NJSO presents 2015 Winter Festival: Sounds of Shakespeare

First year of two-season Winter Festival cycle features two-week residency of Sarah Chang

Actors from The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey join Orchestra for Romeo & Juliet program

NJSO performs works by Bernstein, Elgar, Barber, Tchaikovsky, Gounod, Prokofiev, Korngold, Dvořák and Delius

Music Director Jacques Lacombe conducts

NJSO Accents include pre-concert panel discussions

Jan 9–25 in Newark, New Brunswick, Princeton, Morristown, Red Bank and Englewood
 

NEWARK, NJ (November 21, 2014)—The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Jacques Lacombe present the 2015 Winter Festival: Sounds of Shakespeare—the first year of a two-season Winter Festival cycle celebrating music inspired by the Bard. The festival, which runs January 9–25, encompasses three concert programs led by Music Director Jacques Lacombe. A two-week residency of renowned violinist Sarah Chang anchors the festival; Chang performs Bernstein’s West Side Story Suite in all six NJSO venues statewide. The Orchestra also welcomes actors from the celebrated Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey back to NJSO stages to perform scenes from Romeo and Juliet.

As part of her residency (the first of its kind for the NJSO), Chang will visit and give masterclasses for two of the NJSO’s flagship education programs, the NJSO Youth Orchestras and El Sistema-inspired NJSO CHAMPS (Character, Achievement and Music Project). Bank of America generously sponsors Chang’s residency.

The 2015 Winter Festival features a number of works the NJSO has not previously performed, including the Bernstein suite, Korngold’s Much Ado About Nothing Suite and selections from Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra.

“No other author in history has inspired as many other artists as Shakespeare has,” Lacombe says. “Shakespeare’s work touches all elements of the human life and experience—the comedy, the tragedy, the drama. All of the layers and poetry of [his plays] are so rich and so unique; to present musical interpretations of many styles from different composers is very exciting.”

The first Winter Festival program (January 9–11 in Newark and New Brunswick) features a trio of works inspired by Romeo and Juliet from Tchaikovsky, Gounod and Prokofiev. Actors from The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey will perform scenes from the Bard’s great tragedy interspersed with selections from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet.

Chang performs David Newman’s arrangement of Bernstein’s West Side Story Suite—an arrangement she premiered in 2002 at the Grand Teton Music Festival—across the second and third Winter Festival programs. She appears in Princeton, Red Bank and Morristown January 16–18 on a program that also includes Dvořák’s Othello Overture, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Love Duet, selections from Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra and Delius’ “The Walk to the Paradise Garden” from A Village Romeo and Juliet.

In the festival finale, Chang performs the Bernstein suite in Englewood, Newark and New Brunswick January 22–25 on a program that also features Korngold’s Much Ado About Nothing Suite and Elgar’s Falstaff.

Winter Festival panel discussions explore the relationship between Shakespeare and music one hour before each concert during the festival’s second and third weeks.

For more information on the Winter Festival and related events, visit www.njsymphony.org/winterfestival.

TICKETS

Tickets start at $20 and are available for purchase online at www.njsymphony.org or by phone at 1.800.ALLEGRO (255.3476).

Make it a date at NJPAC! For the Winter Festival concerts at NJPAC in Newark on January 9, 11 and 24, patrons can purchase a date-night package for two that includes a pair of concert tickets and a three-course prix-fixe dinner at NJPAC’s NICO Kitchen + Bar. Dinner and a pair of C-section concert tickets are $128; dinner and A-section seats are $198. Patrons must purchase the package in advance through the NJSO.

THE PROGRAMS

Lacombe Conducts Romeo and Juliet
Friday, January 9, at 8 pm | NJPAC in Newark
Saturday, January 10, at 8 pm | State Theatre in New Brunswick
Sunday, January 11, at 3 pm | NJPAC in Newark

Jacques Lacombe, conductor
Rachel Sterrenberg, soprano
Mingjie Lei, tenor
The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey | Bonnie J. Monte, artistic director
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra

TCHAIKOVSKY Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture
GOUNOD Selections from Romeo and Juliet
PROKOFIEV Selections from Romeo and Juliet

Sponsored by Herbert & Evelyn Axelrod. The January 10 concert is sponsored by The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey.

