Frederica von Stade performing with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra conducted by Music Director Jacques Lacombe.
Music Director Jacques Lacombe and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra(NJSO) ushered in the Orchestra’s 2011–12 season with an Opening Night Celebration featuring the incomparable mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade. The festive program of American and French music began at 8 p.m. on Friday, October 14, 2011 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark. The evening began with a pre-concert cocktail party and ended with a post-concert dessert reception with Jacques Lacombe and special guests.
The Opening Night Celebration concert featured Gershwin’s An American in Paris, which the composer wrote from his own impressions of France’s cultural center in the Roaring 20s. Trenton-born composer George Antheil’s Symphony No. 6 celebrated the link between American and French music as the composer drew his inspiration for the work from painter Eugène Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading the People”—the painting that inspired the Statue of Liberty. The piece was also part of the NJSO’s New Jersey Roots Project—the Orchestra’s commitment to performing works written by composers born in New Jersey or whose artistic identity was shaped during their time in the Garden State. Von Stade performed selections from Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne, as well as Rodgers’ “Hello, Young Lovers” from The King and I and Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns” from A Little Night Music. Ravel’s 1920s masterpiece Bolero closed the program. Special festivities surrounding the performance included a pre-concert cocktail party and dessert reception.
“Gershwin had big influence on great composers like Ravel, and I thought it was an interesting way of opening the season—celebrating American music and French music, which is a part of my culture as well,” Jacques Lacombe, the music director says. “I like when it’s possible for an opening gala to feature pieces that are so appreciated by audiences. There is in these pieces already a feeling of celebration.”
NJSO Board Co-Chair Stephen Sichak, Frederica von Stade, Jacques Lacombe and NJSO Board Co-Chair Ruth Lipper.
NJPAC President & CEO John Schreiber with NJSO President & CEO André Gremillet and his wife, Ginette Gremillet.
Audrey Bartner and Morry Mulman.
Georgette Ciukurescu, Jacques Lacombe, Janet Lacombe, NJSO Trustee Trayton Davis.
A. Michael Lipper, Ruth Lipper, John von Stade, Phyllis von Stade, Jane Parsonnet and NJSO Board Chairman Emeritus Victor Parsonnet.
Kevin Terrell, Ellen Neches and Catherine Terrell.
NJSO Concertmaster Eric Wyrick with NJSO Trustee Jim Gillen.
Dr. Richard Watson, Nicole Watson, Mary Jo Sichak and Stephen Sichak.
Kassandra Romas, Sheila Klehm and Ruth Lipper.
NJSO Principal Flutist Bart Feller, NJSO Trustee Penelope Vance, Donald E. Strangfeld and Deborah Simpson King.
