HIGH MOUNTAIN SYMPHONY PRESENTS 2004-2005 SEASON AT WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY

The High Mountain Symphony at William Paterson University in Wayne will present four thematic concerts featuring a variety of genres, composers and cultures during the 2004-2005 season. The ensemble is the only professional orchestra in New Jersey in permanent residence at a university.

Saturday evening performances are slated for October 23, February 26 and April 30 at 8 p.m. in Shea Center on the William Paterson campus. A special concert geared toward families will be held on Sunday, November 21 at 3 p.m., also in Shea Center.

The opening concert on October 23, titled “Musical Angels,” will feature soprano Elizabeth Farnum as soloist in a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. Also on the program will be selections from Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet. Farnum has appeared on concert stages throughout the United States and Europe including Alice Tully Hall, Bargemusic and London’s Institute for Contemporary Art.

The family concert on November 21 features musical comedian Dan Kamin in a program titled “The Magic Orchestra.” Kamin plays Mr. Kirby, who doesn’t believe in the magical power of music; so the conductor and symphony demonstrate their powers through a series of magical and musical pranks. Music will include selections from the Harry Potter movies, and by such composers as Rossini, Grieg, Gounod, Wagner and Leroy Anderson. One hour before the show, there will be an instrument “petting zoo” in the lobby of Shea Center where adults and children will have the opportunity to meet many of the Symphony’s musicians and play a variety of instruments.

Pianist Orion Weiss joins the symphony as soloist on February 26 for a concert titled “Genius of Past and Present.” The 20-year-old pianist, who won the 2002 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 2001 Gilmore Award, will perform Mozart’s Concerto for Piano, No. 20, K. 466. The program also includes the world premiere of New Jersey composer Brooke Joyce’s work, Watersmooth-silver, which is based on an e e cummings poem about Buffalo Bill, and Strauss’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme: Suite.

The symphony’s season concludes on April 30 with a program titled “The Sound of Pictures.” The concert will feature finalists in the eighth annual Mae and Fletcher Fish Young Artist Competition, as well as a performance of Mussorgsky’s masterpiece Pictures at an Exhibition, arranged by Ravel.

Subscriptions for the three Saturday evening concerts are $75. Individual tickets for the family concert and all Saturday evening concerts are $30, $27 for senior citizens, William Paterson faculty, staff and alumni, and $8 for William Paterson students and those ages 17 and younger. All evening concerts are preceded by pre-concert conversations with the conductor and guest artists beginning at 7 p.m. in Shea 101.

The High Mountain Symphony is underwritten, in part, by William Paterson University. It is also funded, in part, by the Passaic County Cultural and Heritage Council at Passaic County Community College through the State/County Block Grant Program of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. The family concert is partially supported by a grant from Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour, developed and funded by the Vira I. Heinz Endowment; the William Penn Foundation; the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency; and The Pew Charitable Trusts; and administered by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.

For more information on subscriptions or individual tickets, call the Shea Center Box Office at 973-720-2371.

Note to reporters and editors: Downloadable photographs are available at:
http://ww2.wpunj.edu/publicityphotos/HighMtSymphony

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For Further Information, contact:
Mary Beth Zeman, Director, Public Relations, 973-720-2966