Have you ever wondered what it would be like to play with a professional symphony orchestra?

Well, audience members who attend a special upcoming performance of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra can check that item off their bucket lists as the NJSO invites audience members of all ages to shake the cobwebs off their instruments and bring them to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark on Feb. 24, 2017 for the experience of a lifetime!

Named “a vital, artistically significant musical organization” by The Wall Street Journal, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra is known for presenting innovative Classical, Pops, and Family programs throughout the Garden State every year. The resident orchestra of NJPAC in Newark, the NJSO also regularly performs at such venues as The State Theatre in New Brunswick, the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, and the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown.

To find out more about some of the exciting NJSO programs coming up at these venues — including one in which members of the public can play along with professional symphonic musicians — we recently talked to the organization’s Director of Artistic Planning, Patrick Chamberlain.

Chamberlain is responsible for helping to plan and program many of the NJSO’s unique events. As a result, in our interview, Spotlight Central talked to him about a number of intriguing upcoming performances including Dancing and Romancing, Peter and the Wolf, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. We also asked him about that unique opportunity where the Orchestra is offering any amateur musician who attends a special concert performance of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto a chance to play along with its members!

Spotlight Central: There are really so many unique NJSO concerts in the coming weeks! Can you start by telling us a little bit about one of them — your upcoming Valentine’s Day program, Dancing and Romancing — which takes place at three different venues here in the Garden State?

Patrick Chamberlain: Well, Dancing and Romancing is a really great program in our Pop Series. It’s the perfect lead-in to Valentine’s Day, because it’s classic American Songbook and Broadway repertoire featuring two great veterans from the Broadway stage, Joan Hess and Kirby Ward. In addition to being wonderful singers, they’re also phenomenal dancers, and they’ve designed choreography that’s going to take place throughout their performance. As a result, it’s much more than just a concert with singers standing in front of an orchestra — there’s just a great visual component to it.

Another thing that’s really nice is it’s a return for our former associate conductor Gemma New. Gemma was with us for many seasons as associate conductor and she’s moved on to a really successful career which includes her new position as the resident conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. We’ve invited her back to do this program and it will be great for our audiences to see her again and great for all of us at the Orchestra to catch up with her and really celebrate her growing success.

Spotlight Central: And is it true that, at some of the venues, audience members are invited to a sing-along?

Patrick Chamberlain: Exactly. On Feb. 11th at NJPAC and on Feb. 12th at the State Theatre, audience members can come early and sing their favorite love songs from Broadway and movies — and that’s included in the ticket price. So just to give you a little sample — the songs truly come from the great American songbook, with tunes like “Singin’ in the Rain,” “Shall We Dance,” “Sing, Sing, Sing,” “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” — I mean, just timeless songs. It will be a really special opportunity to hear these songs played by a great orchestra because, nowadays, many Broadway pit orchestras only have five or six people in them and, really, we’ve lost sight of the fact that these songs were written for and designed for a full orchestra.

Spotlight Central: Tell us a little bit about Peter and the Wolf, which is coming up exclusively at NJPAC.

Patrick Chamberlain: Yes…Peter and the Wolf is part of our Family Series and it takes place at NJPAC. It’s a great program to bring young children to for their first experience with an orchestra. It will also be conducted by Gemma. And Peter and the Wolf is wonderful, because it was composed by a truly great composer in the classical tradition — Prokofiev. You know, we love his symphonies and piano concerti and violin concerti and his ballet music — and although he wrote this piece for children, it still has all the craftsmanship and intelligence and wit and brilliance of his more adult works. It’s really great because all of the musicians in the orchestra mirror different characters in the story like the duck, the bird, the cat, the wolf, the hunters, Peter, and his grandfather — where each character has his own theme. So it’s a great opportunity to get to know what all the different instruments of the orchestra sound like and a great way for families to take in all of what the orchestra has to offer.

Spotlight Central: And isn’t there some sort of instrumental “petting zoo” which will take place, as well, where kids can try out different instruments?

Patrick Chamberlain: Exactly — that’s one hour before concert time and it takes place in the lobby of NJPAC’s Victoria Theater.

Spotlight Central: And what about the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone performance at NJPAC — is that a program where you screen the movie and the Orchestra plays the soundtrack live?

