Symphony In C Presents TOTALLY MOZART On December 3

New Jersey-based professional training orchestra Symphony in C presents Totally Mozart on Saturday, December 3, 2022 at 8:00pm at the Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts in Camden, NJ. The all-Mozart program, led by guest conductor Joshua Hong, includes Mozart's Exsultate Jubilate, K. 165, Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488, and Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550.

Soprano Alexandra Nowakowski, a recent graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts, joins Symphony in C for Exsultate Jubilate, K. 165, appearing courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera where she is currently covering roles in Verdi's Don Carlo and Puts' The Hours. Pianist and 2022 Gilmore Young Artist Clayton Stephenson performs the Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, a passionate yet intimate concerto where orchestra and piano are equal partners. Completing the program is Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550, which foreshadows the incipient Romantic movement and has influenced many future composers.

The Symphony's season continues with Fantastic French a performance on Saturday, January 21, 2023 at 8:00pm at Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts with Liszt's Mephisto Waltz No. 1, S.110/2; Vieuxtemps's Violin Concerto No. 5, Op. 37, A minor featuring violinist Stella Chen; and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14 led by guest conductor Noam Aviel.

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Performance Details
Totally Mozart
Symphony in C
Saturday, December 3, 2022 at 8:00pm
Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts | North 3rd Street & Pearl, Camden, NJ, 08102
Tickets: $25 - $52
Ticket Link: https://symphonyinc.org/event/totally-mozart/

Program:
W. A. Mozart - Exsultate Jubilate, K. 165
Alexandra Nowakowski, soprano (appearing courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera)

W. A. Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488
Clayton Stephenson, piano

W. A. Mozart - Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550

Artists:
Symphony in C
Joshua Hong, guest conductor
Alexandra Nowakowski, soprano (appearing courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera)
Clayton Stephenson, piano

Praised by Opera News for her "impassioned singing", Polish-American coloratura soprano Alexandra Nowakowski returns to The Metropolitan Opera for the 2022-23 season to cover Barbara/Mrs. Latch in The Hours (Puts), Voce dal cielo in Don Carlo, and Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier. She rejoins the Brooklyn Art Society to sing Shostakovich's Op. 79, and will present a solo recital at the Palau de la Música in Barcelona as a finalist in the El Primer Palau competition.

Alexandra joined the roster of The Metropolitan Opera for the 2021-22 season to cover Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Gilda in Rigoletto. She sang Shostakovich's Op. 127 with the Brooklyn Art Song Society, and, as a recipient of the Beebe Fund fellowship, spent several months in Poland to record her debut album of all Polish music, KRAINA.

Alexandra was scheduled to begin her 2020-21 season by joining the roster of The Metropolitan Opera to cover the role of Olympia in Les Contes d'Hoffmann (COVID19). She was also slated to be presented in multiple concert venues, including the Carnegie Hall Citywide Concert Series, a return to the Columbus Symphony for Haydn's Creation, and a debut with the National Symphony Orchestra for Mahler's 4th Symphony under Gianandrea Noseda. She made her debut in Poland in a New Year's Eve gala with the Opera Bałtycka in Gdańsk, Poland. In the summer of 2021, Ms. Nowakowski returned to Wolf Trap Opera as Johanna in Sweeney Todd and La Fée in Viardot's Cendrillon. To finish off the 20/21 season she sang a solo recital for The Sembrich Museum.

In 2020, Ms. Nowakowski was scheduled to sing the role of Hilde Mack in Henze's Elegy for Young Lovers (COVID19) at Wolf Trap Opera where she made her debut in the summer of 2015 covering Susanna and performing Due Donne in Le nozze di Figaro. She was invited back in 2019 where she performed the role of Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos to critical acclaim, including that of the Washington Classical Review, stating that she "brought strength and sincerity" and "finessed the coloratura demands of the aria 'Grossmächtige Prinzessin' with panache and airy nuance, as refreshing as a gin fizz."

