NJSO WINTER FESTIVAL to Present Strauss' Alpine Symphony with Pianist Pascal Roge, 1/24-26

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Jacques Lacombe present Strauss' towering Alpine Symphony January 24-26 in Newark and New Brunswick as part of the Orchestra's 2014 Winter Festival: Earth. The program is the finale of the fourth and final season of the NJSO's multi-year "Man & Nature" Winter Festival odyssey spotlighting the symbolic power of natural elements that have inspired composers for centuries.

Pianist Pascal Rogé joins Lacombe and the Orchestra for D'Indy's Symphony on a French Mountain Air on a program that opens with Wagner's Venusberg Music from Tannhäuser.

Lacombe says: "Strauss' Alpine Symphony shows us how music is a reflection of our world-it is a monument of the repertoire and such a majestic depiction of mountains and nature. Thematically, it is the perfect work to close this Winter Festival; it is also a big part of this season's celebration of the anniversary of Strauss' birth.

"The theme of this concert program came naturally from the Alpine Symphony; Wagner's Venusberg Music works well to introduce the mountain theme. I also like to revisit and rediscover forgotten repertoire like D'Indy's Symphony on a French Mountain Air. Pascal Rogé is a very fine pianist, especially when it comes to French music, and I am thrilled he will join us."

Performances take place on Friday, January 24, (8 pm) and Sunday, January 26, (3 pm) at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark and Saturday, January 25, (8 pm) at the State Theatre in New Brunswick. Classical Conversations about the music on the program begin one hour before the performances on January 24 and 25.

Extramusical Winter Festival events, presented in collaboration with partnering organizations, explore earth-related topics. On January 26, Christopher Daggett of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation moderates a panel discussion with GreenFaith Executive Director Rev. Fletcher Harper and New Jersey Conservation Foundation Executive Director Michele S. Byers, beginning one hour before the concert. A Winter Festival Artisan and Information Fair will showcase displays from artisans and environmental organizations on January 24 and 26.

Winter Festival partnering organizations include The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Friends of Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge and New Jersey Sierra Club.

For more information on the Winter Festival and related events, visit www.njsymphony.org/winterfestival.

Tickets start at $20 and are available for purchase online at www.njsymphony.org or by phone at 1.800.ALLEGRO (255.3476).

THE PROGRAM:

Strauss' Alpine Symphony

Friday, January 24, at 8 pm | NJPAC in Newark + w

Saturday, January 25, at 8 pm | State Theatre in New Brunswick +

Sunday, January 26, at 3 pm | NJPAC in Newark w

Jacques Lacombe, conductor

Pascal Rogé, piano

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra

WAGNER Venusberg Music from Tannhäuser

D'INDY Symphony on a French Mountain Air

STRAUSS Alpine Symphony

+ Classical Conversation begins one hour prior to the performance (free to ticketholders).

w Winter Festival event: Artisan and Information Fair begins one hour before the performance. On January 26, Christopher Daggett of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation moderates a Winter Festival discussion beginning one hour before the performance (free to ticketholders).

THE ARTISTS:

Jacques Lacombe, conductor

A remarkable conductor whose artistic integrity and rapport with orchestras have propelled him to international stature, Jacques Lacombe has been Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra since 2010 and Orchestre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières since 2006. He was previously Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and Music Director of orchestra and opera with the Philharmonie de Lorraine.

Lacombe has garnered critical praise for his creative programming and leadership of the NJSO. The Orchestra's acclaimed "Man & Nature" Winter Festivals have featured innovative programs, including a realization of Scriabin's "color organ." He created the New Jersey Roots Project, presenting music by New Jersey composers. The New York Times wrote, "It was an honor to be in the hall" for Lacombe and the NJSO's performance at the 2012 Spring for Music Festival at Carnegie Hall.

This season, Lacombe's NJSO highlights include the world premieres of an NJSO commission by Geri Allen and a new work by Lowell Liebermann and the U.S. premiere of Tan Dun's Earth Concerto. He conducts the Montréal, Québec and Columbus Symphony Orchestras, returns to the Opéra de Monte-Carlo for La Favorite with tenor Juan Diego Florez and leads Chausson's Le roi Arthus in Strasbourg.

He has appeared with the Cincinnati, Toronto, Vancouver and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras and National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa. He is a frequent guest conductor in France, Spain and Australia and has led tours and recordings with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.

Opera highlights include all-star productions of La bohème and Tosca at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, numerous productions with the Deutsche Oper Berlin and engagements with the Metropolitan Opera and opera houses in Marseille and Turin. He has recorded for the CPO and Analekta labels; he has recorded Orff's Carmina Burana and Janá?ek's Suite from The Cunning Little Vixen with the NJSO. His performances have been broadcast on PBS, the CBC, Mezzo TV and Arte TV, among others.

Born in Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Québec, Lacombe attended the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal and Hochschule für Musik in Vienna. He was named a Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Québec in 2012 and a Member of the Order of Canada in 2013-among the highest civilian honors in the country.

Pascal Rogé, piano

Pascal Rogé exemplifies the finest in French pianism. As the last student to be mentored by the great Nadia Boulanger, Rogé plays Poulenc, Satie, Faure, Ravel and especially Debussy in a way that is characterized by its elegance, beauty and stylistically perfect phrasing. A native of Paris, he has performed in almost every major concert hall in the world and with every major orchestra across the globe.

One of the world's most distinguished recording artists, Rogé became an exclusive Decca recording artist at the age of 17. Since then, he has won many prestigious awards, including two Gramophone Awards, a Grand Prix du Disque and an Edison Award for his interpretations of Ravel, Saint-Saëns, Satie and Poulenc.

For several years, Rogé has enjoyed playing recitals for four hands/two pianos with his partner in life and in music, Ami Rogé. Together, they have traveled the world appearing at prestigious festivals and concert halls; they have recorded several albums dedicated to the French two-piano and four-hands repertoire. They gave the premiere of a newly commissioned Concerto for Two Pianos by composer Matthew Hindson with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Several years ago, Rogé began an ambitious recording project for Onyx called the Rogé Edition. This includes five CDs of his first complete Debussy piano music cycle, two CDs devoted to French repertoire for two pianos with Ami Rogé and two Mozart concertos with conductor Raymond Leppard.

THE NEW JERSEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: 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.

Under the bold leadership of Music Director Jacques Lacombe, the NJSO 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 the State Theatre in New Brunswick, Count Basie Theatre 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 the three-ensemble Greater Newark Youth Orchestras, school-time Concerts for Young People performances and multiple initiatives that provide and promote in-school instrumental instruction. The NJSO's Resources for Education and Community Harmony (REACH) chamber music program annually brings original programs-designed and performed by NJSO musicians-to a variety of settings, reaching as many as 17,000 people in nearly all of New Jersey's 21 counties.

For more information about the NJSO, visit www.njsymphony.org or email information@njsymphony.org. Tickets are available for purchase by phone 1.800.ALLEGRO (255.3476) or on the Orchestra's website.