(NEWARK, NJ) -- The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra has welcomed new musicians and artistic staff to the Orchestra. In the 2016–17 season, David Southorn joins the Orchestra as Assistant Concertmaster; NJSO first violinist Adriana Rosin has also been named Assistant Concertmaster. Since 2015, the Orchestra has welcomed violinists JoAnna Farrer, Minji Kwon and Bryan Hernandez-Luch, as well as cellist Hyewon Kim. This season, longtime NJSO cellist Na-Young Baek assumes the role of Acting Assistant Principal Cello. NJSO Director of Artistic Planning Patrick Chamberlain assumed his new position in July.
Assistant Concertmaster David Southorn currently enjoys a versatile career as a concertmaster, soloist and chamber musician. Recent solo highlights include a performance of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Fremont Symphony in California and works of Vivaldi and Piazzolla with Le Train Bleu in New York City during the 2015–16 season. As a chamber musician, he has performed recently with his award-winning Amphion String Quartet at Alice Tully Hall as members of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two. He has collaborated with such esteemed musicians as Anne-Marie McDermott, Carter Brey, Ani Kavafian, David Shifrin and Edgar Meyer, as well as the Tokyo String Quartet. The 2016–17 season marks his fifth year as concertmaster of the Delaware Symphony, where he will also perform as soloist in a performance of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons this season.
Assistant Concertmaster Adriana Rosin was a winner of the Romanian Republican Competition and a laureate at the Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition in Denmark, where she was also awarded the prize for the best performance of the Carl Nielsen Sonata for violin and piano. She made her American debut at the International Violin Competition in Indianapolis, where she was awarded the Certificate of Merit with full fellowship in Josef Gingold’s program at Indiana University. Rosin has concertized as a recitalist, chamber musician and soloist with orchestras worldwide. She has participated in numerous summer festivals and performed as concertmaster under the baton of Leonard Bernstein in the Tanglewood live broadcast concert celebrating Aaron Copland’s 85th birthday. Rosin joined the NJSO in the 1986–87 season; she remains actively involved in chamber music with the NJSO Chamber Players.
Violinist JoAnna Farrer is a chamber musician, solo performer and orchestral musician in the United States and abroad. She has performed as a soloist in the Berlin Philharmonie with the Goteborgs Symfoniker and has premiered new solo works by contemporary composers at Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Chelsea Art Gallery. With Itzhak Perlman, Farrer has performed Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins at Carnegie Hall, as well as in a “Live from Lincoln Center” broadcast. She has performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Israel Philharmonic. As a concertmaster, she has worked with conductors such as James Conlon, James DePreist and Lorin Maazel, including performances of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw at the Kennedy Center with Maazel.
The Espoir Prize winner of the 2012 OSAKA International Music Competition, violinist Minji Kwon also captured top prizes at the George Gershwin International Competition, Forte International Music Competition, National Symphony Orchestra Competition and Seoul Symphony Orchestra Competition. She has appeared as soloist with State Philharmonic Orchestra Rzeszow in Poland, Seoul Symphony Orchestra, Seoul National Symphony Orchestra, Degu Philharmonic Orchestra, Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra, Hyup Strings Ensemble and Seoul National University String Ensemble. Also, she has performed in solo recitals at Kumho Art Hall and Ewon Culture Center. Kwon has participated in numerous festivals, including the Aspen Music Festival as a full scholarship recipient, Music Academy of the West, Juilliard Chamber Fest, Salzburg International Music Academy, Lake George Music Festival, Music Alp Festival, Lindenbaum Orchestra Festival and Tong Young International Music Festival.
The Deseret News has described violinist Bryan Hernandez-Luch as “strikingly imaginative … he is an artist to be reckoned with.” Hernandez-Luch made his solo debut with the Utah Symphony Orchestra at age 15; he has since made solo appearances with the symphony orchestras of Detroit, Cleveland, Atlanta and New Jersey, among others. Of Peruvian descent, he has toured extensively across Columbia, the United States, Russia, Japan, Korea and South Africa as an avid chamber musician. He was a founding member of the Catalyst Quartet, which has held residencies at the University of South Africa, Grand Canyon Music Festival and Sphinx Performance Academy at Northwestern University, among others; he has appeared with the Guarneri Quartet at Carnegie Hall and frequently collaborates with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. This season, he assumes the position of music director/conductor and on-stage musician for Broadway’s The Cherry Orchard and will perform in Miss Saigon beginning in the spring. He was a member of the Radio City Music Hall Orchestra, concertmaster of Broadway’s Doctor Zhivago and assistant concertmaster in Broadway’s revival of Fiddler on the Roof.
Na-Young Baek, an NJSO cellist since the 2006–07 season, has been appointed Acting Assistant Principal Cello this season. Winner of the Philadelphia Orchestra Greenfield Competition, she made her American debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2000. She has appeared as soloist with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, DuPage Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic and Korean Chamber Ensemble, among others, at major venues, such as the Academy House in Philadelphia and the Rheingau Musik Festival in Frankfurt, Germany. At age 15, Baek became the youngest winner in the history of the prestigious Choong Ang Times competition in Korea and also garnered the Virtuoso Prize at the first Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in Moscow. She has been featured at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Salle Gaveau in Paris and Cadogan Hall in London, and on NPR’s “Performance Today.”
Cellist Hyewon Kim has made appearances in various concert venues including Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, the Korea Society and Merkin Concert Hall. She has recorded with Gil Shaham and Sejong Soloists as part of Shaham’s 1930s Violin Concertos, Vol. 1 project released on Canary Classics. She has been invited to perform as a guest artist with Ars Antiqua de Paris and at New Year’s Eve concerts hosted by Korea’s Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, and she was featured in the Japan-America Institute for New Music concert and the Young Musicians Concert of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. She performed in the New Juilliard Ensemble, as well as the New York String Seminar Orchestra under the direction of Jaime Laredo. She has served as principal and associate principal cello of the Juilliard Orchestra under the batons of Alan Gilbert, James Levine and Itzhak Perlman.
Director of Artistic Planning Patrick Chamberlain comes to the NJSO from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, where he served as Artistic Planning Manager and, previously, as Artistic Coordinator. At the BSO, Chamberlain was responsible for the planning and programming of all guest-conductor, summer, holiday, pops and special concerts. In his role with the NJSO, Chamberlain works with Music Director Xian Zhang, musicians and staff to plan and program the Orchestra’s classical series and realize Zhang’s artistic vision. A graduate of Cornell University with a B.A. in government, Chamberlain was also on the seasonal artistic staff of the Aspen Music Festival and School. He is an avid choral musician and was most recently a member of the Choral Arts Society of Washington.
For full bios of members of the Orchestra, visit www.njsymphony.org/musicians-music/musicians.
