“Charles Prince has conducted the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall and the Operetta Summer in Vienna, Austria, but, in Prince’s estimation, neither can compare with the Plainfield Symphony Orchestra,” writes Jacqueline Klecak in the January 2020 issue of New Jersey Monthly. “The very first time he led the PSO as guest conductor, he thought, ‘this is the greatest orchestra ever.’ Since 2009, Prince, 56, has served as music director for what he calls an ‘incredible artistic jewel.’ Founded in 1919 by a small group of amateur musicians, the 70-piece orchestra … which kicked off its 100th-anniversary celebration in October, is New Jersey’s oldest community orchestra…. On January 25, the PSO brings its annual, free family concert to the Crescent Avenue Presbyterian Church in Plainfield [where it] will perform Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf; Tim O’Connor and Timothy Priano will narrate the tale.” The orchestra’s final 2019-20 concert will be Symphony No. 2 by Mahler, “Prince’s favorite composer…. Prince’s admiration for Mahler dates to the master classes he took at the Tanglewood Music Festival with … Leonard Bernstein…. ‘The musicians of this orchestra are unparalleled and extraordinary,’ he says. ‘It’s an honor for me to work with them.’ ”
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