Bass & Flute Extravaganza
New Jersey Symphony Special Presentation with The Newark Museum of Art
Ha Young Jung bass & curator
New Jersey Symphony Chamber Players
New Jersey Symphony Principal Bass Ha Young Jung has crafted a chamber music program starring the bass and flute! With a concert featuring classic works from Bach, Rossini and Schulhoff and contemporary sounds from composers Dorothy Rudd Moore, Morton Gould and Valerie Coleman, you are in for an unforgettable treat.
Yefim Bronfman Plays Rachmaninoff
Opening Weekend! New Jersey Symphony Classical
Xian Zhang conductor
Yefim Bronfman piano
Nimbus Dance Company
New Jersey Symphony
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Jessie Montgomery Banner
The season opens with Jessie Montgomery’s tribute to the “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Her piece Banner draws on musical and historical sources to create a rhapsody that blends cultures through music.
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Copland Appalachian Spring Suite
The orchestral suite of Copland’s iconic ballet is quintessential Americana with both celebratory exuberance and somber undertones. The music depicts a newlywed couple’s mixed emotions around unity in rural Pennsylvania in the 20th century. Dancers from Nimbus Dance Company add dynamic original choreography to our Newark and Morristown performances.
Due to space limitations, Nimbus Dance does not appear at the performance in Red Bank. -
Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3
Sergei Rachmaninoff performed this thrilling concerto for the first time in 1909 in New York. Superstar pianist Yefim Bronfman will thrill audiences with his interpretation of one of the most challenging and virtuosic concertos in the repertoire.
Xian Zhang Conducts Brahms
New Jersey Symphony Classical
Xian Zhang conductor
Michelle Cann piano
New Jersey Symphony
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Dorothy Chang Northern Star
Award-winning composer Dorothy Chang wrote her inspirational and bright Northern Star as part of a larger collection of commissions from several Canadian composers in 2017. New Jersey Symphony Music Director Xian Zhang performed it for the first time in Vancouver in 2018.
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Strauss Burleske for Piano and Orchestra
Michelle Cann makes a triumphant return to the Symphony stage for the first time since 2014 with Strauss’ light, virtuosic and witty Burleske for Piano and Orchestra.
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Brahms Symphony No. 4
Brahms’ final symphony balances autumnal hues with virtuosic power. Scaling the heights of this monumental work is an orchestral and emotional feat of Mount Everest proportions—and one musicians relish playing.
The Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival will share dynamic contemporary poets offering dramatic readings between the orchestral works during the performances at NJPAC in Newark.
Jaws in Concert
New Jersey Symphony at the Movies
Nicholas Hersh conductor
New Jersey Symphony
The original summer movie blockbuster, with an Academy Award®-winning score by composer John Williams, Jaws is an unforgettable film-with-live-orchestra experience!
In the words of Chief Brody, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat!”
Centennial Gala Event
Celebrating 100 Years - New Jersey Symphony Special Event
Join the New Jersey Symphony and celebrate our milestone anniversary in style. This pinnacle event marks 100 years of musical excellence, innovation and inclusion—and we are so excited to celebrate it with you. Join Music Director Xian Zhang, your favorite orchestra musicians and legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma for a night to remember.
Yo-Yo Ma with New Jersey Symphony
Centennial Gala & Concert - New Jersey Symphony Special Concert
Xian Zhang conductor
Yo-Yo Ma cello
New Jersey Ballet
New Jersey Symphony
IT’S HERE! This landmark event marks 100 years of musical excellence, innovation and inclusion—and we are so excited to celebrate it with you. The legendary and groundbreaking cellist Yo-Yo Ma will take center stage at NJPAC in Newark to masterfully perform the king of cello concertos: Dvořák’s passionate concerto. Join Music Director Xian Zhang and your favorite orchestra musicians for a night to remember.
- Wynton Marsalis Herald, Holler and Hallelujah (New Jersey Symphony Co-Commission)
- Dvořák Cello Concerto
- Ginastera Four Dances from Estancia
Jessie Montgomery & Mozart
New Jersey Symphony Classical
George Manahan conductor
Awadagin Pratt piano
New Jersey Symphony
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Mozart Symphony No. 38, “Prague”
Symphony No. 38—Mozart’s exploration of what a symphony could be—is brought to life by past Interim Music Director George Manahan, who was with the Symphony from 1983 through 1985. Mozart didn’t write the symphony for Prague specifically, but this grand work of mixed emotions became a gift to the city.
