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Press Releases
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Presents Mahler's First Symphony, 'Titan,' and Bernstein's Symphony No. 2, 'Age of Anxiety'
Performances take place on Thursday, March 12, at 1:30 pm and Friday, March 13, at 8 pm at NJPAC in Newark; Saturday, March 14, at 8 pm at the State Theatre in New Brunswick and Sunday, March 15, at 3 pm at the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown.
“Kirill and I performed Bernstein’s ‘Age of Anxiety’ together in Montreal a few seasons ago. It’s a difficult piece, and we both felt really good about our interpretation of it, so I wanted to find another occasion to play it together,” Lacombe says. “It was just a matter of finding the right program, and this pairing with Mahler’s First Symphony makes a perfect combination. Bernstein had such a great relationship with Mahler’s music, which was neglected even in Vienna, and his piece is about debating and dealing with the meaning of life. Mahler’s music often wrestles with those same questions, with dealing with who we are. That’s an interesting connection.
“‘Age of Anxiety’ is quite introspective—the first half of the piece is a set of variations in which the music is constantly revealing itself. Then there is a jazz element, a four-minute section that’s essentially piano solo with only percussion and double bass—a side of Bernstein we’re more familiar with—and then a big, powerful ending. It’s a different Bernstein that we see, and with music like this, you can understand why he was so excited about composers like Mahler.”
#ORCHESTRAYOU The NJSO invites concertgoers to perform on their own orchestral instruments alongside NJSO musicians at the second annual #OrchestraYou on Friday, March 13, at NJPAC in Newark. Education & Community Engagement Conductor Jeff Grogan will lead #OrchestraYou in Farandole from Bizet’s L’Arlésienne Suite No. 2.
At the NJSO’s celebrated #OrchestraYou session last March, more than 70 concertgoers, students and amateur musicians discovered the joys of playing live music with members of a professional orchestra. Hundreds of concert attendees, families and friends watched the session unfold from the Prudential Hall lobby and balconies, sharing photos and comments on social media.
“The energy in the room was indescribable,” Grogan says of last year’s event. “Everyone—#OrchestraYou members and audience alike—was cheering each other on in an incredibly supportive way. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.”
#OrchestraYou is free and open to all ticketholders for the NJSO’s March 13 concert featuring Mahler’s “Titan” Symphony; advance registration is required by March 6. To download music and register for #OrchestraYou—and to view press from last season’s event—visit www.njsymphony.org/orchestrayou.
#OrchestraYou is an NJSO Accent event. Inspired by the concerts and designed to inspire audiences, NJSO Accents are pre- or post-concert events that complement the concert experience and provide audience members with more opportunities to personally connect with the music and music makers. Learn more at www.njsymphony.org/accents.
NJSO Accents in Newark are generously sponsored by the Prudential Foundation.
TICKETS Tickets start at $20 and are available for purchase online at www.njsymphony.org or by phone at 1.800.ALLEGRO (255.3476).
THE PROGRAM Mahler’s First Symphony, “Titan” Thursday, March 12 at 1:30 pm | NJPAC in Newark Friday, March 13 at 8 pm | NJPAC in Newark Saturday, March 14 at 8 pm | State Theatre in New Brunswick Sunday, March 15 at 3 pm | Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown
Jacques Lacombe, conductor Kirill Gerstein, piano New Jersey Symphony Orchestra
BERNSTEIN Symphony No. 2, “The Age of Anxiety” MAHLER Symphony No. 1, “Titan”
Full concert information is available at www.njsymphony.org/events/detail/mahlers-first-symphony-titan.
The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey is concert sponsor of the March 14 performance.
THE ARTISTS Jacques Lacombe, conductor A remarkable conductor whose artistic integrity and rapport with orchestras have propelled him to international stature, Jacques Lacombe has been Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra since 2010 and Orchestre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières since 2006. He was previously Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and Music Director of orchestra and opera with the Philharmonie de Lorraine.
Lacombe has garnered critical praise for his creative programming and bold leadership of the NJSO. Time Out New York has named Orchestra’s acclaimed Winter Festivals “an eagerly anticipated annual event” for the innovative concert experiences that have included a realization of Scriabin’s “color organ,” collaborations with theater and dance troupes and presentations of Tan Dun concertos in which clay pots and water become solo instruments. The New York Times wrote that “It was an honor to be in the hall” for Lacombe and the NJSO’s performance of Busoni’s Piano Concerto at the 2012 Spring for Music Festival at Carnegie Hall.