Full program information is available at www.njsymphony.org/events/detail/lacombe-conducts-romeo-juliet.

Sarah Chang Plays Bernstein
Friday, January 16, at 8 pm | Richardson Auditorium in Princeton *
Saturday, January 17, at 8 pm | Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank *
Sunday, January 18, at 3 pm | Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown *

Jacques Lacombe, conductor
Sarah Chang, violin
Elena Perroni, soprano
Heather Stebbins, soprano
Roy Hage, tenor
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra

DVOŘÁK Othello Overture
TCHAIKOVSKY Romeo and Juliet Love Duet
BARBER Selections from Antony and Cleopatra
DELIUS “The Walk to the Paradise Garden” from A Village Romeo and Juliet
BERNSTEIN West Side Story Suite

* Winter Festival Panel Discussion: Explore the relationship between Shakespeare and music through in-depth discussions starting one hour before each concert (free to ticketholders).

Sarah Chang’s residency with the NJSO is generously sponsored by Bank of America.

Full program information is available at www.njsymphony.org/events/detail/sarah-chang-plays-bernstein.

West Side Story with Sarah Chang
Thursday, January 22, at 7:30 pm | bergenPAC in Englewood *
Saturday, January 24, at 8 pm | NJPAC in Newark *
Sunday, January 25, at 3 pm | State Theatre in New Brunswick *

Jacques Lacombe, conductor
Sarah Chang, violin
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra

ELGAR Falstaff
KORNGOLD Much Ado About Nothing Suite
BERNSTEIN West Side Story Suite

* Winter Festival Panel Discussion: Explore the relationship between Shakespeare and music through in-depth discussions starting one hour before each concert (free to ticketholders).

Sarah Chang’s residency with the NJSO is generously sponsored by Bank of America. NJSO Accents in Newark are generously sponsored by the Prudential Foundation.

Full program information is available at www.njsymphony.org/events/detail/west-side-story-with-sarah-chang.

NEW JERSEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Named “a vital, artistically significant musical organization” by The Wall Street Journal, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra embodies that vitality through its statewide presence and critically acclaimed performances, education partnerships and unparalleled access to music and the Orchestra’s superb musicians.

Under the bold leadership of Music Director Jacques Lacombe, the NJSO presents classical, pops and family programs, as well as outdoor summer concerts and special events. Embracing its legacy as a statewide orchestra, the NJSO is the resident orchestra of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark and regularly performs at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, Richardson Auditorium in Princeton, Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown and bergenPAC in Englewood. Partnerships with New Jersey arts organizations, universities and civic organizations remain a key element of the Orchestra’s statewide identity.

In addition to its lauded artistic programming, the NJSO presents a suite of education and community engagement programs that promote meaningful, lifelong engagement with live music. Programs include school-time Concerts for Young People performances and multiple offerings—including the three-ensemble NJSO Youth Orchestras and El Sistema-inspired NJSO CHAMPS (Character, Achievement and Music Project)—that provide and promote in-school instrumental instruction as part of the NJSO Academy. The NJSO’s REACH (Resources for Education and Community Harmony) chamber music program annually brings original programs—designed and performed by NJSO musicians—to a variety of settings, reaching as many as 17,000 people in nearly all of New Jersey’s 21 counties.

For more information about the NJSO, visit www.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.

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s programs are made possible in part by The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, along with many other foundations, corporations and individual donors. United is the official airline of the NJSO.

PRESS CONTACT

National & NYC Press Representative:
Dan Dutcher, Dan Dutcher Public Relations | 917.566.8413 | dan@dandutcherpr.com

Regional Press Representative:
Victoria McCabe, NJSO Communications and External Affairs | 973.735.1715 | vmccabe@njsymphony.org

###