State Theatre New Jersey in New Brunswick

Written during the horrors World War I, Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin is a bright reflection on lives lost during the war, with each movement dedicated to a friend who passed. The composer draws on the woodwind section—particularly the oboe—to tell these stories.

George Walker—a longtime Montclair resident—was among the greatest composers to call the Garden State home, and in 1996, he became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music. It was this passionate work for soprano and orchestra that garnered him that grand distinction.

This divine choral-orchestral masterpiece focuses Fauré’s view on the acceptance of a peaceful death. Past Music Director Jacques Lacombe, whose tenure was marked by powerful vocal performances, returns to lead this exquisite work.

Pathbreaking composer Chen Yi was the first woman to receive a Master of Arts degree in music composition from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. She brings her signature blend of Chinese traditional themes and Western orchestral forms to this new commission.

Everything old is new again! Stravinsky takes baroque-era music and spikes it with his inimitable sense of harmony and rhythm.

Violinist Randall Goosby pulls out all the melodic and soulful stops of Tchaikovsky’s only violin concerto, one of the most beloved of the Romantic era.