“Picture This! Imagery In Music!” at Sieminski Theater

2:30pm. Tickets $45 – $85

New Jersey Festival Orchestra: Music Director David Wroe with special guest Soloist: Mo Mo.

Program – Tan Dun – Crouching Tiger: Hidden Dragon Cello Concerto – soloist Mo Mo Mussorgsky (arr. Yu) – Pictures at an Exhibition

NJ Festival Orchestra leaps into life with music based on pictures, emotions and mythical stories born from our fertile, yet sometimes ‘fantastical’ imagination. Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky‘s most famous work – “Pictures at an Exhibition” – is based on a series of 10 sketches including gnomes, laborious oxes, ancient catacombs and mythical castles, and is music so iconic that it has spurned countless orchestral arrangements. However, Chinese/Australian composer Jullian Yu has masterfully crafted his own take on Mussorgsky’s original, bringing it to life with vibrant western and Chinese orchestral effects to create, perhaps, the most imaginative of all the arrangements.

The Chinese theme continues with music from the 2000 iconic epic, and Academy Award-winning film – Crouching Tiger: Hidden Dragon. This movie is a fantasy love story, introducing yet unprecedented special effects, imagery, aesthetic film techniques, and an unprecedented haunting film score that took the movie industry by storm. The music reflects the 5,000-year-old tradition of Chinese folk music through evocative melodies and visceral rhythms.

The newest and brightest cello star of the future – Mo Mo – joins us to perform Tan Dun’s Crouching Tiger: Hidden Dragon Cello Concerto. It’s the perfect match as Mo Mo hails China, thus knowing the folk idiosyncrasies employed throughout the score. Furthermore, composer Tan Dun has already selected Mo Mo as an official proponent of this concerto – Mo Mo has performed it with Tan Dun on many occasions.