By Mabel Pais

ASHITA BIRLA, AMEYA SRINIVASAN, DAMINI VARGHESE,

ADHITHI ARUN, SAROSH MISTRY, ARAVIND KRISHNAN,

ANIRUDH KHANDRIKA, ARJUN ATHALYE, VIHAAN AGARWAL,

TARA KHURANA, MILIND BANGALORE

Among COMPOSERS

“The NJSO Youth Orchestras have set an incredible and leading example within the inevitable virtual world that musicians have faced due to the pandemic. Making music together is the very essence of what we do, and thanks to our amazing team of staff, coaches and teaching artists, and their bravery in facing reinvention and adaptation, we continued to serve the students and the community with innovative approaches. This digital album is a testament to that.”– José Luis Domínguez, NJSO Youth Orchestras Artistic Director

The NJSO Youth Orchestras on August 6 will release “Our Voices,” an album of original student compositions composed during the program’s 30th anniversary season. The album marks the culmination of a season-long NJSO Youth Orchestras creative composition project in which nearly 200 students collaborated in small groups to explore their own musical voices and compose new works drawing from all the genres that inspire them.

The album, which will be available to stream for free at jsymphony.org/ourvoices, features 25 compositions by groups of middle- and high-school student groups from all levels of the youth orchestra program. NJSO musician coaches and teaching artists guided each group; NJSO Youth Orchestras Artistic Director José Luis Domínguez, a celebrated composer, orchestrated and arranged the works and digitally recorded each composition using Logic Pro.

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra gave the world premiere of “The Enchanted Forest,” one of the student compositions, at the Orchestra’s virtual Spring into Music Gala concert on May 12. Other works on the album include “Calypso,” a tone poem inspired by Greek mythology; variations on the Korean folk song “Arirang”; works that grew out of improvised jam sessions, and more.

One piece was entirely arranged, orchestrated and recorded by student composer Ben Rosales. One work for jazz band and orchestra features recorded performances by jazz musicians Yoojin Park (violin), James Borowski (bass trombone), Cristian Monreal (bass), Bryan Pezzone (piano) and Dan Graziano (drums).

OUR VOICES

NJSO Youth Orchestras 30th Anniversary Creative Composition Project: The Album

The album is available August 6 at njsymphony.org/ourvoices.

Track #1: “Calypso”

Academy Orchestra Group 2a

Composers: Gabriel Bulacan, Stephen Cheng, Jacqueline Li, Sarah Spitzer, Michelle Wang, Paige Wang, Jacqueline Zhou

Coach: José Luis Domínguez

Track #2: “The Enchanted Forest”

Chromatic Creators (Chamber Orchestra Group 2)

Composers: Ashita Birla, Samantha Huerta, Natalie Sokolov, Ameya Srinivasan, Kevin Yang, Amy Zarebczan

Coach: Kathleen Nester

Track #3: “Journey of Hope”

High Brass Group (Academy Orchestra Group 7)

Composers: Ryan Bae, Julia Caprari, James Cottrell, Nathan Lee, Danny Santibañez

Coaches: Andrea Menousek & Anderson Romero

Track #4: “Seven Strings”

Chamber Orchestra Group 1

Composers: Paolo Figueroa, Christabella Leung, Katherine Liang, Marisa Olavarria, Andrew Rodriguez, Damini Varghese

Coach: José Luis Domínguez

Track #5: “Mystic Pioneer”

Academy Orchestra Group 4

Composers: Alex Barker, Radon Belarmino, Michael Forde, Helios Hong, Andrew Ikemoto, Liam Reilly

Coaches: Robert Wagner & Philo Lee

Track #6: “Sunrise at the Lake”

Training Ensemble – Ms. Amelia’s Group

Composers: Naomi Akakpo, Gifty Ezeanuna, Caden Giles

Teaching Artist: Amelia Muccia

Track #7: “Cello Jam Circle”

Chamber Orchestra Group 6

Composers: Peter Corwin, Gracen Hill, Ethan Kim, Ryan Lu, Kevin Valencia, Norah Wang, Kevin Wei, Kenny Yang

Coach: Laura Andrade

Track #8: “Variations on ‘Arirang’”

Academy Orchestra Group 6

Composers: Abigail Lee, Hannah Lee, Megan Newton, Christina Nicolau, Kayla Wang, Eric Xu, Andy Yin

Coach: Robert Ingliss

Track #9: “Quake of the Ocean”

Ostinato Orchestrators in Slippers (Chamber Orchestra Group 4)

Composers: Veronica Derugo, Lauren Nguyen, Ethan Wang, Allen Wu, Vivian Zhang

Coach: Kathleen Nester

Track #10: “Canon of Grace”

Training Ensemble – Ms. Inyong’s Group

Composers: Kyrae Brock, Justin Casco, Emilia Delgado, Sarahline Fequiere, Ayla Goore, Daniel Lanao, Sophia Lanao, Johanna Motatey, Sirron Norris, Ammy Peralta, Colin Robinson, Jax Ryals, Lauren Trinity, Rio Umana

