NJPAC in Newark

Award-winning composer Dorothy Chang wrote her inspirational and bright Northern Star as part of a larger collection of commissions from several Canadian composers in 2017. New Jersey Symphony Music Director Xian Zhang performed it for the first time in Vancouver in 2018.

Michelle Cann makes a triumphant return to the Symphony stage for the first time since 2014 with Strauss’ light, virtuosic and witty Burleske for Piano and Orchestra.

Brahms’ final symphony balances autumnal hues with virtuosic power. Scaling the heights of this monumental work is an orchestral and emotional feat of Mount Everest proportions—and one musicians relish playing.

The Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival will share dynamic contemporary poets offering dramatic readings between the orchestral works during the performances at NJPAC in Newark.

The powerful and expressive Egmont Overture distills all of Beethoven’s musical hallmarks—storminess, heroism, triumph—into eight minutes. In 1956, this stirring piece helped inspire a nationwide uprising against the Marxist-Leninist government of the Hungarian People’s Republic.

American classical pianist Richard Goode is recognized worldwide for the special touch and insight he brings to Mozart. Hear his effortless artistry in this most regal of Mozart’s concertos.

Former New Jersey Symphony Music Director Hugh Wolff returns to a work he premiered with the Symphony back in 1992. Kernis wrote this symphony to express his complex views on the just-beginning Persian Gulf War.

La valse is one Ravel’s most intense and colorful works; originally composed as a series of waltzes for the piano, it is now most often heard as an orchestral piece. The work encapsulates in music the horrifying destruction faced by turn-of-the-century Europe on the eve of World War I.

Hear New Jersey Symphony Music Director Xian Zhang’s favorite piece of music as she takes the podium to lead musicians, choirs and audiences on a cosmic orchestral journey only Mahler could devise. This epic performance is not one to be missed!

Sarah Gibson drew inspiration from artist Miriam Schapiro and the art of weaving for her melodic and colorful warp & weft, a true celebration of the creative process and art created by women.

Pianist George Li wowed Symphony audiences with his stunning performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and returns to do the same with the dazzling keyboard pyrotechnics in Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

Former Assistant Conductor Gemma New returns to New Jersey stages to conduct Berlioz’s extraordinary Symphonie fantastique, a fantastic tale of thwarted love, dreams and witchcraft.

The New Jersey Symphony premieres an all-new commission from Resident Artistic Catalyst Daniel Bernard Roumain. A master storyteller, DBR will continue to wow New Jersey audiences with his genre-bending music.

Passages of blazing fingerwork are balanced with moments of such serenity that time feels as if it may have stopped—perfect for the artistry of superstar Joshua Bell.

The Rite of Spring, Igor Stravinsky’s energetic and dark tale based on pagan rituals in Russia, was a truly groundbreaking masterpiece. While the premiere audiences rioted, it has subsequently become among the important and exhilarating musical works of the 20th century. Many audiences will find familiarity, as Stravinsky’s music became the iconic soundtrack to the dinosaur segment of Disney’s Fantasia.