(NEWARK, NJ) -- The New Jersey Symphony presents one of the foremost concert violinists in the world, Augustin Hadelich, in three performances with Music Director Xian Zhang conducting. Hadelich performs Friday, January 12, 2024, at 8:00pm in Richardson Auditorium in Princeton; Saturday, January 13, 2024, at 8:00pm at Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank; and Sunday, January 14, 2024, at 3:00pm at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.
The GRAMMY® Award-winning violinist will play Beethoven’s monumental violin concerto of which Hadelich recently told The Strad magazine, “Beethoven composed much of it in a high register that makes the sound shine with an incredible purity and transparency … [Its] length creates one of its greatest challenges: to sustain the long arc of the musical story, so it does not sound like an endless collection of ‘nice moments.’”
Also featured on the program is a piece originally commissioned by the New Jersey Symphony for the virtual 2020–21 season, i am a white person who _____ Black people, by Resident Artistic Catalyst Daniel Bernard Roumain. Roumain, who goes by his monogram DBR, was limited in the original version to just strings and percussion, but has expanded the piece for this performance to include wind and brass instruments. This will be the first performance of the piece in front of a live audience.
When speaking of the piece in 2020, DBR said, “With i am a white person who _____ Black people, I am extending what has traditionally been my choice given to any white person: how do you see me and other BIPOC people, and what choice of word or phrase best reflects your opinion of Black people? Your choice, in part, reflects who you are.”
The performance closes with audience-favorite Pictures at an Exhibition, written first as a solo piano piece by Modest Mussorgsky and later orchestrated by Maurice Ravel.
GRAMMY® Award-Winning Violinist Augustin Hadelich recently released a Warner Classics album in 2022 called Recuerdos—‘Memories,’ an album that unites three works for violin and orchestra and a piece originally written for solo guitar. For Britten’s Violin Concerto, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No 2 and Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy he is joined by the WDR Sinfonieorchester and its Chief Conductor, Cristian Măcelaru; he remains alone for Ruggero Ricci’s arrangement of Tárrega’s shimmering Recuerdos de la Alhambra.
Hadelich says, “For years, I’ve been thinking about how to tell the story of the Britten Violin Concerto.” Written in 1938, the work expresses the pacifist composer’s anguish at the Spanish Civil War, which broke out just months after Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 was premiered in Madrid.
Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with Augustin Hadelich
New Jersey Symphony Classical
Xian Zhang conductor
Augustin Hadelich violin
New Jersey Symphony
Princeton → Friday, January 12, 2024 at 8:00pm Richardson Auditorium in Princeton
Red Bank → Saturday, January 13, 2024 at8:00 pm Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank
Newark → Sunday, January 14, 2024 at 3:00pm New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark
Daniel Bernard Roumain i am a white person who _____ Black peopleBeethoven Violin Concerto
Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition
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.
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