As a Cafritz Young Artist at the Washington National Opera for the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons, Ms. Nowakowski performed the roles of Papagena and the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute at the Kennedy Center, as well as the role of Anna Gomez in The Consul staged by Francesca Zambello with the Cafritz Young Artist Program. She performed Nannetta in scenes from Falstaff as well as Clorinda in scenes from La Cenerentola in concert with the WNO Orchestra under the baton of Joseph Colaneri on the Kennedy Center stage.

Ms. Nowakowski has had a string of recent solo orchestral debuts, including Mozart's Requiem with the Columbus Symphony, a NYE Concert with The Philadelphia Orchestra, and as Gilda in a concert version of Rigoletto, broadcast on medici.tv with the Verbier Festival. No stranger to medici.tv, she was also broadcast live as a participant in Joyce DiDonato's Masterclass at Carnegie Hall in 2019, as well as in 2018 as a semi-finalist for the inaugural Glyndebourne Opera Cup. Additional recent solo performance credits include a solo recital at The Phillips Collection as the First Prize winner of the Vocal Arts DC Art Song Discovery Competition as well as her debut performance of Bach's B minor Mass with the Bach Society Houston.

A highly successful competitor, Ms. Nowakowski was recently awarded First Prize in the Opera Columbus Cooper-Bing Competition, the Partners for the Arts Competition, the Marcella Sembrich International Voice Competition with the Kosciuszko Foundation, and is a winner of the 2019 Astral National Auditions. She is a First Prize winner of the Gerda Lissner Foundation Competition and the Violetta DuPont Competition. She won Second Prize in the James Toland Vocal Arts Competition, the Gerda Lissner Lieder/Song Competition, FAVA's Grand Concours de Chant, and the Dorothy-Lincoln Smith Voice Competition. She has garnered other significant top awards from the Loren L. Zachary Society Vocal Competition and the Giulio Gari Foundation Competition and was a 2020 Second Place Winner from Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in the Middle Atlantic Region.

As a resident artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts, Ms. Nowakowski performed the roles of Zerbinetta and Najade in Ariadne auf Naxos, the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Gilda in Rigoletto, Sophie in Werther, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, and Musetta in La bohème. Other role highlights include Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel with the Philadelphia Sinfonia, and Dido in Dido and Aeneas with the Baroque Artists of Champaign-Urbana.

Ms. Nowakowski holds an Artist Diploma from AVA and a Bachelor's degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Growing up in New York City, Clayton Stephenson found musical inspiration in community programs. As he describes it, the "3rd Street Music School jump-started my music education; the Young People's Choir taught me phrasing and voicing; the Juilliard Outreach Music Advancement Program introduced me to formal and rigorous piano training, which enabled me to get into Juilliard Pre-College; the Morningside Music Bridge validated my talent and elevated my self-confidence; and the Boy's Club of New York exposed me to jazz; and the Lang Lang Foundation brought me to stages worldwide and transformed me from a piano student to a young artist."

Clayton now studies in the Harvard-NEC Dual Degree Program, pursuing a bachelor's degree in economics at Harvard and a master's degree in piano performance at the New England Conservatory under Wha Kyung Byun. And his accolades along the way have been bountiful: 2022 Gilmore Young Artist; 2017 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts; Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award; Gheens Young Artist; Young Scholar of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation; and a jury discretionary award at the 2015 Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition and Festival.

Highlights of Clayton's burgeoning career include recitals at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, Kissinger Sommer Festival in Bad Kissinger, BeethovenFest in Bonn, Stars and Rising Stars in Munich, Swiss Alps Classics at Switzerland, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. He has been featured on NPR, WUOL, and WQXR, and appeared in the "GRAMMY Salute to Classical Music" Concert at Carnegie's Stern Auditorium.

He has performed as a guest artist with orchestras including the Calgary Philharmonic, Chicago Sinfonietta, Louisville Symphony, Augusta Symphony, Colour of Music Festival, and Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestras. On the 69th U.N. Day, Clayton played with the International Youth Orchestra at the United Nations General Assembly Hall.