Recently, Lacombe helmed a pair of unique initiatives through the New Jersey Roots Project: the NJSO launched the inaugural NJSO Edward T. Cone Composition Institute for young composers—a week of intense compositional evaluations and consultations that culminated in a live performance of the participants’ works—and gave the world premiere of Cone’s Symphony in a special lecture-concert. Other 2014–15 NJSO highlights include the “Sounds of Shakespeare” Winter Festival, featuring collaborations with violinist Sarah Chang and the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey.
In July, Lacombe made his Tanglewood Music Festival debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra; this season, he returns to the Deutsche Oper Berlin for productions of Carmen, The Damnation of Faust and Samson and Delilah; L’Opera de Monte Carlo for Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Vancouver Opera for Carmen.
He has appeared with the Cincinnati, Columbus, Québec, Toronto, Vancouver and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras and National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa. He frequently conducts in France, Spain and Australia and has led tours and recordings with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.
Opera highlights include all-star productions of La Bohème and Tosca at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and numerous productions with the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Metropolitan Opera, as well as engagements at opera houses in Marseille, Strasbourg, Turin and Munich. He has recorded for the CPO and Analekta labels; with the NJSO, he has recorded Orff’s Carmina Burana and Janácek’s Suite from The Cunning Little Vixen and released a new recording of Verdi’s Requiem. His performances have been broadcast on PBS, the CBC, Mezzo TV and Arte TV, among others.
Born in Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Québec, Lacombe attended the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal and Hochschule für Musik in Vienna. He was named a Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Québec in 2012 and a Member of the Order of Canada in 2013—among the highest civilian honors in the country.
Kirill Gerstein, piano Multifaceted pianist Kirill Gerstein is rapidly ascending into classical music’s highest ranks. With a masterful technique, discerning intelligence and a musical curiosity that has led him to explore repertoire spanning centuries and numerous styles, he has proven to be one of today’s most intriguing and versatile musicians.
Gerstein is the sixth recipient of the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award. Since receiving the award in 2010, he has commissioned boundary-crossing new works by Oliver Knussen, Chick Corea, Brad Mehldau, Timothy Andres and Alexander Goehr. Gerstein also garnered First Prize at the 2001 Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition in Tel Aviv, and he received a 2002 Gilmore Young Artist Award and a 2010 Avery Fisher Grant.
Highlights of his 2014–15 season include performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Charles Dutoit, Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin and San Francisco Symphony; re-engagements with the St. Louis, Vancouver, Indianapolis, Nashville and San Antonio symphonies; debuts with the Minnesota Orchestra and New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and a recital on Carnegie Hall’s Keyboard Virtuosos series in Zankel Hall.
Internationally, Gerstein has appeared with the Vienna Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, BBC Symphony and Gurzenich Orchestra in Cologne, Salzburg and Vienna, as well as with the São Paulo Symphony in Brazil.
Born in Voronezh, Russia, Gerstein came to the United States at age 14 to study jazz piano as the youngest student ever to attend Boston’s Berklee College of Music. After completing his studies there, he attended the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Solomon Mikowsky and earned both bachelor and master of music degrees by the age of 20.
THE NEW JERSEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Named “a vital, artistically significant musical organization” by The Wall Street Journal, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra embodies that vitality through its statewide presence and critically acclaimed performances, education partnerships and unparalleled access to music and the Orchestra’s superb musicians.
Under the bold leadership of Music Director Jacques Lacombe, the NJSO presents classical, pops and family programs, as well as outdoor summer concerts and special events. Embracing its legacy as a statewide orchestra, the NJSO is the resident orchestra of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark and regularly performs at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, Richardson Auditorium in Princeton, Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown and bergenPAC in Englewood. Partnerships with New Jersey arts organizations, universities and civic organizations remain a key element of the Orchestra’s statewide identity.
In addition to its lauded artistic programming, the NJSO presents a suite of education and community engagement programs that promote meaningful, lifelong engagement with live music. Programs include the three-ensemble NJSO Youth Orchestras, school-time Concerts for Young People performances and multiple offerings—including the El Sistema-inspired NJSO CHAMPS (Character, Achievement and Music Project)—that provide and promote in-school instrumental instruction as part of the NJSO Academy. The NJSO’s REACH (Resources for Education and Community Harmony) chamber music program annually brings original programs—designed and performed by NJSO musicians—to a variety of settings, reaching as many as 17,000 people in nearly all of New Jersey’s 21 counties.
For more information about the NJSO, visit www.njsymphony.org or email information@njsymphony.org. Tickets are available for purchase by phone 1.800.ALLEGRO (255.3476) or on the Orchestra’s website.
The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s programs are made possible in part by The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, along with many other foundations, corporations and individual donors. United is the official airline of the NJSO.
