Participants in four El Sistema-inspired music-education programs in New Jersey will join students from the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s NJSO CHAMPS music program on June 7 for “Fiddle-and-Fa-La-La-Fest” at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. Members of Paterson Music Project (Paterson), Sister Cities Girlchoir (Camden and Philadelphia), Sonic Expressions (Orange), Union City Music Project (Union City), and NJSO CHAMPS—all based on the principles of El Sistema, the Venezuelan program advocating social change through music education—will perform a piece with classmates from their own ensembles, then join for a finale, a mash-up of Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” and Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” Arts educator and El Sistema expert Eric Booth will host the event, which immediately precedes an NJSO “Meet the Orchestra” family concert featuring NJSO Education & Community Engagement Conductor Jeffrey Grogan leading Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, narrated by Broadway actor Ben Steinfeld.
Posted June 5, 2014
