NJFO season begins Oct. 10

The classical music repertory is sometimes thought to be etched in stone. Here are the notes, play them just like this.

The New Jersey Festival Orchestra is showing with its 2015-16 season that the classics are malleable, capable of changes that can make them resonate with modern audiences.

“Much of the repertoire we will perform is in a new guise, presented in an unfamiliar format but in way that enhances the understanding of that work to the targeted audience,” said David Wroe, the orchestra’s music director, in an email from Europe.

So if you thought you knew Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” think again. The New Jersey Festival Orchestra will be performing a new choral version created by Michael Fennelly, who also will be the piano soloist at the season-opening concert Oct. 10 at Westfield’s Presbyterian Church and Oct. 11 at Drew University in Madison.

To calm purists, Wroe emphasized that no new music was composed for this choral version. Joining the orchestra will be Harmonium Choral Society, which sang so nobly in the NJFO’s epic performance of Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony in 2014.

Mahler, that composer of gigantic symphonies, will get a transformation on Nov. 8 at the Bickford Theatre at the Morris Museum when the orchestra does performance of his Ninth Symphony with reduced instrumentation.

“The audience will witness each player, through Mahler, bearing their souls, and battling with the existential nature of this earth shattering composition,” Wroe said. “I predict the musicians, and audience, will be exhausted (in a good way!) and changed by the experience.”

Married to a Chinese citizen, Wroe has good reason to appreciate the cosmopolitan nature of music.

“I have an affinity to its culture, and am ever more conscious of the massive influx of Chinese into our country,” Wroe said.

That was the inspiration for concerts May 21 in Westfield and May 22 at Drew University in which the NJFO will play Xian Xinghai’s Yellow River Cantata, then follow with Beethoven’s Ninth.

The twist is that the choral finale of the Beethoven featuring Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” will be sung in Chinese by Chinese choirs from New Jersey and New York.

“Fellowship, fraternity, peace and a united spirit of the common good expressed in Schiller’s poem resonates just as loudly to all Asians, and that they can hear it, and sing it, in their own language brings it ever closer to their hearts,” Wroe said.

Just as universal is the sentiment of Puccini’s “La Boheme.” The NJFO has established a successful tradition of doing popular operas in concert with costumes and acting. It will present the tragic story of Mimi and Rodolfo on March 5 at the Presbyterian Church in Westfield.

The orchestra’s season is not completely topsy-turvy though. At the season-opening concert, sharing the program with the Gershwin will be Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture, played just the way audiences are used to hearing them.

The NJFO has its lighter side as well. Home for the Holidays, with traditional and contemporary songs as well as sing-alongs, will capture the festive spirit at the Presbyterian Church in Westfield on Dec. 5, and at the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown on Dec. 6.

Soloists from the Broadway stage will join the orchestra on New Year’s Eve at the Westfield High School Auditorium for a cabaret-style revue to celebrate the advent of 2016.

The orchestra will accompany singing wunderkind Jackie Evancho at the Mayo Performing Arts Center on April 28.

“We have no fear of mixing the ‘popular’ with the ‘classical’ mediums,” Wroe said. “That they are side by side, sometimes in the same concert, allows for cross fertilization of their respective audiences, and broadens the scope of our reach into the arts community we serve.”

NEW JERSEY FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA

INFO: 908-232-9400 or njfestivalorchestra.org

2015-16 SEASON:

“You Are My Rhapsody in Blue” – Music of Gershwin, Tchaikovsky and Brahms

Oct. 10, 7 p.m., The Presbyterian Church, Westfield

Oct. 11, 3 p.m., Drew University, Madison

“Mahler in Miniature” – Mahler’s Symphony No. 9

Nov. 8, 3 p.m., Bickford Theatre at the Morris Museum, Morristown

“Home for the Holidays” – Seasonal classics and sing-alongs

Dec. 5, 7 p.m., The Presbyterian Church, Westfield

Dec. 6, 3 p.m., Mayo Performing Arts Center, Morristown

“Dancing the Blues Away” – Cabaret-style celebration of Broadway classics

Dec. 31, 7 p.m., Westfield High School Auditorium, Westfield

“Bohemian Rhapsody” – Puccini’s “La Boheme”

March 5, 7 p.m., The Presbyterian Church, Westfield.

Jackie Evancho – Classical and pop music from the teenage singing phenomenon

April 28, 8 p.m., Mayo Performing Arts Center, Morristown

“Enter the Dragon” – Yellow River Cantata and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony

May 21, 7 p.m., The Presbyterian Church, Westfield

May 22, 3 p.m., Drew University, Madison