Patrick Chamberlain: Yes! The people who came to our Raiders of the Lost Ark performances in January will experience a similar situation here because the film will be shown on a huge screen in the concert hall and the orchestra performs the score live. And what’s terrific about these movies is that the score comes from John Williams — truly one of the great composers of any genre of any generation. He writes so brilliantly for the orchestra, and the movies that feature his music wouldn’t be as good without it. I mean — when you think of ET and Harry Potter and Raiders of the Lost Ark and Schindler’s List and Lincoln — all these really great films are truly enhanced by what John has done in composing these scores. And to hear and experience a great film with a great orchestra performing the score, it’s really like you’re seeing the movie for the first time.

Spotlight Central: And what can you tell us about the NJSO’s upcoming Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto Concert, which takes place at four different venues around NJ?

Patrick Chamberlain: The Rachmaninoff 2 program is one of the first concerts we’ll have with our music director, Xian Zhang, after the triumphant performances she had with the NJSO in late October and early November of 2016 — this concert being her return to New Jersey after some guest conducting. All of us at the Orchestra, in addition to our audiences, are really looking forward to seeing Xian again, and this repertoire is absolutely perfect for her — it’s music she conducts so brilliantly — and we also look forward to welcoming back Kirill Gerstein back to New Jersey. He is truly one of the great virtuosos of the piano and is just really spectacular.

Spotlight Central: We were excited when we learned that at one of the venues — NJPAC — there will something truly special called “Orchestra You” following the concert. Can you tell us more about that?

Patrick Chamberlain: Yes! “Orchestra You” is a really cool opportunity where amateur musicians — anyone who plays an instrument — can come and perform alongside members of the New Jersey Symphony with our Education and Community Engagement conductor Jeff Grogan, and other audience members. It’s right in the lobby of NJPAC following the Rachmaninoff 2 concert on Friday, Feb. 24, and it’s a real opportunity to dust off that clarinet or trombone you haven’t played since high school band — or your violin, or whatever — and, just for a moment, revisit what it feels like to play in an orchestra. And to have members of the New Jersey Symphony anchoring this means the artistic experience will be quite good, especially when playing under a great conductor like Jeff Grogan.

Spotlight Central: And who can sign up to do this?

Patrick Chamberlain: Everyone who plays an instrument can do this — so we’re open to everybody — as long as they sign up by February 17, 2017. We’re going to be playing an excerpt from Verdi’s Nabucco Overture — and that piece is on the program of the actual NJSO concert that night, along with Rachaninoff’s Piano Concerto №2 and Elgar’s Enigma Variations — so people can hear it played by the pros and, then, the amateurs of “Orchestra You” will get a chance to play it, too.

Spotlight Central: And will the sheet music will be available ahead of time online?

Patrick Chamberlain: Yes. In fact, you can download it right from our “Orchestra You” page on the website — and, there, you can also preview it via YouTube and hear what it’s supposed to sound like, to help you get ready and practice. It’s a really fun event and if you’re on the fence, I would just say “Do it!,” because playing live music and playing amongst great musicians — there’s nothing like it!

Spotlight Central: Thanks! We look forward to experiencing as many of these great programs as we can!

Upcoming presentations of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra include the following programs, dates, times, and locations:

Dancing and Romancing will be performed on Friday, Feb. 10 at 8pm at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank; on Saturday, Feb. 11 at 8pm at NJPAC in Newark; and on Sunday, Feb. 12 at 3pm at the State Theatre in New Brunswick.

Peter and the Wolf will be presented on Saturday, Feb. 11 at 2pm and 3:30pm at NJPAC in Newark.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone will be screened with a live orchestra on Saturday, Mar. 11 at 2pm and 7pm at NJPAC in Newark.

The Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto program will be performed on Thursday, Feb. 23 at 7:30pm at BergenPAC in Englewood, NJ; on Saturday, Feb. 25 at 8pm at The Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank; and on Sunday, Feb. 26 at 3pm at the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown. The Friday, Feb. 24 performance of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto at 8pm at NJPAC in Newark, however, will feature the special “Orchestra You” presentation after the concert. Advance registration is required by Feb. 17 by going to www.njsymphony.org/orchestrayou.

For tickets and more information on any these concerts — or to find out about even more upcoming performances by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra — please go to www.njsymphony.org.