Symphony In C to Present FANTASTIC FRENCH Featuring Guest Conductor Noam Aviel And Violinist Stella Chen

New Jersey-based professional training orchestra Symphony in C will present Fantastic French on Saturday, January 21, 2023 at 8:00pm. Held at the Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts in Camden, New Jersey, the concert features Israeli guest conductor Noam Aviel, who will lead the Symphony in an evening of all-French music.

Fantastic French features 2020 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award winner violinist Stella Chen ("fresh and spontaneous, yet emotionally profound and intellectually well-structured", Jerusalem Post) in composer and violinist Henri Vieuxtemps' Violin Concerto No. 5 in A minor, which was written in 1861 as a "contest piece" for the Brussels Conservatory.

The concert also includes Franz Liszt's Mephisto Waltz No. 1, which depicts the "Dance in the Village Inn" from Lenau's Faust and conjures demonic revelry and seduction. Rounding out the program is Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz, which was written as a way to express his unrequited love for an Irish actress.

Symphony in C's 2022-2023 season continues with Beethoven Eroica on Saturday, March 4, 2023 at 8:00pm at the Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts, featuring guest conductor Ankush Kumar Bahl and trumpeter Caleb Hudson in a program that includes works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Caroline Shaw, and Johann Nepomuk Hummel.

Performance Details

Fantastic French
Symphony in C
Saturday, January 21, 2023 at 8:00pm
Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts | North 3rd Street & Pearl, Camden, NJ, 08102
Tickets: $25 - $52
Link: https://symphonyinc.org/event/fantastic-french/

Program:
Franz Liszt: Mephisto Waltz No. 1, S.110/2
HENRI VIEUXTEMPS: Violin Concerto No. 5, Op. 37, A minor
Stella Chen, violin
Hector Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14

Artists:
Symphony in C
Noam Aviel, guest conductor
Stella Chen, violin

About Stella Chen

The recipient of a 2020 Avery Fisher Career Grant and 2020 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, American violinist Stella Chen is the winner of the International Queen Elisabeth Grand Prize - Queen Mathilde Prize in the 2019 Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition. Stella has been lauded for her "phenomenal maturity" and "fresh and spontaneous, yet emotionally profound and intellectually well-structured performance" (The Jerusalem Post).

In the past season alone, Stella made her debuts with the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and the Chicago Symphony. Upcoming projects include the U.S. premiere of Jorg Widmann's Concerto No. 2, conducted by the composer. Other recent engagements include appearances with the Belgian National Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Luxembourg Philharmonia, and Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra.

Stella is also the first recipient of the Robert Levin Award from Harvard University, the top prize winner of the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition and youngest ever prize winner of the Menuhin Competition. She has given solo performances at venues such as the Kennedy Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago. Other noteworthy ventures include performances in Bhutan, Jordan, Israel, Cuba, and Colombia. Festival appearances include Ravinia, Kronberg Academy, Salzburg Mozarteum, Perlman Music Program, Music@Menlo, the Sarasota Music Festival, and YellowBarn. Stella has collaborated with such notable artists as Itzhak Perlman, Robert Levin, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Matthew Lipman, and the Silk Road Ensemble.

A graduate of the Harvard/New England Conservatory Dual Degree Program, Stella received a Bachelor of Arts in psychology with honors from Harvard University and an MM from NEC. Stella then went on to receive her doctorate at the Juilliard School and was concurrently a professional studies candidate at the Kronberg Academy. Teachers and mentors include Li Lin, Mihaela Martin, Donald Weilerstein, Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho, and Miriam Fried. Stella makes her home in New York City , where she is a member of the Bowers Program at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and serves as a teaching assistant to her longtime mentor, Li Lin, at Juilliard.

She plays the 'Huggins' 1708 Stradivarius violin on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation, and the 1700 ex-Petri Stradivarius, on generous loan from Dr. Ryuji Ueno and Rare Violins In Consortium, Artists and Benefactors Collaborative.

