(NEWARK, NJ) -- The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and DreamPlay Films have announced new release dates for future episodes of NJSO Everywhere, to premiere online through April. NJSO musicians give solo and chamber performances outdoors in iconic New Jersey locations in this cinematic series presented by the NJSO and DreamPlay Films, part of Newark-based DreamPlay Media. Award-winning, Newark-raised filmmaker Yuri Alves directs.
The March 17 episode features NJSO brass ensembles at the Jersey Shore, filmed on the boardwalk and beach at Seaside Heights. Trumpeter Michael Baker joins NJSO hornist Lawrence DiBello and trombonist Vernon Post for the first movement of Poulenc’s Sonata for Horn, Trumpet and Trombone. Baker, Post and NJSO hornist Andrea Menousek perform Sousa’s The Washington Post.
An NJSO quartet performs the Lyric for Strings by the late New Jersey composer George Walker at Hoboken’s Pier C Park in an episode that will air on March 31. The quartet features violinists Bryan Hernandez-Luch and Ming Yang, violist Brett Deubner and cellist Laura Andrade, the NJSO Colton Fellow.
A chamber ensemble performs the first movement of Beethoven’s Septet at Van Vleck House & Gardens in Montclair in an episode that airs on April 21. The septet features Concertmaster Eric Wyrick, violist David Blinn, Assistant Principal Cello Na-Young Baek, Assistant Principal Bass Alexander Bickard, clarinetist Andrew Lamy, Principal Bassoon Robert Wagner and hornist Lawrence DiBello.
The series premiere is seen above. Assistant Concertmaster David Southorn performs Rhapsody No. 1 for Solo Violin by Princeton resident Jessie Montgomery—filmed with the RED Cinema Camera on the roof of Newark’s One Theater Square.
NJSO President & CEO Gabriel van Aalst says: “We are so delighted to showcase some of New Jersey’s most beautiful spaces through NJSO Everywhere, and we hope audiences will enjoy the experience of great performances in amazing places. It was fitting to open this series with Princeton composer Jessie Montgomery’s brilliant violin rhapsody, and we look forward to sharing equally striking episodes in 2021. The NJSO takes great pride in being New Jersey’s state orchestra, and we are thrilled to partner with Newark’s own DreamPlay Films, which has captured these performances with stunning cinematography.”
“I hope the audience will be impressed by this beautiful blending of incredible music and performers with iconic locations and powerful visuals,” says filmmaker Yuri Alves, who directed the series. “I love that we keep setting the bar higher and higher with the NJSO.”
DreamPlay Films CEO and series producer Igor Alves says, “These works reveal how these outstanding music performances can both transform and be transformed by environmental and filmic elements beyond the stage, while in this case, also inspiring Jersey lovers old and new.”
All NJSO Everywhere performances air at 7:30pm on the NJSO’s YouTube and social media channels and at njsymphony.org/everywhere. NJSO Everywhere is part of NJSO Virtual 20–21, the Orchestra’s digital season. For more information, visit njsymphony.org/virtual.
FROM THE JERSEY SHORE
Wed, March 17 at 7:30pm - NJSO brass ensembles perform Poulenc’s Sonata for Horn, Trumpet and Trombone and Sousa’s The Washington Post at the Jersey Shore, filmed on the boardwalk and beach at Seaside Heights. Featuring NJSO hornists Andrea Menousek and Lawrence DiBello and trombonist Vernon Post with trumpeter Michael Baker.
FROM PIER C PARK IN HOBOKEN
Wed, March 31 at 7:30pm - A quartet performs the Lyric for Strings by the late New Jersey composer George Walker on the Hoboken waterfront. Featuring violinists Bryan Hernandez-Luch and Ming Yang, violist Brett Deubner and cellist Laura Andrade, the NJSO Colton Fellow.
FROM VAN VLECK HOUSE & GARDENS IN MONTCLAIR
Wed, April 21 at 7:30pm - An NJSO chamber ensemble performs the first movement of Beethoven’s Septet in Montclair. Featuring Concertmaster Eric Wyrick, violist David Blinn, Assistant Principal Cello Na-Young Baek, Assistant Principal Bass Alexander Bickard, clarinetist Andrew Lamy, Principal Bassoon Robert Wagner and hornist Lawrence DiBello.
Filmmaker Yuri Alves has written and directed films, primetime television programs and commercial projects in the US and Europe. Alves’ films have screened at over 100 film festivals worldwide, earning 20 awards. Alves’ projects include Grind, On the Cusp and Exit Road and the European primetime television series “Tempo Final” and “Filha da Lei.” Alves is the co-founder and creative director of DreamPlay Media and served as head of production at Fox Digital Studios. Alves is represented by the agency Brawler Los Angeles. Alves was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Portuguese parents, and raised in Newark, New Jersey.
DreamPlay Films develops and produces narrative and documentary films, television programming and more. DreamPlay Films is a division of DreamPlay Media, an original and creative media company, based in Newark, NJ.
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.
Music Director Xian Zhang—a “dynamic podium presence” The New York Times has praised for her “technical abilities, musicianship and maturity”—continues her acclaimed leadership of the NJSO. The Orchestra 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 State Theatre New Jersey in New Brunswick, Count Basie Center for the Arts 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 school-time Concerts for Young People and the NJSO Youth Orchestras family of student ensembles, led by José Luis Domínguez. NJSO musicians annually perform original chamber music programs at community events in a variety of settings statewide through the NJSO Community Partners program.
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.
