First Indoor PSO Concert To Include Mendelssohn And Beethoven Works

On Sunday, October 3 at 4pm, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) returns to indoor performances with its Mendelssohn & Beethoven concert featuring violinist Simone Porter. Ms. Porter performs Felix Mendelssohn's beloved Violin Concerto in E Minor on a program with contemporary composer Jessie Montgomery's Banner and Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 4 in B-flat Major. Edward T. Cone Music Director Rossen Milanov conducts the concert at McCarter Theatre Center's Matthews Theatre.

"I am thrilled to be conducting again in the concert hall," says Maestro Milanov. "I look forward to seeing many faces both familiar and new experiencing a musical reunion, affirming the value of live music."

Violinist Simone Porter is an emerging artist of impassioned energy, interpretive integrity, and vibrant communication. In the past few years she has debuted with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and with a number of renowned conductors, including Stéphane Denève, Gustavo Dudamel, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Nicholas McGegan, Ludovic Morlot, and Donald Runnicles. In July 2021, she resumed a full season of orchestral and recital concerts to include Denver, North Carolina, St. Louis, Grand Rapids, Quebec, Sarasota, Bakersfield, and Monterey Symphonies in addition to Princeton Symphony Orchestra. She made her professional solo debut at age 10 with the Seattle Symphony and her international debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London at age 13. In March 2015, Simone was named a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant. She studied with Margaret Pressley and the renowned pedagogue Robert Lipsett.

Composer Jessie Montgomery, recipient of both the Sphinx Medal of Excellence and the ASCAP Foundation's Leonard Bernstein Award, is currently Mead Composer-in Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Her work Banner was written in 2014 as a tribute to the 200th anniversary of "The Star Spangled Banner." Mendelssohn's violin concerto was composed between 1838 and 1845, and is celebrated as one of the great 19th-century violin concerti. Written between his "Eroica" and famous fifth symphony, Beethoven's expressive fourth symphony was described by fellow composer Robert Schumann as "a Grecian maiden surrounded by two Nordic giants."

Tickets for the concert at McCarter Theatre Center's Matthews Theatre range from $25-$90 for adults and half-price for youths 7-17, and may be ordered through the Princeton Symphony Orchestra website at princetonsymphony.org or by calling the McCarter box office at 609-258-2787.

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