GNYO alum brings university orchestra to NJSO concert
Greater Newark Youth Orchestra alumnae Adulfulyne Padmore of East Orange is now a freshman studying flute and music education at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania. Padmore connected her music education past and present by bringing the students of the Susquehanna orchestra to NJPAC for the NJSO’s January 26 performance.
Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony was the bridge—the university orchestra will perform the “Pastoral” Symphony this year, and the NJSO program featuring the work was the perfect occasion for a field trip. The students received two separate insider sessions—a pre-concert discussion with Principal Cello Jonathan Spitz and a post-concert reception with cellist Frances Rowell, who discussed and demoed some of the symphony’s trickier passages. Music Director Jacques Lacombe also spoke with the orchestra students before they made the three-hour return bus trip to Susquehanna.
After the event, Padmore called the evening a success: “It was awesome! Everyone loved it—they are really inspired and ready to take on the Beethoven. And The Tempest was completely mind blowing.”