Star-Ledger previews College Night

The Star-Ledger’s Peggy McGlone previews tomorrow’s NJSO College Night at NJPAC—student tickets are $10 and include the concert and an exclusive post-concert party featuring entertainment by student performers.

A ticket to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Ten bucks. A post-concert party with live music, and busing to Newark and home again. Free.

A hundred or more college students at a classical music concert? Priceless.

Friday night is the NJSO’s first-ever College Night, an effort to make New Jersey’s many college students feel welcome at the symphony. By subsiding tickets, busing students from their campuses and even providing tweet seats so the digital natives can stay plugged in, the orchestra hopes to entice the college crowd.

“A lot of our members, our core subscribers are always saying, ‘What are you doing to get the next generation of listeners in?’ ” NJSO vice president Catherine Ogden Levin said. “It’s wonderful to be able to respond, plus it is the right thing to do.”

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College Night builds on the orchestra’s Class Pass. For $25 a season, students buy a pass and present it at any concert to get best available tickets at no extra charge. The orchestra’s 41 Class Pass holders were foundation for the outreach for Friday’s event.

The NJSO knew it had to offer more than a discount to attract new audiences, and a post-concert party was the answer.

“Concert going is social, so we wanted social activities worked into the whole event,” Levin said.

They decided to invite the students to perform for their peers in the post-concert party in the lobby of NJPAC, and the Drew University Chorale and Madrigals and a Fairleigh Dickinson student have agreed to sing. Others are being confirmed.

Read the full article at nj.com.

Learn more about College Night at www.njsymphony.org/college.