New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark

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.

Coleman starts the season with a whisper, then a gorgeous melody rises evoking the power and sweetness of Umoja, the Swahili word for unity. The whole orchestra takes it up and you’re on the edge of your seat with this joyous, full-throated cry for community.

A wedding present for his bride, Still’s Out of the Silence, brought out of silence by Aaron Diehl and the New Jersey Symphony, is a gentle and ethereal little hymn written in the depths of the Great Depression. Still’s wife said of it: “Only in meditation does one discover beauties remote from the problems of Earth.”

Ellington created this lush musical portrait of a “new world where there would be no war, no greed—where love was unconditional.” What better way to start the season than with the Aaron Diehl Trio and the genius of jazz, Sir Duke!

A Czech visitor to America, Dvořák sought out and loved the songs of Indigenous and Black people. Blending their inspiration with his imagination, he created one of the most beloved concert works of all time.

The BBC called Jessie Montgomery “one of the most distinctive and communicative voices in the U.S.,” and the New Jersey Symphony gives the East Coast debut of her new work.

Heart-on-sleeve music, one gorgeous melody after another soaring from Sterling Elliott’s cello. The New Jersey Symphony backs him up with Schumann’s richest Romantic harmonies.

Edward Elgar loved to spend his evenings bashing away at his upright piano, chomping on a cigar, making up tunes. This is how he created a kaleidoscopic set of variations on a mysterious melody—all of which made him a household name across the land.

Breathing deep the bracing Atlantic salt air for the first time, 20-year-old Mendelssohn fell in love with the moody islands off Scotland’s west coast. He painted them in music, full of sweeping melodies, quick-shifting swells and dramatic energy.

Time for Three call themselves “a classically trained garage band” and they wow audiences with limitless virtuosity across every kind of music. They join the New Jersey Symphony for this joyous, Grammy Award-winning masterpiece by Pulitzer Prize-winner Kevin Puts.

Written on what many thought was his deathbed, Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra gave the composer new life. Every section of the orchestra gets the spotlight to dazzling effect, and the Concerto’s last moments are some of the most thrilling in all classical music.

When needing an example of “genius,” look no further than this astounding product of a 17-year-old boy. Here are the lovers, the silliness and the quicksilver humor of Shakespeare’s comedy delivered in a dozen minutes of utter brilliance.

The violin leads the drama from the first bar of Mendelssohn’s masterpiece, but here too are moments of hold-your-breath beauty. These shimmer like moonlight on water when played by Joshua Bell, one of the world’s finest violinists.

He could stir up musical storm clouds like a god, but Beethoven also could part them to let the most brilliant sunlight warm the soul. The Fourth is the composer at his sunniest, and Joshua Bell, violin still in hand, leads the New Jersey Symphony from the concertmaster’s seat.

This provocative piece for strings and percussion opens the concert with the feeling of a tender hymn, then it quickens with an edgy energy. Another vital contribution by our Resident Artistic Catalyst.

When Augustin Hadelich performs, time stands still. It is his own brand of magic, how he makes a classic like Beethoven’s serenely beautiful Violin Concerto sound as if it was written yesterday, just for him.

Mussorgsky poured out his feeling at the loss of a brilliant artist-friend in pieces originally meant for piano, and Ravel transferred these to an epic orchestral canvas using every imaginable color. The Newark Museum of Art will curate the artwork projected during the Pictures at an Exhibition performances in Red Bank and Newark.

Reena Esmail’s wildly colorful overture RE|Member came to life during the pandemic. What a joy, as it celebrates the regathering of musicians and has a fun bit of stage wizardry for oboe.

In the days right after World War II, with his beloved German homeland in rubble, many thought Richard Strauss’ composing pen had dried up. What a surprise when he created this gorgeous masterpiece for oboe, played here by our magnificent principal Robert Ingliss.

Every mood and movement of the seasons is here, from sticky summer heat to slip-slidin’ on winter’s ice. Concertmaster Eric Wyrick’s virtuoso violin shines throughout.

