New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Hosts College Night at State Theatre in New Brunswick on September 24

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra hosts its first College Night of the 2016-17 season on opening weekend, Saturday, September 24, at the State Theatre in New Brunswick. A special $10 student ticket includes entrance to the Orchestra's 8 pmperformance featuring virtuoso violinist Sarah Chang, as well as a post-concert all-student party with light refreshments and live entertainment.

The NJSO will provide free round-trip bus transportation to the concert venue from select New Jersey college campuses. Departure times and locations will be posted at www.njsymphony.org/college as buses become available.

Chang performs a pair of showpieces by Piazzolla and Ravel on a program that also includes Bernstein's On the Town: Three Dance Episodes and Copland's Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes. Teddy Abrams, who has garnered critical attention as a conductor, composer and instrumentalist, makes his NJSO debut at the podium.

Chang, a frequent NJSO guest, last appeared with the Orchestra in an acclaimed two-week Winter Festival residency in 2015. The Star-Ledger has praised her "stunning," "thoroughly impressive and entertaining" performances with the NJSO and hailed the violinist's "characteristic athleticism and firepower" in her most recent New Jersey concerts. She solos in Piazzolla's The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires (this program marks the first time the NJSO will perform the work) and Ravel's Tzigane.

NPR writes that Abrams, the music director of the Louisville Symphony, is "brimming with ideas." Abrams has been the subject of a PBS documentary; The Wall Street Journal has called his energy "prodigious."

The NJSO will host a second College Night this season at its Friday, April 7, performance at 8 pm at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. Music Director Xian Zhang conducts a program that includes Ravel's Boléro, Vaughan Williams' Tuba Concerto (featuring NJSO Principal Tuba Derek Fenstermacher as soloist), Saint-Saëns' Carnival of the Animals and Tan Dun's Internet Symphony No. 1, "Eroica."

For more information on College Night, visit www.njsymphony.org/college.

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