Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra presents its season opening pops concert on Sunday, September 28, at 7 p.m. at Princeton Alliance Church at 20 Schalks Crossing Road, Plainsboro, The orchestra is conducted by its music director Chiu-Tze Lin. Tickets are $25.
The family concert, “Movies and Musicals,” features familiar favorites from movies and Broadway musicals. A highlight of the concert will be “I Dreamed a Dream” and “Bring Him Home” from “Les Miserables,” both sung by Paul Reilly, a baritone from the Princeton area.
Reilly has sung in and around the area for 30 years. He has sung with many orchestras in New Jersey and New York City, and he sings regularly with Princeton Pro Musica. A regular church soloist and worship leader, he is a member of the Celebration Arts team at the Princeton Alliance Church.
The program will also feature the famous “Danse Macabre” by Saint Saens, recently heard in Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo.” The flamboyant violin solo in the piece will be performed by Kevin Cheng-Chih Tsai of West Windsor. The concert marks the second year that he has been the orchestra’s concertmaster.
A native of Taiwan, Tsai is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes, including winner of both the Chi-Mei and the Taiwan National Violin competitions and the first recipient of the Darrow Prize from the Killington Music Festival. He has given solo recitals and master classes and performed as a soloist and in string quartets in many major cities in North America, Taiwan, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and France.
Tsai, who earned his doctoral degree of musical arts from the Mason Gross School of the Arts, has appeared in concert at Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall, and Alice Tully Hall. He is a member of Princeton Symphony and Princeton ProMusica orchestras. He has also served as the concertmaster in the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra and Sinfonietta Nova. He has collaborated with artists such as Arnold Steinhardt, Michael Tree, and Pinchas Zukermann.
The orchestra will also perform Rossini’s “William Tell Overture,” musical selections from “My Fair Lady” and “South Pacific,” plus “The Best of Broadway,” a medley of highlights from many other popular Broadway shows.
Concert, Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra, Princeton Alliance Church, 20 Schalks Crossing Road, Plainsboro. Sunday, September 28, 7 p.m. $15 to $25. 609-790-9559 or www.bravuraphil.org.