PRESS CONTACT National & NYC Press Representative: Dan Dutcher, Dan Dutcher Public Relations | 917.566.8413 | dan@dandutcherpr.com
Regional Press Representative: Victoria McCabe, NJSO Communications and External Affairs | 973.735.1715 | vmccabe@njsymphony.org
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“Kirill and I performed Bernstein’s ‘Age of Anxiety’ together in Montreal a few seasons ago. It’s a difficult piece, and we both felt really good about our interpretation of it, so I wanted to find another occasion to play it together,” Lacombe says. “It was just a matter of finding the right program, and this pairing with Mahler’s First Symphony makes a perfect combination. Bernstein had such a great relationship with Mahler’s music, which was neglected even in Vienna, and his piece is about debating and dealing with the meaning of life. Mahler’s music often wrestles with those same questions, with dealing with who we are. That’s an interesting connection.
“‘Age of Anxiety’ is quite introspective—the first half of the piece is a set of variations in which the music is constantly revealing itself. Then there is a jazz element, a four-minute section that’s essentially piano solo with only percussion and double bass—a side of Bernstein we’re more familiar with—and then a big, powerful ending. It’s a different Bernstein that we see, and with music like this, you can understand why he was so excited about composers like Mahler.”
#ORCHESTRAYOU The NJSO invites concertgoers to perform on their own orchestral instruments alongside NJSO musicians at the second annual #OrchestraYou on Friday, March 13, at NJPAC in Newark. Education & Community Engagement Conductor Jeff Grogan will lead #OrchestraYou in Farandole from Bizet’s L’Arlésienne Suite No. 2.
At the NJSO’s celebrated #OrchestraYou session last March, more than 70 concertgoers, students and amateur musicians discovered the joys of playing live music with members of a professional orchestra. Hundreds of concert attendees, families and friends watched the session unfold from the Prudential Hall lobby and balconies, sharing photos and comments on social media.
“The energy in the room was indescribable,” Grogan says of last year’s event. “Everyone—#OrchestraYou members and audience alike—was cheering each other on in an incredibly supportive way. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.”
#OrchestraYou is free and open to all ticketholders for the NJSO’s March 13 concert featuring Mahler’s “Titan” Symphony; advance registration is required by March 6. To download music and register for #OrchestraYou—and to view press from last season’s event—visit www.njsymphony.org/orchestrayou.
#OrchestraYou is an NJSO Accent event. Inspired by the concerts and designed to inspire audiences, NJSO Accents are pre- or post-concert events that complement the concert experience and provide audience members with more opportunities to personally connect with the music and music makers. Learn more at www.njsymphony.org/accents.
NJSO Accents in Newark are generously sponsored by the Prudential Foundation.
TICKETS Tickets start at $20 and are available for purchase online at www.njsymphony.org or by phone at 1.800.ALLEGRO (255.3476).
THE PROGRAM Mahler’s First Symphony, “Titan” Thursday, March 12 at 1:30 pm | NJPAC in Newark Friday, March 13 at 8 pm | NJPAC in Newark Saturday, March 14 at 8 pm | State Theatre in New Brunswick Sunday, March 15 at 3 pm | Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown
Jacques Lacombe, conductor Kirill Gerstein, piano New Jersey Symphony Orchestra
BERNSTEIN Symphony No. 2, “The Age of Anxiety” MAHLER Symphony No. 1, “Titan”
Full concert information is available at www.njsymphony.org/events/detail/mahlers-first-symphony-titan.
The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey is concert sponsor of the March 14 performance.
THE ARTISTS Jacques Lacombe, conductor A remarkable conductor whose artistic integrity and rapport with orchestras have propelled him to international stature, Jacques Lacombe has been Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra since 2010 and Orchestre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières since 2006. He was previously Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and Music Director of orchestra and opera with the Philharmonie de Lorraine.
Lacombe has garnered critical praise for his creative programming and bold leadership of the NJSO. Time Out New York has named Orchestra’s acclaimed Winter Festivals “an eagerly anticipated annual event” for the innovative concert experiences that have included a realization of Scriabin’s “color organ,” collaborations with theater and dance troupes and presentations of Tan Dun concertos in which clay pots and water become solo instruments. The New York Times wrote that “It was an honor to be in the hall” for Lacombe and the NJSO’s performance of Busoni’s Piano Concerto at the 2012 Spring for Music Festival at Carnegie Hall.
Recently, Lacombe helmed a pair of unique initiatives through the New Jersey Roots Project: the NJSO launched the inaugural NJSO Edward T. Cone Composition Institute for young composers—a week of intense compositional evaluations and consultations that culminated in a live performance of the participants’ works—and gave the world premiere of Cone’s Symphony in a special lecture-concert. Other 2014–15 NJSO highlights include the “Sounds of Shakespeare” Winter Festival, featuring collaborations with violinist Sarah Chang and the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey.