Coach: Inyong Park

Track #11: “Musical Jokers”

Musical Jokers (Academy Orchestra Group 2b)

Composers: Adhithi Arun, Nicholas Chen, Matt Hui, Sarosh Mistry, Matthew Shi, Heidi Tsai

Coach: James Musto III

Track #12: “The Saddest of All Keys”

Training Ensemble – Ms. Julia’s Group

Composers: Mateo Baez-Salvador, Flor Chouloupe, Junior Chouloupe, Xitlali Garcia, Crystal Gonzalez, Patrick Molina, Bianca Milien Fequiere, Juliet Lopez, Jazmin Pearson, Jeremias Sanchez

Teaching Artist: Julia Castellanos

Track #13: “Returning Home”

Chamber Orchestra Group 3

Composers: Gael Barker, Caroleena Fernandez, Rafi Ingliss, Aravind Krishnan, Sophie Lu, Celine Shon, Aidan Song

Coach: José Luis Domínguez

Track #14: “Nostalgia, Victory, Valor”

CO5 Carbon Pentoxide (Chamber Orchestra Group 5)

Composers: Kelli Cheng, Daniel Corwin, Anirudh Khandrika, Hayden Lin, Andrew Zarebczan

Coaches: Jonathan Storck & Elzbieta Weyman

Track #15: “Caribbean Symphony”

Academy Orchestra Group 8

Composers: Arjun Athalye, Ryan Badi, Andrew Joyal, Benjamin Rosales, Luke Tan, Max Watzky

Coach: Gregory LaRosa

 Track #16: “Voyage to Seven”

Training Ensemble – Ms. DoYeon’s Group

Composers: Aristotle Archibald, Joanne Chouloupe, David Ibiefo, Jesse Ibiefo, Saliah King, Deborah Louis, Trevon Norris, Rhia Randolph, Orchid Ryals

Teaching Artist: DoYeon Kim

Track #17: “Viola Trio”

Julien Soto-Raspa (Academy Orchestra violist)

Track #18: “Alegría in D”

Training Ensemble – Ms. Sasha’s Group

 Track #19: “Bow Poetry”

Academy Orchestra Group 3

Composers: Vihaan Agarwal, Kendra Buffaloe, Andrew Reza, Julien Soto-Raspa, Winston Wang

Coach: Martin Andersen

Track #20: “Irish Reel”

Sarah Spitzer (Academy Orchestra violinist)

Track #21: “#SquadGoals”

String Ensemble Group

Composers: Wiktoria Brauntsch, Jada Clark, Anais-Skye Clarke-Avignant, Chadley Gede, Kelsey Guillen, Kelvin Guillen, Eliza Kapchits, Jakub Khan, Tara Khurana, Alethea Liu, Anna Lungu, Eva Neves-Szczypior, Akoya Rodriguez, Ella-Simone Scantlebury, Elena Sherrard, Sadie Valencia, Jared Vega, Sebastian Vega, Kimberly Vito

Coaches: Naomi Youngstein, Lucy Corwin & Frances Rowell

Track #22: “Hazy Sunrise over Snow Covered Tulips”

Academy Orchestra Group 1b

Composers: Milind Bangalore, Jomar Hernandez, Katherine Lebedev, Eric Lee, Leah Lu, Evan Nguyen, Timothy Shi, Jenny Wang, Cheryl Yang

Coach: Gregory LaRosa

Track #23: “The King’s Overture”

Academy Orchestra Group 1a

Composers: Joseph Bejjani, Alexander Dobrescu, Gabe Ingliss, Aiden Lu, Katherine Porcello, Mirella Richard, Alexander Saldana, Olive Wang

Coach: José Luis Domínguez

Track #24: “Essence”

Training Ensemble – Ms. Yoojin’s Group

Composers: Malcom Artis, Crystal Burbano, Joel Calado, Madison Cardona, Melanie Cuna, Pamela Garzon, Thandiwe Hintze, Jasmine Hughes, Isabella Lopez, Cortlandt Paisley, Jaziah Pickering, Alex Pola, Ava Trinity, Vania Tueros, Julissa Villanueva

Teaching Artist: Yoojin Park

Guest artists: Yoojin Park (violin), James Borowski (bass trombone), Cristian Monreal (bass), Bryan Pezzone (piano), Dan Graziano (drums)

Track #25: “Mythological Friends & Hazards”

Academy Orchestra Group 5

Composers: Timothy Lien, Giovanni Lombardo, Madisen Stearns, Patrick Sun, Cameron Xu, Kevin Xu

Coaches: Andrew Lamy & Alexander Bickard

Cover art by Jacqueline Zhou

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(Mabel Pais writes on The Arts and Entertainment, Social Issues, Spirituality, and Health & Wellness)