(TRENTON, NJ) -- The New Jersey Youth Symphony (NJYS) presents An American Salute: Honoring Our Veterans on Sunday, November 7 at 3:00pm at Patriots Theater at the War Memorial in Trenton. Appearing under the batons of Simon Lipskar and Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Helen H. Cha-Pyo, respectively, the NJYS Youth Orchestra and Youth Symphony will perform works by American composers including Bernstein, Coleridge-Taylor, Hailstork, and more.
The Discovery Orchestra Artistic Director George Marriner Maull will lead the young musicians in Morton Gould’s American Salute, a magnificent tour de force based on the folk melody When Johnny Comes Marching Home. The concert features Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait narrated by the enchanting Diana Solomon-Glover and concludes with an uplifting audience sing along to the Armed Forces Medley and America the Beautiful. The entire family is invited to enjoy a symphonic homage to our veterans at this live season-opening event.
Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for students and seniors. The concert is free for all veterans. Use promo code VET2021 for free tickets at NJYS.org.
Said Marriner Maull, "A friend once said, 'The more we perceive...the more we receive.' It is true about everything–especially music! When we look inside music in a fun and interactive way, we notice things we might have missed on previous casual hearings. My listening students often say, 'Wow! It sounded like a whole new piece the second time it was played...much more exciting and interesting.’ I'm looking forward to exploring Gould's American Salute with the audience and the members of the New Jersey Youth Symphony under Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Helen Cha-Pyo."
Said Cha-Pyo, “Our young musicians at the New Jersey Youth Symphony are excited to honor and thank our veterans for their service with celebratory music by American composers. We cannot wait to perform live and in-person on the stage of the Patriots Theater and hear the audience members sing America the Beautiful and the Armed Forces Medley together!”
“Out of gratitude for the service of our veterans as well as our active-duty service members, we are looking forward to welcoming all military families to what promises to be a spectacular Americana concert,” said Peter H. Gistelinck, Executive Director at the Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts. “Thank you for your service!”
Since 1996 Artistic Director George Marriner Maull and The Discovery Orchestra have helped audience members to personally experience moments in music which evoke strong emotional responses from deep within through interactive Discovery Concerts©, television shows, online educational videos, and radio programs. The Discovery Orchestra provides transformative listening encounters for people of all ages, from novices to knowledgeable classical music lovers. The Discovery Orchestra presents Discovery Concerts, Intimate Afternoon Chamber Music Recitals and Community Outreach Programs for youth and seniors. Nationally and internationally from 2003 to the present, millions of viewers have experienced the transformative power of classical music through broadcasts and sales of their productions distributed by American Public Television: Bach to the Future (Emmy nomination), Discover Beethoven's 5th (Emmy nomination and three Telly Awards), Discover Vivaldi's Four Seasons (Emmy nomination and three Telly Awards), Fall in Love with Music (two Telly Awards) and Discover The Firebird (two Telly Awards). Their television shows and short form Discovery Orchestra Chats© on YouTube are also available on Amazon and are streamed to classrooms around the United States by Films Media Group, based in New York City. The orchestra’s radio program Inside Music is broadcast on second and fourth Saturdays every month at 7:30pm eastern time on WWFM 89.1 The Classical Network in Princeton and can be streamed worldwide at wwfm.org.
To a growing list of accomplishments, Diana Solomon-Glover has recently added the title librettist. This Little Light of Mine, an opera about civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer with music by Chandler Carter, was commissioned by Opera for All Voices and will debut at the Santa Fe Opera in October 2022. This achievement crowns a career spent serving humanitarian and social causes through her work on operatic, classical, and musical theater stages across the United States, Canada, Europe, the Caribbean, and Central America. She has been a featured soloist for The Innocence Project’s annual gala, which celebrates the emancipation of wrongly incarcerated Americans, and producer of Project People Foundation’s “Celebration of Life” concerts, which raised over $250,000 for programs benefiting children orphaned by AIDS. Solomon-Glover is co-owner of Reduta Deux, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to producing theatrical works whose subject matter reflects a broad human consciousness.
The New Jersey Youth Symphony (NJYS), founded in 1979, is a tiered orchestral program offering ensemble education for students in grades 3-12 across New Jersey. NJYS has grown from one orchestra of 65 students to over 500 students in 15 different orchestras and ensembles, including the internationally recognized Youth Symphony. NJYS ensembles have performed in venues including the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Carnegie Hall, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. NJYS has received numerous prestigious awards for its adventurous programming from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) and has had six European tours, including participation in the Summa Cum Laude International Youth Festival and Competition (Vienna), winning First Prizes in July 2014 and 2017.
Now in its 43rd season, NJYS continues to achieve musical excellence through intensive instruction and high-level performance. Under the guidance of a talented team of conductors, coaches, and teaching artists, students are immersed in challenging repertoire, learning the art of ensemble playing, and exploring their potential in a supportive and inclusive environment. NJYS remains committed to programming works by diverse composers and featured 20th century African American and women composers such as Duke Ellington, George Walker, Yvonne Desportes, Emma Lou Diemer, Julia Perry, and Florence Price.
The New Jersey Youth Symphony is a program of the Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts. Wharton is New Jersey’s largest non-profit performing arts education organization serving over 1,500 students of all ages and abilities through a range of classes and ensembles. In addition to the New Jersey Youth Symphony, programs include the Paterson Music Project and Performing Arts School.
Join us for McCarter at the Museum - renowned performing artists in one-night only events at the Princeton University Art Museum.
Jason Robert Brown is a four-time Tony Award-winning composer and lyricist of The Last Five Years, Parade, Songs for a New World, 13, The Bridges of Madison County, Honeymoon In Vegas and The Connector, has performed as a soloist or with his band in venues around the world, including sold-out shows at the London Palladium and Carnegie Hall. His albums as a singer-songwriter include Wearing Someone Else’s Clothes and How We React and How We Recover on Ghostlight, and Coming From Inside the House and Live In Concert with Stephen Sondheim on Concord.
With Special Guest Tony nominee Betsy Wolfe. Tony Award-nominated actress Betsy Wolfe is currently starring as Audrey in the acclaimed Off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors, following her recent Broadway run as Madeline Ashton in the hit musical Death Becomes Her. She previously originated the title role in Joy, the new musical inspired by inventor Joy Mangano, and earned a 2023 Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her celebrated performance as Anne Hathaway in & Juliet. Other Broadway credits include starring as Jenna in Waitress, Cordelia in the acclaimed revival of Falsettos, Bullets Over Broadway, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Everyday Rapture, and 110 in the Shade, as well as her critically acclaimed performance as Cathy in the Off-Broadway revival of The Last Five Years. Wolfe made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Die Fledermaus and has appeared as a guest artist with more than 65 symphony, pops, and philharmonic orchestras worldwide, including the New York Philharmonic and BBC Symphony Orchestra, with performances at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Her screen credits include First One In, Estella Scrooge, CBS’s Instinct, and the film adaptation of The Last Five Years. Wolfe is also the co-founder of BroadwayEvolved, the acclaimed musical theatre training program she launched in 2018 to train and mentor the next generation of theatre artists.
A limited number of early access tickets for McCarter Director’s Circle members and members of the Museum’s Partner Circle are available, on sale Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at 12:00 PM. General public on sale begins Friday, September 18, 2026 at 12:00 PM.
Please be aware there is no public drop-off or parking at the Museum. For visitors with mobility needs, please contact the Museum at least three business days in advance of your visit to request special access to the Museum via Elm Drive. Call 609-258-3788 and select option 1 to speak to a visitor services staff member, or email Louise Barrett at [email protected].
