Spotlight on side-by-side performances
At the NJSO’s first-ever #OrchestraYou session on March 15, more than 70 NJSO concertgoers, students and amateur musicians discovered the joys of playing live music with members of a professional orchestra. Through the Orchestra’s annual Concerts for Young People series and Greater Newark Youth Orchestra, the NJSO shares that thrill with hundreds of students statewide every year.
As part of its school-time concert series, the NJSO invites high-school orchestra musicians to perform side by side with the Orchestra. This fall, more than 130 high-school musicians from Arts High School in Newark, Elizabeth High School Upper Academy in Elizabeth, Cicely L. Tyson School of Performing and Fine Arts in East Orange and Vernon Township High School in Vernon joined the NJSO on stage for Concerts for Young People rehearsals and performances.
Under the baton of Education & Community Engagement Conductor Jeffrey Grogan, young musicians in Newark, East Orange and Elizabeth performed selections from Holst’s The Planets side by side with the professional musicians of the NJSO for more than 7,000 students and their educators across four venues during these school-time concerts. Educators called the concerts “a perfect balance between learning and entertaining.”
Arts High School student Jasmine Curry said: “I really enjoyed playing [Pirates of the Caribbean] side by side with the NJSO. I felt like a professional. The rehearsals were tough, but it felt really great afterwards.”
After her student ensemble worked on its own repertoire in a special rehearsal with the NJSO, Vernon Township High School’s orchestra director said, “The NJSO members [were] all actively engaged, and the kids were just lapping up everything they said!”
Another orchestra teacher said, “Side-by-side students have shown an increased motivation to practice their instruments, increased interest in classical music and an increased interest in the piece rehearsed.”
Students in the NJSO’s Greater Newark Youth Orchestra also annually perform side by side with the professional orchestra. Last month, student musicians performed alongside the professional orchestra for works including Bernstein’s West Side Story Overture.
GNYO Principal Clarinet Scott Johnson said: “You’re in awe because you’re on stage at NJPAC [the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark] and you’re with all these professionals. It was amazing—I feel like I was a part of the NJSO.”