The New Yorker called this 2010 orchestral suite “joyous and electric.” Thomas’ concert-opener is perfectly titled and a superb way to help you shake off late winter.

Your first time to hear the oboe d’amore? This duskier cousin of the modern oboe has a soulful, sweet sound that Bach adored and placed at the center of this piece of reverence and reflection.

Medieval monks had more on their minds than scripture–women, beer and the ever-turning wheel of fate most prominent. Orff set their words to dramatically colorful music in his iconic Carmina Burana.

The New Jersey Symphony premiered this fantastic music in 2000, catching Ludwig at the launch of a career that now finds him Dean of Juilliard. Hear again, or for the first time, the promise of a young artist in full command of a virtuoso orchestra.

You can say you heard him when, because young pianist Tom Borrow has been named “the very definition of ‘one to watch’” (International Piano). He brings his jaw-dropping technique and poet’s soul to Mozart’s most dramatic concerto.

Brass choruses will make the hall ring in this most beloved of Tchaikovsky’s six symphonies. The composer wrestled with fate in his Fifth, and filled it from start to finish with musical electricity and hope.

A little suite for winds meant as background music to a Viennese party. Mozart never did anything halfway, though, and this Serenade is a jewel box holding his most touching melodies.

Finally getting its due, this French-Creole composer’s violin writing is a high-water mark of 18th-century grace. And there is no more graceful violinist to make these lines sing than the soulful Gil Shaham.

Every bar bristles with brilliance, leaps of melody and delicious new harmonies. Bach wrote hundreds of pieces, but none more beautiful than this, seemingly tailor-fit for the gifts of our guest Gil Shaham.

In the century before recorded sound, Mozart made dinner music like this. But every minute of this serenade for strings is so full of unbridled joy—no wonder it is his greatest hit.

Liszt was a fire-breather of a composer, perhaps inspired by the Greek god himself who gave humans fire. His Prometheus lets the orchestra tell the riveting ancient story of theft, punishment, and triumph.

Newark’s own Tyshawn Sorey has a dozen surprises up his sleeve in his new work, especially as he makes superstar soloist Jennifer Koh “disappear” into the orchestra. The effect is singularly haunting and beautiful.

The composer of four magnificent symphonies, Brahms also wrote reams of gorgeous chamber pieces. His Piano Quartet is arranged so vividly for orchestra that it could be Brahms' Fifth.

Berlioz exploded every idea of what an orchestra could do and be, and his Roman Carnival Overture was his calling card. It shows the New Jersey Symphony in all its full-throated glory.

Having written for every top-flight orchestra in America, Anna Clyne’s latest is for us and with the extraordinary Jeremy Denk as soloist. Find out why The New York Times chose Anna Clyne for their feature “Five Minutes that Will Make You Love Classical Music.”

Fifty minutes that made Beethoven’s name. His Third was so bold and unconventional, that it still sounds new 200-plus years after its premiere.

Blend Brazilian soul with Bach’s inspiration and you have this gorgeous 15-minute mini-symphony, Villa-Lobos’ joyous homage to his beautiful South American home.

Famed for her one-of-a-kind technique and stunning jazzy improvisations as encores, Montero puts it all together in her First Concerto, filled with Venezuelan heart and get-on-your-feet dance.

A Frenchman obsessed with Spain, Bizet brought the smoldering Spanish anti-heroine Carmen to life for the stage and the opera world was never the same. One instantly recognizable tune follows another in this brilliant orchestral suite crafted from the opera.

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.

Gershwin’s landmark opera spun off so many great tunes – “Summertime,” “It Ain’t Necessarily So” and a dozen others will have you singing your way into summer.

Proving he was way more than a one-hit wonder after his Rhapsody in Blue, Gershwin poured the energy of Manhattan on a Saturday night into this sparkler for piano and orchestra. Superstar Daniil Trifonov wraps up our season with a bang.