The Youth Orchestra of Central Jersey will present two concerts on Sunday, May 17, at 3 and 7 p.m. at High School North in Plainsboro. Tickets are $10.
The 3 p.m. concert will feature the Wind Symphony, conducted by Brian Woodward, and the String Preparatory and Pro Arte Orchestras, conducted by Phillip Pugh. The performance features works by Mozart, Mendelssohn, Saint-Saens, and others.
Wind Symphony musicians include Sanjana Balakrishnan, Sarah Chen, Kayli Ko, and Anirudh Srikanth of West Windsor and Vicky Lieu of Plainsboro on flute; Asmita Baskar of West Windsor and Kristina Khaw of Plainsboro on oboe; and Ashley Chang and Diane Hu of Plainsboro and Meghana Padmanabhan and Maxwell Taub of West Windsor on clarinet; Kaylin Ku and Olivia Lee of West Windsor on bassoon; Alec Berger and Sehej Bindra of West Windsor on French horn; Vaibhav Mangipuddy, Shrey Parikh, and Matthew Rossi of West Windsor on trombone; Elizabeth Barstein of West Windsor on euphonium; and Ameya Natarajan on tuba; and Henry Wang of West Windsor and Edward Zhang of Plainsboro on alto saxophone.
String Preparatory Orchestra musicians include Claire Chang, Eddie Chen, Ethan Li, Aditya Rao, Anish Sankla, Nisha Srinivas, Vinay Viswanathan, Andrew Xu, Max Xu, and Chern Yang of West Windsor and Annabel Guo and Amay Shenoy of Plainsboro on violin; Minha Choi of West Windsor and Tanya Banerjee and Sriya Bapatla on viola; Crosby Davidson, Isabella Epstein, Aarthi Katakam, Olivia Lu, and Michelle Vassilev of West Windsor and Sanjana Korpal and Jay Rana of Plainsboro on cello; and Praneel Chakraborty and Madeline Epstein of West Windsor and Sruti Bapatla of Plainsboro on bass.
Pro Arte Orchestra musicians include Dhruva Byrapatna, Lauren Cao, Raina Kasera, Gabrielle Lee, Patrick Liang, Michael Maa, and Lakshay Patel of West Windsor and Aditya Iyer, Vijay Krishnan, Michael Lin, and Michelle Tong of Plainsboro on violin; Ribhav Bose, Serena Chen, Michael Hu, Ashvanth Muralidharan, and Naveen Nathan of West Windsor on viola; Naveen Nathan and Varun Nathan of West Windsor and Simran Korpal and Daniel Wang of Plainsboro on cello; and Samuel Ferguson and Yash Sharma of West Windsor and Tanvi Kanchinadam of Plainsboro on bass.
The 7 p.m. concert will feature the Percussion Prep and Percussion Ensemble conducted by Peter Saleh, the Saxophone Choir conducted by Jordan Smith, and the Symphonic Orchestra conducted by John Enz.
Two West Windsor seniors from High School South will have special roles at the concert. Brian Starace will conduct the Saxophone Choir in his arrangement of Eric Whitacre’s “October.” Zachary Joseph will be the soloist performing Steve Cohen’s “Concertino for Soprano Saxophone and Orchestra.”
Tragic Overture by Brahms and Latin American Symphonette by Morton Gould will be followed by the performance of ballet music by Debussy and Jules Massenet, while 12 dancers from Princeton Youth Ballet join the orchestra on stage. Enz, who is also the artistic director of YOCJ and conductor of High School North’s orchestral program; and Risa Kaplowitz, artistic director of PYB, based in Plainsboro, previously mixed music and dance at a concert in October.
“Princeton Youth Ballet gave flight to our Witches Dance by Berlioz at North’s Halloween Concert,” says Enz. “As the dancers were buoyed by North’s Philharmonic Orchestra, the audience was enthralled by the duet of the visual (color) and aural (music) brought before them. YOCJ and the Princeton Youth Ballet will bring the season of spring in all its splendor to its audience with Claude Debussy’s Petite Suite and Le Cid and music from ‘Thais’ by Jules Massenet.”
Percussion Prep musicians include Amey Kapadia of West Windsor and Advaith Bantval and Mukundhan Tuppil of Plainsboro. Percussion Ensemble musicians include Ben Brown-McMillin, Steven Chien, Michael Foley, and Daniel Joseph of West Windsor and Vibhu Gandikota of Plainsboro.
The Saxophone Choir musicians include Zachary Joseph of West Windsor on soprano saxophone; Brian Starace of West Windsor on soprano and alto saxophone; Janavi Janakiraman, Colman Yan, and Eric Zhang of West Windsor and Naman Jain and Stephanie Ji of Plainsboro on alto saxophone; Ian Briffa and Akhil Dondapati of West Windsor and Brennan Flannery of Plainsboro on tenor saxophone; Roop Pal and Saurav Sanjay of Plainsboro on baritone saxophone; and Dan Gleim on bass saxophone.
Symphonic Orchestra musicians include Katherine Chen, Timothy Feng, Suyash Handa, Crystal Lee, Alok Tripathy, and Jeremy Zhang of West Windsor on violin; Shalini Basu, Allison Chien, and Ji Won Lee of West Windsor and Sophie Kang, Cynthia Lieu, and Ashrita Raman of Plainsboro on viola; Gautham Sharma and Amrita Suresh of West Windsor on cello; and Justin Cao of West Windsor and Yogini Borgaonkar of Plainsboro on bass.
Also Angela Gao of West Windsor and Sophia Isnardi and Anna Qian of Plainsboro on flute; Suntharam Solai of West Windsor and Nicolaus Stalzer of Plainsboro on clarinet; Joshua Forrest and Doria Pei of West Windsor and Kathryn Khaw and Miriam Li of Plainsboro on oboe; Amelia Adcroft of West Windsor on French horn; Sriram Bapatla, Freddy Maresca, and Ayanna Posipanko of West Windsor on trumpet; Keith Register of West Windsor and Justin Bi of Plainsboro on trombone; Madhusudha Vasudevan of Plainsboro on euphonium; and Adam Scherr of Plainsboro on tuba.
The mission of YOCJ is to provide opportunities for talented young musicians in Central Jersey to participate in musical performance at a level above which is traditionally offered by school bands and orchestras. Auditions for new students will be held Tuesday, June 9, at High School North. Musicians must take private lessons and be enrolled in their school music programs. Homeschoolers are also invited to audition. Register at www.yocj.org
Two Concerts, Youth Orchestra of Central Jersey, High School North, 90 Grovers Mill Road, Plainsboro. Sunday, May 17, 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. String Preparatory, Pro Arte Orchestras, and Wind Symphony perform works by Mozart, Mendelssohn, Saint-Saens, and more at 3 p.m. Saxophone Choir, Symphonic Orchestra, and the Percussion Ensemble perform works by Brahms, Gould, Whitacre, and more at 7 p.m. Princeton Youth Ballet performs with the orchestra in works by Debussy and Massenet. $10. www.yocj.org.
