High School North’s music department has its inaugural performance at the Princeton University Chapel on Monday, May 20, at 7:30 p.m. The concert will include musicians from the school’s orchestra and band programs. The Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble will combine to perform the “Bruckner Three Organ Preludes” by New Jersey composer Timothy Broege, “Sleep” by Eric Whitacre, and “Dedicatory Overture” by Clifton Williams. The String Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra will combine to perform the “Triumphal March” from Aida.
Organist Cynthia Peng, a senior at North, will be featured in the finale from the Guilmant Organ Symphony No. 2 and the Organ Symphony for Organ and Orchestra by Camille Saint-Saens with the high school Philharmonic Orchestra.
Peng, born in Taipei, Taiwan, began her musical studies with the piano when she was five years old. After moving to the United States at age 12, she studied piano with Chui-Ling Lin and then Samuel Hsu at the Philadelphia Biblical University. Peng has been awarded high honors in the NJMTA auditions and a bronze medal for Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra’s Concerto Competition. A first place in the Golden Key Music Festival gave her the opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Her organ studies began in 2010 with Ken Cowan, currently the head of the organ department at Rice University. In the following year, she held her first solo organ and piano recital at Westminster Choir College. She attended the organ summer program at Westminster that summer and was chosen as a soloist to perform at the Princeton University Chapel. In May of the following year, Peng held her first solo organ recital and received second place in West Chester University’s Organ Competition. She now studies with Alan Morrison, the head professor at Curtis Institute of Music and Westminster Choir College.
This past fall, North’s music department performed in Bach’s Nicolai Church in Leipzig and the Martin Luther Church in Dresden during its tour of Germany. The orchestras are conducted by John Enz and the bands by Mark Bencivengo.
Enz, who has taught in the West Windsor-Plainsboro School District for 35 years, is orchestra director at High School North. A graduate of Goshen College, he studied at University of Michigan and Interlochen Center for the Arts. He earned a master’s degree in cello performance and music education from Temple University.
Early in his career, Enz spent two years working with the music students of Ecole St. Trinite and the Haitian Orchestra in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. A freelance cellist, he has been a member of the Princeton Symphony since 1980. This is his 25th season with the Youth Orchestra of Central Jersey, where he serves as its artistic director and conductor of the advanced level Symphonic Orchestra.
Bencivengo has taught in the WW-P School District since 1993. He attended Trenton State College, where he received a bachelor’s degree in music education and a master’s degree in music performance focusing on percussion. He has been the only band director at North, which opened in 1997. In addition to the Wind Ensemble, he also conducts the Symphonic Band, jazz bands, percussion ensembles, steel band, pit orchestra, and marching band. Bencivengo, also affiliated with the Youth Orchestra of Central Jersey, has directed the percussion ensemble and taught the percussion section of the orchestra. A freelance musician, he also plays drums with the Nassau Brass and timpani with the Garden State Symphonic Band.
The 160 string students and 130 band students involved in this concert are a highly dedicated group of musicians. Over the past years they have had strong representation in the Regions and All State bands and orchestras, and, for the first time this year, had two students accepted into the All Eastern Orchestra. Many of the students pursue private musical studies, perform in musical competitions, and are members of area youth orchestras in New York and Philadelphia.
Spring Concert, WW-P North Orchestra and Band, Princeton University Chapel. Monday, May 20, 7:30 p.m. $10. 609-716-5100. www.ww-p.org.
