Watch: Opening Weekend Celebrations
Sep 21, 2018
Music Director Xian Zhang talks about the powerful messages of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Kate Whitley’s Speak Out. The NJSO pairs the two works for an opening-weekend celebration of community, Oct 5–7 in Newark and New Brunswick.
Oct 5 - 7, 2018
2018-19 Season
Zhang Conducts Beethoven 9
2018–19 Season
- XIAN ZHANG conductor (pictured)
- MARY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS soprano
- ELIZABETH BISHOP mezzo-soprano
- LORENZO DECARO tenor
- REGINALD D. SMITH JR. baritone
- MONTCLAIR STATE UNIVERSITY SINGERS
- MONTCLAIR STATE UNIVERSITY CHORALE
- NEWARK VOICES
- Heather J. Buchanan, conductor
- NEW JERSEY YOUTH CHORUSES Trish Joyce, artistic director
- NEW JERSEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
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KATE WHITLEY Speak Out (US Premiere)
Stirring and poignant; rising British composer Kate Whitley’s work is based on Malala Yousafzai’s legendary speech to the United Nations advocating the right of every girl to have an education.
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WALKER Lyric for Strings
We perform this celebrated work in memory of the late Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Walker—a Montclair resident and friend of the NJSO.
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BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9, “Choral”
An unmistakable masterpiece; the hymn’s text extolling the human bond is sung by a joyful assembly, a massed choir including singers from MSU and our surrounding communities.