A two-time recipient of The Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award, Joshua Hong graduated in 2020 from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where he studied under Larry Rachleff. At Rice, Joshua served as Music Director of the Campanile Orchestra and appeared in performance regularly with the Shepherd School Orchestras. He previously served as Music Director of the Baltimore-based Occasional Symphony and Assistant Conductor of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. He was recently selected by New Jersey's Symphony in C as a Music Director candidate and will lead the orchestra in an all-Mozart program in December. His performances have been described as "supple, buoyant... sensitively conducted" (Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun).

Highlights of the previous season include appearances with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Concert Opera, Flint Symphony Orchestra, and San Diego Symphony. In 2020, Joshua attended the Chautauqua Institution's School of Music as the David Effron Conducting Fellow. At Chautauqua, he assisted Timothy Muffitt and led the Festival Orchestra in performances of works by Ligeti, Rossini, Stravinsky, and Weber.

In 2019, Joshua guest conducted the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in two education concerts. He has served as cover conductor for three classical subscription weeks in St. Louis and two subscription weeks with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Both organizations subsequently invited him to their most recent staff conductor auditions. He has also served as cover conductor with the San Diego Symphony.

Joshua holds a Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting from Peabody Conservatory, where he studied under Gustav Meier and Markand Thakar and served as Assistant Conductor of the Peabody Opera Theatre. In the summer of 2018, Joshua studied under Robert Spano as a conducting fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and School. He has also been awarded conducting fellowships at the Atlantic Music Festival and the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, where he led the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra in the world premiere of a work by Costas Dafnis.

Joshua was a founding member of the Atlas String Quartet, winners of Peabody Conservatory's Yale Gordon Chamber Fellowship and semi-finalists in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Joshua holds a Bachelor of Music degree in violin performance from the Juilliard School, where he studied under Masao Kawasaki.

Symphony in C provides the next generations of musicians and composers with experiences in performance and in engaging with the community, helping musicians to develop skills and experiences for professional success. The Symphony seeks to support musicians in achieving their visions in the changing world of symphonic music.

Founded in 1952 as The Haddonfield Symphony, Symphony in C began as a community orchestra allowing amateur musicians to pursue their love of music by performing for the Haddonfield and southern New Jersey communities. Its debut performance was in January 1954 under music director Guido Terranova. Since then, it has grown into one of only three professional training orchestras in the United States preparing musicians and conductors who are on the cusp of world-class careers through concert, educational outreach and professional development programs.

During the 1987-1988 season, the Symphony began providing training and performance opportunities to young professional musicians with the establishment of its Professional Development Internship Program. Over the next 13 seasons, this program grew to encompass all 78 positions within the orchestra. In 1991, the Symphony established the position of assistant conductor. The first holder of this position, Alan Gilbert, was named music director of the Symphony in 1992. During his tenure, he appointed the first composer-in-residence, Daniel Dorff, and launched the Young Composers' Competition. From 1997 to 2000, Music Director Daniel Hege expanded the Music Matters! educational programs and Professional Development Internship programs for Symphony musicians.

Assistant Conductor Rossen Milanov was appointed Music Director in 2000, and led the organization for fifteen years, attracting the finest young musicians and soloists and increasing the orchestra's artistic profile. In July, 2014, Maestro Milanov announced his departure at the end of the season, after being named Music Director of the Columbus Symphony and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. After an extensive international search, the Board of Directors selected 31 year old Stilian Kirov as Music Director. Maestro Kirov served as Music director from 2015-2020. Symphony in C's 2022-23 season features 5 guest conductors who are being considered for the Music Director position.

In 2004, the Symphony was awarded the national MetLife Award for Community Engagement in recognition of its programs serving people with special needs. In 2006, the Symphony moved its concert series to the Gordon Theater at Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts, and changed its name to Symphony in C to reflect its commitment to the cultural and economic redevelopment of Camden. Symphony in C has been designated a Major Arts Organization by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and was awarded a Citation of Excellence.

Symphony in C performances and programs are made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the William G. Rohrer Charitable Foundation, The Presser Foundation, Holman Automotive Group, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, South Jersey Charitable Foundation, TD Charitable Foundation, and Subaru of America. Symphony in C is a member of the South Jersey Cultural Alliance (SJCA).