Youth Orchestra of Central Jersey will present a free concert on Sunday, April 6, at 3 p.m. at Plainsboro Township Recreation & Cultural Center, 641 Plainsboro Road. Four of the orchestra’s small ensemble groups — the Brass Ensemble, Brass Choir, Saxophone Ensemble, and Woodwind Choir — will perform works by Johannes Brahms, Gustav Holst, Johann Pezel, and Samuel Scheidt.
YOCJ, based at High School North, provides opportunities for talented young musicians in central New Jersey to participate in musical performance at a level beyond that which is traditionally offered by school bands and orchestras. All of the musicians take private lessons and are members of their school bands or orchestras. Weekly rehearsals occur at High School North.
The Brass Choir includes students in grades 10 to 12. Musicians from West Windsor include Elizabeth Bellotti on French horn, Ross Chapman on trombone, Divya Menezes on tuba, and Sriram Bapatla, Morven Chin, Freddy Maresca, and Ayanna Posipanko on trumpet. Plainsboro musicians include Jacob Niemann on trombone and Madhusudha Vasudevan on euphonium.
The other groups have students in grades 6 to 9. The Brass Ensemble includes West Windsor musicians Amelia Adcroft and Alec Berger on French horn, Michael Armstrong on trumpet, Elizabeth Barstein on euphonium, and Alexander Mitchell, Keith Register, and Matthew Rossi on trombone. Plainsboro musician Justin Bi plays trombone.
The Saxophone Ensemble includes West Windsor musicians Kevin Chen, Henry Wang, and Colman Yan on alto saxophone, and Ian Briffa on tenor saxophone. Plainsboro musicians include Jiadi Huang on soprano saxophone and Roop Pal on tenor saxophone.
The Woodwind Choir includes West Windsor musicians Sanjana Balakrishnan and Kayli Ko on flute, Asmita Baskar and Joshua Forrest on oboe, Aaira Bagga, Maxwell Taub, and Audrey Xu on clarinet, and Ethan Aquino, Kaylin Ku, and Olivia Lee on bassoon. Plainsboro musicians include Vicky Lieu and Sarah Liu on flute, Kristina Khaw on oboe, and Ruchi Aluwalia and Diane Hu on clarinet.
The year-end concert is Sunday, May 18. Auditions for new students will be held on Tuesday, June 3.
Spring Concert, Youth Orchestra of Central Jersey, Plainsboro Recreation and Cultural Center, 641 Plainsboro Road, Plainsboro. Sunday, April 6, 3 p.m. Free. www.yocj.org.
