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
The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (NJSO)
To learn more about NJSO, visit
Website: njsymphony.org
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @NJSymphony
YouTube: @NewJerseySymphony
Email: information@njsymphony.org
COVID SAFETY PRECAUTIONS
The safety of patrons, musicians and staff is of the utmost importance to the NJSO. Visit njsymphony.org for constantly updated details focused on attendees’ well-being at the performances.
(Mabel Pais writes on The Arts and Entertainment, Social Issues, Spirituality, and Health & Wellness)