Team USA Olympic Bobsled Pilot Jazmine Fenlator Joins NJSO for FROM SOCHI TO STRAUSS Tonight

Team USA Olympic bobsled pilot Jazmine Fenlator joins the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra for "From Sochi to Strauss"-a special post-concert session with NJSO Concertmaster Eric Wyrick tonight, March 21, at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark. The New Jersey-native Olympian and the Orchestra concertmaster will discuss what it takes to be at the top of their respective games. NJSO President & CEO James Roe will moderate the session, which will be held in NJPAC's Prudential Hall lobby following the 8 pm concert.

The evening's concert features Wyrick's annual solo appearance with the NJSO; the concertmaster performs Strauss' Violin Concerto on a program that closes with an iconic Russian masterwork-Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony.

Returning to her home state after four successful runs at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, Fenlator says: "I am honored to join the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and Concertmaster Eric Wyrick for this special session. I have always been an admirer of the performing arts community in New Jersey, and this unique opportunity allows me to reconnect with the local arts scene. As a proud New Jersey native who was motivated by the love and support back home during the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, I look forward to discussing my perspective of being one of the top athletes in the world for Team USA."

"I have always admired the discipline-especially the mental discipline-that top athletes on the worldwide stage exhibit," Wyrick says. "There are certainly plenty of similarities between the arts and sports worlds when it comes to achieving at the highest levels. This public forum with Olympic bobsled pilot Jazmine Fenlator will be a really fun opportunity to explore those similarities."

"From Sochi to Strauss" is free for all attendees of the March 21 NJSO performance. Concert tickets start at $20 and are available for purchase online at www.njsymphony.org or by phone at 1.800.ALLEGRO (255.3476).

Learn more at www.njsymphony.org/sochi. Additional concert information is available at www.njsymphony.org/events/detail/shostakovich-symphony-no-5.

BIOS

Jazmine Fenlator, Team USA Olympic bobsledder: Olympic USA women's bobsled pilot Jazmine Fenlator has made a name for herself in women's bobsledding after four successful runs at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. Before her bobsled career, Fenlator was one of the top track athletes at Rider University, specializing in shot put, discus and hammer. She still holds many of the university's records for the indoor shot put, outdoor shot put and discus. When Fenlator graduated from Rider in 2007, her track coach suggested she transition her skills and try a bobsled camp. She quickly fell in love with the different and equally challenging sport and decided to dedicate her life to bobsledding.

After spending a few years as a brakeman, Fenlator decided to make the switch to the pilot's seat. In two seasons as a pilot, she has earned three World Cup medals-two silvers in Lake Placid, New York, and Park City, Utah, and a bronze in Igls, Austria. More information is available at www.JazBobsled.com.

Eric Wyrick, NJSO Concertmaster: Violinist Eric Wyrick is concertmaster of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and has been an Orpheus Chamber Orchestra member and frequent leader since 1988.

Born in New York City, Wyrick started playing the violin at 4 years old. He attended the Juilliard Pre-College Division and later The Juilliard School, studying with Dorothy DeLay. His varied orchestral career began with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic at the age of 14. He has been concertmaster of the American Symphony, Eos and Ope?ra Franc?ais de New York, as well as the Christmas String Seminar under the direction of Alexander Schneider.

Wyrick has appeared as a soloist with the Danish Radio Orchestra, Orchestre de Toulouse, Hudson Valley Philharmonic and San Angelo Symphony Orchestra. An active chamber musician, Wyrick can be heard frequently with the NJSO Chamber Players and is a founding performer at the Bard Music Festival.

He has recorded for Bridge Records, Vanguard and, with Orpheus, Deutsche Grammophon. He is the soloist on a recording of composer Darryl Kubian's 3-2-1 Concerto for Acoustic and Electric Violin with the Orquesta Sinfonica of Michoacan, available online.

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.

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra'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. United is the official airline of the NJSO.

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