Public Invited To Free Performance by Members of NJ Symphony Orchestra at NJIT Feb. 25, 2009
Music is an expression of creativity that spans all eras and cultures. On Feb. 25, 2009 at the NJIT Campus Center Atrium from 3-4:30 p.m., the NJIT Technology and Society Forum will celebrate this aspect of creativity when artists from the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (NJSO) will perform the work of five noted composers. The selections will be “Sonata in A Minor,” C.P.E. Bach; “Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp,” Claude Debussy; “The Fountain,” Alphonse Hasselmans; “Caprices,” Niccolo Paganini; and “In Sweet Music,” William Schuman.
All offerings are free and open to the public. Free parking will be available in the NJIT Parking Garage, 154 Summit Street. For more information, please click here. Presentations have been made possible thanks to support from AT&T and Hewlett Packard.
Performing from the NJSO will be Brett Deubner, viola; Kathleen Nester, flute; and Barbara Allen, harp. They’ll be joined for “In Sweet Music” by soprano Tharanga Goonetilleke.
Deubner received his bachelor’s in violin and master’s in viola from the Eastman School of Music. A recipient of the “Performer’s Certificate in Viola,” he was a member of the Rochester Chamber Music Society and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Currently principal violist with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, Deubner is also a member of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.
Nester, who joined the New Jersey Symphony during the 1990-91 season, has performed with the New York Philharmonic and the New York City Opera. She has been a soloist with Solisti New York and the Stamford Symphony, and has toured Japan as soloist with the New York Symphonic Ensemble. A member of the flute faculty at New York University, Nester received her master’s degree in music from the Manhattan School of Music and her bachelor’s degree from City College of New York.
Allen, who beings her preeminent talent to special NJSO performances, is principal harpist of the American Ballet Theatre Orchestra and the Greenwich Symphony. She has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic and American Symphony Orchestra. Allen holds degrees from SUNY Purchase and The Juilliard School.
Goonetilleke is the first Sri Lankan to be awarded a full scholarship for singing to an American university. She is a graduate of the Petrie School of Music at Converse College. An outstanding student of voice since the age of 12, she is continuing graduate study in voice and opera at The Juilliard School.