In July, Lacombe made his Tanglewood Music Festival debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra; this season, he returns to the Deutsche Oper Berlin for productions of Carmen, The Damnation of Faust and Samson and Delilah; L’Opera de Monte Carlo for Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Vancouver Opera for Carmen.
He has appeared with the Cincinnati, Columbus, Québec, Toronto, Vancouver and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras and National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa. He frequently conducts in France, Spain and Australia and has led tours and recordings with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.
Opera highlights include all-star productions of La Bohème and Tosca at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and numerous productions with the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Metropolitan Opera, as well as engagements at opera houses in Marseille, Strasbourg, Turin and Munich. He has recorded for the CPO and Analekta labels; with the NJSO, he has recorded Orff’s Carmina Burana and Janácek’s Suite from The Cunning Little Vixen and released a new recording of Verdi’s Requiem. His performances have been broadcast on PBS, the CBC, Mezzo TV and Arte TV, among others.
Born in Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Québec, Lacombe attended the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal and Hochschule für Musik in Vienna. He was named a Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Québec in 2012 and a Member of the Order of Canada in 2013—among the highest civilian honors in the country.
Kirill Gerstein, piano Multifaceted pianist Kirill Gerstein is rapidly ascending into classical music’s highest ranks. With a masterful technique, discerning intelligence and a musical curiosity that has led him to explore repertoire spanning centuries and numerous styles, he has proven to be one of today’s most intriguing and versatile musicians.
Gerstein is the sixth recipient of the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award. Since receiving the award in 2010, he has commissioned boundary-crossing new works by Oliver Knussen, Chick Corea, Brad Mehldau, Timothy Andres and Alexander Goehr. Gerstein also garnered First Prize at the 2001 Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition in Tel Aviv, and he received a 2002 Gilmore Young Artist Award and a 2010 Avery Fisher Grant.
Highlights of his 2014–15 season include performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Charles Dutoit, Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin and San Francisco Symphony; re-engagements with the St. Louis, Vancouver, Indianapolis, Nashville and San Antonio symphonies; debuts with the Minnesota Orchestra and New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and a recital on Carnegie Hall’s Keyboard Virtuosos series in Zankel Hall.
Internationally, Gerstein has appeared with the Vienna Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, BBC Symphony and Gurzenich Orchestra in Cologne, Salzburg and Vienna, as well as with the São Paulo Symphony in Brazil.
Born in Voronezh, Russia, Gerstein came to the United States at age 14 to study jazz piano as the youngest student ever to attend Boston’s Berklee College of Music. After completing his studies there, he attended the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Solomon Mikowsky and earned both bachelor and master of music degrees by the age of 20.
THE NEW JERSEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Named “a vital, artistically significant musical organization” by The Wall Street Journal, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra embodies that vitality through its statewide presence and critically acclaimed performances, education partnerships and unparalleled access to music and the Orchestra’s superb musicians.
Under the bold leadership of Music Director Jacques Lacombe, the NJSO presents classical, pops and family programs, as well as outdoor summer concerts and special events. Embracing its legacy as a statewide orchestra, the NJSO is the resident orchestra of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark and regularly performs at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, Richardson Auditorium in Princeton, Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown and bergenPAC in Englewood. Partnerships with New Jersey arts organizations, universities and civic organizations remain a key element of the Orchestra’s statewide identity.
In addition to its lauded artistic programming, the NJSO presents a suite of education and community engagement programs that promote meaningful, lifelong engagement with live music. Programs include the three-ensemble NJSO Youth Orchestras, school-time Concerts for Young People performances and multiple offerings—including the El Sistema-inspired NJSO CHAMPS (Character, Achievement and Music Project)—that provide and promote in-school instrumental instruction as part of the NJSO Academy. The NJSO’s REACH (Resources for Education and Community Harmony) chamber music program annually brings original programs—designed and performed by NJSO musicians—to a variety of settings, reaching as many as 17,000 people in nearly all of New Jersey’s 21 counties.
For more information about the NJSO, visit www.njsymphony.org or email information@njsymphony.org. Tickets are available for purchase by phone 1.800.ALLEGRO (255.3476) or on the Orchestra’s website.
The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s programs are made possible in part by The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, along with many other foundations, corporations and individual donors. United is the official airline of the NJSO.
PRESS CONTACT National & NYC Press Representative: Dan Dutcher, Dan Dutcher Public Relations | 917.566.8413 | dan@dandutcherpr.com
Regional Press Representative: Victoria McCabe, NJSO Communications and External Affairs | 973.735.1715 | vmccabe@njsymphony.org
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