NJSO Youth Orchestras To Give Spring Concerts

The NJSO Youth Orchestras present a spring concert event on May 5 at Science Park High School in Newark. Presented by M&T Bank, the event showcases the youth orchestra family's four ensembles the Academy Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, String Ensemble and Training Ensemble across two concerts. Henry Lewis Concerto Competition winners Caleb Shi and Yoo Jin Kang perform as featured soloists.

At 12:30 pm, the Training Ensemble one of the two programs that comprise the Music Advancement for Newark-area Youth (MANY) partnership between NJPAC and the NJSO performs with its sister program, the NJPAC Symphonic Band. NJSO Youth Orchestras Artistic Director Jos Luis Dom nguez leads TE in Newbold's Ships of Ireland and Rock Riffs and Balmages' Velocity. The two sister ensembles join forces for Beethoven's Ode to Joy.

The 4 pm concert program features performances by the Academy Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra and String Ensemble.

The Academy Orchestra performance features solo appearances by the co-winners of the NJSO Youth Orchestras' annual concerto competition. Concertmaster Caleb Shi performs the first movement of Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major, K. 219, and violinist Yoo Jin Kang performs the first movement of Lalo's Symphonie espagnole, Op. 21, with the orchestra. Shi, 17, is a senior at Bergen County Academies in Hackensack, and Kang, 13, is an eighth grader at Robert R. Lazar Middle School in Montville.

Led by Dom nguez, the Academy Orchestra also performs Hoe-Down from Copland's Rodeo and the Overture from Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmila.

Conductor Henry Kao, an NJSO violist, leads the Chamber Orchestra in the Overture from Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3; Dvo k's Serenade, Op. 22, and Mozart's Divertimento in D Major, K. 136.

The String Ensemble, led by NJSO violinist Naomi Youngstein, performs Newbold's Country Hoedown, Vivaldi's Concerto for Strings in C Major, RV 113, and Copland's Story of Our Town (arr. Fagin).

All tickets are $5 and are available for purchase by phone at 1.800.ALLEGRO (255.3476).

Learn more about the NJSO Youth Orchestras at njsymphony.org/youthorchestras.