(PRINCETON, NJ) -- The Princeton Symphony Orchestra’s (PSO’s) Princeton Festival Guild is offering an interactive wine tasting and operatic event, Notes of Wine and Song, on Sunday, October 2. The event features the tenor and sommelier Hak Soo Kim, and will take place at Cobblestone Creek Country Club from 3:00pm-5:30pm. Proceeds will go directly to the PSO’s Princeton Festival in preparation for June 2023 performances.
Hak Soo will be performing opera arias paired with particular wines to be enjoyed by attendees. Guild event planners Pamela Bristol, Debbie Herman, Kerry Perretta, and Carol Wojciechowicz have also arranged for light fare, live music, and a special preview of the 2023 Princeton Festival by PSO Executive Director Marc Uys.
Hak Soo Kim is Head Sommelier at Per Se, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in New York City. Hak Soo found his way into wine after a lauded career under the guidance of Plácido Domingo at the Los Angeles Opera, where he specialized in Bel Canto repertoire and performed alongside the LA Philharmonic at some of the nation’s most notable venues, including the Hollywood Bowl and the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Ticket levels are $100 and up. The reservation deadline is Wednesday, September 14. For more information, visit princetonsymphony.org/festival.
The Princeton Festival Guild supports the Festival’s many educational and community engagement programs designed to excite, inform, inspire, and invite discovery and engagement. Guild members play a critical role in the overall success of the Festival by supporting Festival events, organizing fundraisers, and providing artist hospitality. Guild volunteers participate in every aspect of the many educational and community enrichment programs the Princeton Festival is known for, an essential element of the Festival’s mission.
The Princeton Festival is the Princeton Symphony Orchestra’s award-winning, multi-genre festival of the performing arts. Its highly varied seasons have played a vital role in the cultural life of its community since 2005. The Festival offers professional productions of multiple events each June, including opera, musical theater, jazz, dance, choral music, Baroque concerts, chamber music, recitals, pop concerts, an annual piano competition, poetry readings, and more. Its series of free lectures, events, and workshops draw over a thousand attendees each year. The Festival is a recipient of five NEA grants for its innovative programs, which have been praised by the Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Times, Opera News, and other major media outlets. It is also a five-time winner of NJArts.com’s People’s Choice poll as “Favorite Opera Company.” The Princeton Festival’s mission is to enrich the communities it serves through distinctive and diverse programs that excite, inform, inspire, and invite discovery and engagement.
The Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) is a cultural centerpiece of the Princeton community and one of New Jersey’s finest music organizations, a position established through performances of beloved masterworks, innovative music by living composers, and an extensive network of educational programs offered to area students free of charge. Led by Edward T. Cone Music Director Rossen Milanov, the PSO presents orchestral, pops, and chamber music programs of the highest artistic quality, supported by lectures and related events that supplement the concert experience. Its flagship summer program the Princeton Festival brings an array of performing arts and artists to Princeton during multiple weeks in June. Through PSO BRAVO!, the orchestra produces wide-reaching and impactful education programs in partnership with local schools and arts organizations that culminate in students attending a live orchestral performance. The PSO receives considerable support from the Princeton community and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, regularly garnering NJSCA’s highest honor. Recognition of engaging residencies and concerts has come from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the PSO’s commitment to new music has been acknowledged with an ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming and a Copland Fund Award. The only independent, professional orchestra to make its home in Princeton, the PSO performs at historic Richardson Auditorium on the campus of Princeton University.
