacques Lacombe conducts the premiere of jazz pianist Geri Allen’s Stone and Streams, presented alongside two Duke Ellington suites and a rendition of Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony with traditional spirituals interpolated among the movements.

The New York Times writes:

Dvorak’s New World Symphony is a mainstay of the repertory, but the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra brings a new perspective to it with the American spirituals that inspired the composer performed in between movements by the vocal ensemble Afro Blue ... Jacques Lacombe conducts.

The Star-Ledger calls the “Jazzed-up New Jersey Symphony Orchestra” season-opening concerts Sep 27–29 one of the top things to see and hear in New Jersey this weekend:

Jazz pianist and composer Geri Allen is on hand for a world premiere of a new piece with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra tomorrow for opening night of its 2013-14 season. The program, “Promise of the New World,” also celebrates the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech with Duke Ellington’s “Three Black Kings” and includes a performance of Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” interspersed with spirituals sung by Afro Blue. Performances take place tonight and Sunday at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and Saturday at the State Theatre.