NJ Symphony Honors Marilyn Horne at Opening Celebration Tonight

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra honors luminary opera singer Marilyn Horne at its Opening Night Celebration tonight, September 25, at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark. Opening Night festivities begin at 5:30 pm with a cocktail party and close with a post-concert gala dinner and dessert. Music Director Jacques Lacombe and the NJSO open the 2015-16 concert season at 7:30 pm with a program featuring saxophone legend Branford Marsalis.

Opera News once wrote that "Marilyn Horne -- whose face and song have been in the light -- in so many places, in so many styles, through so many media, for so many years -- may be the most influential singer in American history."

NJSO Board Co-Chairs Ruth C. Lipper and Stephen Sichak Jr. say the Orchestra is proud to celebrate her influence on the NJSO, the arts and beyond: "It is our distinct honor to present Marilyn Horne with the NJSO-Victor Parsonnet, M.D., Leadership Award and recognize her exceptional professional accomplishments and her dedication to the arts to enliven, expand and better the condition of humankind. Her connection to our Orchestra goes back more than 40 years, and she has left an indelible mark on the NJSO and our concertgoers who heard her thrilling and moving performances for decades."

The NJSO -- Victor Parsonnet, M.D., Leadership Award is a legacy award recognizing outstanding commitment to the quality and enrichment of life through an active role in the arts.

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis joins Music Director Jacques Lacombe and the NJSO to open the Orchestra's season with a celebratory concert program at 7:30 pm. The legendary saxophonist performs Darius Milhaud's Scaramouche for alto saxophone and "Escapades" for saxophone from John Williams' score to Catch Me If You Can; he will also perform the saxophone part in the concert's finale, Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. The concert program opens with Maurice Ravel's Valses nobles et sentimentales.

TICKETS:

Gala Cocktail Party Ticket

$275 per person -- Cocktail party, premier-section concert seat and complimentary parking.

$200 per person -- For NJSO patrons who already have or will exchange for a September 25 concert ticket, this add-on event ticket includes the cocktail party and complimentary parking (no concert ticket).

All cocktail party tickets include a $90 donation.

Gala Dinner Ticket

$775 per person -- Cocktail party, premier-section concert seat, dinner and complimentary parking.

$700 per person -- For NJSO patrons who already have or will exchange for a September 25 concert ticket, this add-on event ticket includes the cocktail party, dinner and complimentary parking (no concert ticket).

All gala dinner tickets include a $485 donation.

Multi-ticket packages, dinner tables and sponsorships are also available for purchase.

For event information and reservations, contact Renée Pachucki, Senior Director of Patron Relations, at rpachucki@njsymphony.org or 973.735.1722. For more information, visit www.njsymphony.org/openingnight.

Gala Hosts - New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Board of Trustees AND Ruth C. Lipper and Stephen Sichak Jr., Board Co-Chairs

Gala Chair - Linda M. Bowden, PNC Bank

Honorary Gala Chairs - Governor Chris Christie, Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno

CONCERT PROGRAM:

Opening Weekend: Branford Marsalis Joins the NJSO

Friday, September 25 at 7:30 pm | NJPAC in Newark

Jacques Lacombe, conductor

Branford Marsalis, saxophone

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra

RAVEL Valses nobles et sentimentales

WILLIAMS "Escapades" for saxophone from Catch Me If You Can

MILHAUD Scaramouche for alto saxophone

MUSSORGSKY Pictures at an Exhibition

Concert tickets start at $20 and are available for purchase online at www.njsymphony.org or by phone at 1.800.ALLEGRO (255.3476).

The NJSO and Branford Marsalis give additional performances on Saturday, September 26, at 8 pm at the State Theatre in New Brunswick and Sunday, September 27, at 3 pm at NJPAC. Full concert information is available at www.njsymphony.org/events/detail/opening-weekend-branford-marsalis-joins-the-njso.

ABOUT MARILYN HORNE
Honoree and recipient of the NJSO-Victor Parsonnet, M.D., Leadership Award

Horne's distinguished career has garnered her numerous honors, including a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award from Gramophone. She was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1995, received the National Medal of Arts in 1992 and has been inducted into the American Classical Music and Hollywood Bowl halls of fame. Among her worldwide prizes are the Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters from France's Ministry of Culture. She was named a National Endowment for the Arts Opera Honors recipient in 2009 and is a recipient of the prestigious Opera News Award, the highest honor given within the opera industry.

Horne's connection to the NJSO goes back more than 40 years, when she performed consistently with the Orchestra from the 1969-70 season through the 1974-75 season, under the baton of Henry Lewis, her former husband and the NJSO's then-music director. In her NJSO performances, she collaborated with soloists including Jerome Hines, Joanna Bruno, Frederica von Stade, Reri Grist, Tom Krause, Joan Sutherland, Richard Bonynge and vocal ensembles from Rutgers University, the Newark Boys Chorus and Camerata Singers. She has performed with the NJSO in concert venues and at festivals throughout New Jersey-including the Waterloo Village Music Festival and Garden State Arts Center (now PNC Bank Arts Center)-as well as Carnegie Hall, the United Nations and the inaugural season of Wolf Trap Farm.

Her last performance with the NJSO was at Opening Night 2002; she and Samuel Ramey performed works of Copland and Foster under the baton of Zdenek Macal.

Horne celebrated 26 years as a leading lady at the Metropolitan Opera, and was honored at the San Francisco Opera for her 39 seasons there. She has performed in more than 1,300 recitals, made well over 100 recordings and received three Grammy Awards. Her most recent release, Marilyn Horne - Just for the Record: The Golden Voice, is a retrospective of her career and includes classical songs, opera pieces and American standards. Her autobiography, Marilyn Horne: The Song Continues, written with Jane Scovell, was published in 2004.

Horne began her music studies with her father and first sang in public at age 2. She studied voice and song/recital works at the University of Southern California and participated in many masterclasses conducted by Lotte Lehmann in Los Angeles and at the Music Academy. With her 60th birthday gala at Carnegie Hall in 1994, Horne launched the Marilyn Horne Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted exclusively to the art of the vocal recital in the United States. The foundation has introduced more than 30,000 students to the vocal recital and classical song through more than 300 education programs across the country, and its programs became part of the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall in 2010.

Horne is on the faculty at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. As Vocal Program Director, she teaches public master classes and private lessons to some of the world's most promising young artists. Actively dedicated to excellence in vocal art, she has ongoing commitments for private teaching and master classes throughout the world-well into the next decade.

THE NEW JERSEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - 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.

Under the bold leadership of Music Director Jacques Lacombe, the NJSO 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 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 programs that promote meaningful, lifelong engagement with live music. Programs include the three-ensemble NJSO Youth Orchestras, school-time Concerts for Young People performances and multiple offerings-including the El Sistema-inspired NJSO CHAMPS (Character, Achievement and Music Project)-that provide and promote in-school instrumental instruction as part of the NJSO Academy. 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, reaching as many as 17,000 people in nearly all of New Jersey's 21 counties.

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

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