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Jessie Montgomery Rounds for Piano and String Orchestra
This new piano concerto from Montgomery premieres in March 2022 in South Carolina, with acclaimed pianist Awadagin Pratt at the keys.
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Strauss Suite from Le bourgeois gentilhomme
Strauss took incidental music he wrote for a revival of Molière’s comedic play and compiled an orchestral suite, perfect for New Jersey Symphony stages.
Hugh Wolff Conducts Beethoven & Mozart
New Jersey Symphony Classical
Hugh Wolff conductor
Richard Goode piano
New Jersey Symphony
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Beethoven Egmont Overture
The powerful and expressive Egmont Overture distills all of Beethoven’s musical hallmarks—storminess, heroism, triumph—into eight minutes. In 1956, this stirring piece helped inspire a nationwide uprising against the Marxist-Leninist government of the Hungarian People’s Republic.
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Mozart Piano Concerto No. 25
American classical pianist Richard Goode is recognized worldwide for the special touch and insight he brings to Mozart. Hear his effortless artistry in this most regal of Mozart’s concertos.
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Aaron Jay Kernis Symphony No. 2
Former New Jersey Symphony Music Director Hugh Wolff returns to a work he premiered with the Symphony back in 1992. Kernis wrote this symphony to express his complex views on the just-beginning Persian Gulf War.
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Ravel La Valse
La Valse is one Ravel’s most intense and colorful works; originally composed as a series of waltzes for the piano, it is now most often heard as an orchestral piece. The work encapsulates in music the horrifying destruction faced by turn-of-the-century Europe on the eve of World War I.
A Joyful Noise!
New Jersey Symphony Family Concert
New Jersey Symphony
Spotlighting celebrated artists from Newark and beyond, the New Jersey Symphony lauds the power of the first instrument—the human voice—with a gospel music-inspired holiday extravaganza. Come ready to sing, dance and clap along!
New Jersey Ballet’s Nutcracker with New Jersey Symphony
51st Anniversary - Presented by New Jersey Ballet
John Yaffé conductor
New Jersey Ballet
New Jersey Symphony
The 51st annual rendition of a seasonal favorite that enchants youngsters and grown-ups alike, including splendid dancing, live orchestra, eye-popping special effects and a touch of holiday magic.
Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker
Based on The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffman
Handel’s Messiah
New Jersey Symphony Holiday Tradition
Xian Zhang conductor
Ellie Dehn soprano
Maya Lahyani mezzo-soprano
Miles Mykkanen tenor
Nicholas Newton bass-baritone
Montclair State University Singers | Heather J. Buchanan, director
New Jersey Symphony
Join us as your Symphony triumphantly brings back this great holiday tradition! Music Director Xian Zhang will conduct Handel’s incomparable classic Messiah. Joining Xian and the musicians will be the talented singers of Montclair State University, who will delight audiences as they sing the glorious “Hallelujah Chorus.”
Daniil Trifonov Performs Brahms
New Jersey Symphony Classical
Xian Zhang conductor
Daniil Trifonov piano
New Jersey Symphony
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Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2
Grammy Award-winning pianist Daniil Trifonov brings his technique, style, poetry and power to one of the most monumental piano concertos ever written. Brahms’ grand Second Piano Concerto has left audiences in awe ever since its premiere in 1881.
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Strauss Don Juan
This swashbuckling tone poem would become the first masterpiece of famed composer Richard Strauss, who burst on the scene in 1889 at the age of 25. Full of adventure, longing, love, defiance and humor, it’s a work that will charm and thrill you, just like its namesake hero.
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Strauss Suite from Der Rosenkavalier
Strauss’ comedic opera was so popular following its 1911 Dresden premiere that “Rosenkavalier” trains were arranged for audiences to make the 90-mile trek from Berlin. Full of sumptuous melodies, beguiling waltzes and heartbreaking nostalgia, it’s no wonder that Strauss reworked some of the highlights into this glittering orchestral suite.