The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra will present Mahler’s First Symphony, Titan, and Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2, Age of Anxiety in a four show series this March. Music Director Jacques Lacombe will conduct and pianist Kirill Gerstein joins the Orchestra for Bernstein’s masterwork.
“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 in a press release. “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.”
On March 13, one of the concert dates, NJSO will also present their second second annual #OrchestraYou concert, a program that invites concertgoers to perform their own orchestral instruments alongside NJSO musicians. The first #OrchestraYou session was last March, with more than 70 concertgoers, students and amateur musicians discovered the joys of playing live music with members of a professional orchestra. Education & Community Engagement Conductor Jeff Grogan will lead #OrchestraYou in Farandole from Bizet’s L’Arlésienne Suite No. 2 after the concert.
The performances will take place on March 12 and 13 in Newark, March 14 at the State Theatre in New Brunswick and March 15 at the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown. Click here to purchase tickets to any or all of the performances.
