2017 NJSO Winter Festival to Launch with Pinchas Zukerman Performing Tchaikovsky

Celebrated violinist and conductor Pinchas Zukerman opens the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra's three-concert 2017 Winter Festival with a program of works by Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn, January 13-15 in Newark, Red Bank and New Brunswick. Zukerman-the festival's Artistic Director-both leads the Orchestra and solos in Tchaikovsky's Sérénade Mélancolique and "Mélodie" from Souvenir d'un Lieu Cher. The program also features Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4, "Italian."

Performances take place on Friday, January 13, at 8 pm at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark; Saturday, January 14, at 8 pm at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank; and Sunday, January 15, at 3 pm at the State Theatre New Jersey in New Brunswick.

Of Zukerman's singular artistry, The Herald (Glasgow) has written: "You could have blindfolded an experienced listener, put him in a different room where he could scarcely hear the sounds, and he'd still recognize that liquid, Zukerman tone. There is no other like it ... His sound is utterly inimitable-as it has been for more than 30 years-from its intense sweetness on high to its throaty richness at the depths of the instrument ... And the molten gold that streams from the instrument is completely breathtaking."

Audiences will experience that inimitable sound in two intimate, expressive Tchaikovsky violin works: "Mélodie" from Souvenir d'un Lieu Cher-an orchestral arrangement of a work originally for violin and piano duo-and Sérénade Mélancolique.

Zukerman conducts the program's final two works from the podium. Tchaikovsky called his joyful Serenade for Strings "a piece from the heart." Mendelssohn's "Italian" Symphony, a masterwork that the composer deemed "the liveliest thing I have yet done, especially the last movement," rounds out the Winter Festival's opening program.

NJSO Accent events include Prelude Performances by young musicians from NJSO Academy education programs before the performances on January 13 and 15.

Spanning three weekends, January 13-29, the 2017 Winter Festival includes performances featuring Zukerman at all six venues at which the NJSO regularly performs-NJPAC in Newark, State Theatre New Jersey in New Brunswick, Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, Richardson Auditorium in Princeton, Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown and bergenPAC in Englewood.

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

WINTER FESTIVAL WEEK I: Zukerman Plays Tchaikovsky

Friday, January 13, at 8 pm | NJPAC in Newark

Saturday, January 14, at 8 pm | Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank

Sunday, January 15, at 3 pm | State Theatre New Jersey in New Brunswick

Pinchas Zukerman, conductor and violin soloist

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra

TCHAIKOVSKY "Mélodie" from Souvenir d'un Lieu Cher

TCHAIKOVSKY Sérénade Mélancolique

TCHAIKOVSKY Serenade for Strings

MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 4, "Italian"

Full concert information is available at www.njsymphony.org/events/detail/winter-festival-zukerman-plays-tchaikovsky.

NJSO ACCENTS

Inspired by the concerts and designed to inspire audiences, NJSO Accents are pre- or post-concert events that complement the concert experience and provide audience members with more opportunities to personally connect with the music and music makers.

Prelude Performances - Fri, Jan 13, and Sun, Jan 15, before the concert
Enjoy live music in the lobby, performed by the young musicians of the NJSO Academy. Free for ticketholders.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Pinchas Zukerman, conductor and violin soloist

2017 NJSO Winter Festival Artistic Director

Pinchas Zukerman's 2016-17 season, his eighth as principal guest conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London and his second as artist-in association with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, includes more than 100 concerts worldwide. Orchestral engagements include the Cleveland Orchestra and Boston, Pittsburgh, New Jersey and Montreal symphonies, plus overseas appearances with the Berlin and Israel philharmonics, Camerata Salzburg, Sydney Symphony, Korean Chamber Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and Miyazaki Festival Orchestra. European recitals with pianist Yefim Bronfman and chamber concerts with the Zukerman Trio round out the season.

Zukerman's extensive discography contains more than 100 titles and has earned him two Grammy Awards and 21 nominations. His complete recordings for Deutsche Grammophon and Philips were released in July 2016 in a 22-disc set spanning Baroque, Classical and Romantic concertos and chamber music. In October, Analekta released Baroque Treasury with Zukerman, National Arts Centre Orchestra, cellist Amanda Forsyth and oboist Charles Hamann in works by Handel, Bach, Vivaldi, Telemann and Tartini.

Born in Tel Aviv, Zukerman came to America in 1962, where he studied at The Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian. He has been awarded a Medal of Arts, the Isaac Stern Award for Artistic Excellence and was appointed as the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative's first instrumentalist mentor in the music discipline. A devoted and innovative pedagogue, Zukerman chairs the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music, where he has pioneered the use of distance-learning technology in the arts. He currently serves as conductor emeritus of the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada, as well as artistic director of its Young Artist Program.

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.

The NJSO welcomes new Music Director Xian Zhang in the 2016-17 season. The Orchestra 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 New Jersey 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 (ECE) programs that promote meaningful, lifelong engagement with live music. Programs include school-time Concerts for Young People performances, NJSO Youth Orchestras family of student ensembles and El Sistema-inspired NJSO CHAMPS (Character, Achievement and Music Project). The NJSO's REACH (Resources for Education and Community Harmony) chamber music program annually brings original programs-designed and performed by NJSO musicians-to a variety of settings. In the 2015-16 season, REACH ensembles performed at nearly 200 events, and ECE programs served more than 66,000 New Jerseyans in nearly 21 counties.

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

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