(NEWARK, NJ) -- The New Jersey Symphony will present four performances of "Epic Scores of John Williams and More!," featuring well-known and well-loved themes from the Star Wars and Harry Potter franchises as well as some of the most famous musical moments in movie history. Performances take place May 30 through June 2, 2024 in Newark, Red Bank, and New Brunswick venues.
Award-winning songwriter, musical director, and internet content creator Brett Boles will host the performances, guiding audience members through nearly 100 years of film music history. Boles has amassed more than 380,000 followers on TikTok where he hosts the series The M Tea and reviews musical theatre tunes. Boles’ most recent musical Foreverman won the Outstanding Orchestration and the New World Stages Development award at the New York Musical Festival. Currently, Boles also serves as the Director of Choirs at Hall High School.
Music Director Xian Zhang will conduct the first half of the program and Colton Conducting Fellow Jessica Rivero Altarriba will conduct the second half. The performances kick off with Erich Korngold’s Fanfare from The King’s Row, a 1942 movie starring former President Ronald Reagan. Korngold was a prolific composer whose film scores span from the mid–1930s to the mid–1950s, and whose compositional style laid the groundwork for John Williams’ signature sound.
Pianist Min Kwon will join the Symphony to play Rachmaninoff’s Adagio sostenuto from his Piano Concerto No. 2, one of the composer’s best-known works that has been heard in numerous film soundtracks and featured in two Frank Sinatra songs as well as the 1975 ballad “All by Myself” from Eric Carmen.
Other memorable movie themes on the program include Prokofiev’s Suite from Lieutenant Kijé, a concert work derived from the composer’s first movie score, written in 1933; and the perennial audience favorite “The Ride of the Valkyries” from Wagner’s opera, Die Walküre. The famous theme from Die Walküre has appeared in more than 20 films, including Apocalypse Now and The Blues Brothers.
Epic Scores of John Williams and More!
New Jersey Symphony Special Concert – Symphony Celebration
Newark → Thursday, May 30, 2024 @ 1:30pm, New Jersey Performing Arts Center
Newark → Friday, May 31, 2024 @ 8:00pm, New Jersey Performing Arts Center
Red Bank → Saturday, June 1, 2024 @ 8:00pm, Count Basie Center for the Arts
New Brunswick → Sunday, June 2, 2024 @ 3:00pm, State Theatre New Jersey
Xian Zhang conductor
Jessica Rivero Altarriba conductor
Brett Boles host
Min Kwon piano
New Jersey Symphony
Korngold Fanfare from The King’s Row
Prokofiev Suite from Lieutenant Kijé
Rachmaninoff Adagio sostenuto from Piano Concerto No. 2
Wagner/Hutschenruyter “The Ride of the Valkyries” from Die Walküre
John Williams “Imperial March” from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
John Williams “Hedwig’s Theme” from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
John Williams Selections from Star Wars
“Anakin’s Theme” from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
“Princess Leia’s Theme” from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
“Rey’s Theme” from Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
“Main Title” from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
More information on concerts and tickets: njsymphony.org/events
Please note: John Williams will not be in attendance for these performances. This concert features selections from John Williams’ scores; no film projection.
Jessica Rivero Altarriba is the 2023–24 Colton Conducting Fellow, made possible by the generous support of Judy and Stewart Colton.
The Emmy and Grammy Award-winning New Jersey Symphony is redefining what it means to be a nationally leading, relevant orchestra in the 21st century. The Symphony is renewing its deeply rooted commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion by championing new, and often local, artists; engaging audiences for whom the inspiring depth and breadth of classical music will be a new experience; and incorporating the broadest possible representation in all aspects of our organization-all to better reflect and serve our vibrant communities. Since 2021, Music Director Xian Zhang has worked together with composer, violinist, educator and social-justice advocate Daniel Bernard Roumain, the orchestra's Resident Artistic Catalyst, to offer programming that connects with diverse communities in Newark and throughout New Jersey.
Internationally renowned Chinese American conductor Xian Zhang began her tenure as the New Jersey Symphony's current Music Director in 2016. Since her arrival at the New Jersey Symphony, Zhang has revitalized programming with an industry leading commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in mainstage concerts. In its second century of bringing concerts to the people of New Jersey, the Symphony will present audience favorites in 2023–24 including Dvorak's "New World" Symphony, Orff's Carmina Burana, Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, violinist Joshua Bell leading the orchestra in Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto and pianist Daniil Trifonov playing Gershwin's Concerto in F. New Jersey Symphony co-commissions include works by internationally-renowned living composers: Anna Clyne's ATLAS and Jessie Montgomery's Snapshots. Composers Rob Kapilow and Daniel Bernard Roumain will present world premieres.
The New Jersey Symphony'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.