About Noam Aviel
Noam Aviel has emerged as a dynamic conductor on the international scene. Hailed for her artistic excellence, versatility and charismatic stage presence, Noam Aviel has been recognized for her deep understanding of stylistic approaches in a wide range of repertoire including opera, symphonic, and jazz with a rare sensitivity to the needs of the artists with whom she collaborates.

Born in Israel, Noam Aviel studied voice performance and orchestral conducting at Tel Aviv University, and later continued her studies in orchestral conducting at Illinois State University in the US. In 2017 Noam Aviel was appointed Assistant Conductor, later promoted to Associate Conductor, of the San Antonio Symphony where she has led the orchestra's extensive educational, community and outreach concerts programme and acted as the cover conductor throughout the orchestra's main season working closely with Sebastian Lang Lessing. In her role Noam Aviel quickly gained recognition for inventive programming and has been praised in the US press as one of 25 "Renaissance Women" who have shaped the city of San Antonio.

Noam Aviel has also worked on numerous productions at Opera San Antonio, including La Traviata, La Bohème, Macbeth, Carmen, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, as well as Las Fundaciones de Béjar by Joseph Julian Gonzalez. She was music director and conductor for the opera production of A Dinner Engagement by Lennox Berkeley as part of the Illinois Festival Opera, and she conducted performances of Street Scene by Kurt Weill at Illinois State University, where she served as Assistant Director of Orchestras.

In recent years Noam Aviel made highly successful debuts with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Sinfonietta Beer Sheva as well as the Raanana Symphonette, and she has been immediately reinvited for the 2021/22 season. Her upcoming engagements also include a symphonic debut in Sweden with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra and an operatic debut with Opera Orlando in the US conducting performances of a contemporary work Lizbeth by Thomas Albert.

About Symphony in C

Symphony in C provides the next generations of musicians and composers with experiences in performance and in engaging with the community, helping musicians to develop skills and experiences for professional success. The Symphony seeks to support musicians in achieving their visions in the changing world of symphonic music.

Founded in 1952 as The Haddonfield Symphony, Symphony in C began as a community orchestra allowing amateur musicians to pursue their love of music by performing for the Haddonfield and southern New Jersey communities. Its debut performance was in January 1954 under music director Guido Terranova. Since then, it has grown into one of only three professional training orchestras in the United States preparing musicians and conductors who are on the cusp of world-class careers through concert, educational outreach and professional development programs.

During the 1987-1988 season, the Symphony began providing training and performance opportunities to young professional musicians with the establishment of its Professional Development Internship Program. Over the next 13 seasons, this program grew to encompass all 78 positions within the orchestra. In 1991, the Symphony established the position of assistant conductor. The first holder of this position, Alan Gilbert, was named music director of the Symphony in 1992. During his tenure, he appointed the first composer-in-residence, Daniel Dorff, and launched the Young Composers' Competition. From 1997 to 2000, Music Director Daniel Hege expanded the Music Matters! educational programs and Professional Development Internship programs for Symphony musicians.

Assistant Conductor Rossen Milanov was appointed Music Director in 2000, and led the organization for fifteen years, attracting the finest young musicians and soloists and increasing the orchestra's artistic profile. In July, 2014, Maestro Milanov announced his departure at the end of the season, after being named Music Director of the Columbus Symphony and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. After an extensive international search, the Board of Directors selected 31 year old Stilian Kirov as Music Director. Maestro Kirov served as Music director from 2015-2020. Symphony in C's 2022-23 season features 5 guest conductors who are being considered for the Music Director position.

In 2004, the Symphony was awarded the national MetLife Award for Community Engagement in recognition of its programs serving people with special needs. In 2006, the Symphony moved its concert series to the Gordon Theater at Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts, and changed its name to Symphony in C to reflect its commitment to the cultural and economic redevelopment of Camden. Symphony in C has been designated a Major Arts Organization by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and was awarded a Citation of Excellence.

Symphony in C performances and programs are made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the William G. Rohrer Charitable Foundation, The Presser Foundation, Holman Automotive Group, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, South Jersey Charitable Foundation, TD Charitable Foundation, and Subaru of America. Symphony in C is a member of the South Jersey Cultural Alliance (SJCA).

Photo credit: Sam Sirochman

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