Our Mission

Our Mission is to bring quality musical performances to audiences in northern New Jersey.  In addition, we bring our outreach performances to local schools, nursing homes, libraries, and other area facilities, sharing our music with those who otherwise might not have the opportunity to experience it.

History

The Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey, founded by Conductor/Music Director Robert W. Butts in 1996, is North Jersey's only community orchestra specializing in the music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: the Baroque and Classical eras.  Initially performing at the historic Darress Theatre in Boonton, the orchestra became the ensemble in residence at Grace Episcopal Church in Madison in 2002.  In addition to a four-concert season, the orchestra performs full ensemble and chamber music concerts in various locations throughout northern New Jersey.  In March 2003, the orchestra inaugurated an annual Family Concert Series, produced to encourage young people and families to enjoy the orchestra concert experience.  In addition to performing the concert selections, Conductor Butts and musicians of the orchestra demonstrate and discuss the instruments and the music.

In August of 2006, BONJ offered its first Summer Festival of Baroque Music at Grace Church in Madison. The Festival, which has become an annual event, offers a great variety of musical and related performances in the space of a week. This year, in addition to orchestra and chamber music presentations, the Festival offered daily organ concerts at Grace Church, a screening of the film, Casanova, and a comic play set in Shakespeare's time, Cakes and Ale, written by Jewel Fisher and starring friends and members of the orchestra.

Repertoire

The orchestra's repertoire includes works from all eras - Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony, Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf and Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings.  The core selections, however, remain the work of composers of the Baroque and Classical eras, ranging from the early sounds of Monteverdi to the nearly Romantic sounds of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven.  Familiar composers include Bach, Handel, Telemann and Vivaldi.  Important and somewhat less familiar composers include Purcell and Corelli.  As part of the orchestra's mission, important works by significant composers not as familiar to contemporary audiences are also included in most concerts.  In past years, the orchestra has performed the New Jersey premieres of music by Georg Muffat, Johann Graupner, Johann Fux, Marc-Antoine Charpentier and Richard de Lalande.  Even with the more familiar composers, the orchestra presents rarely heard masterpieces such as Bach's Peasant Cantata and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas.  Every June, the orchestra presents Vivaldi Fest, a weekend of music centered around the works of the great Venetian composer.  While not every work is by Vivaldi, it is the spirit of his music that inspires the festival.  The main orchestra concert of the weekend often feature famous Vivaldi compositions alongside newly discovered sinfonias and concertos that display the great variety of the composer's creativity.

Venues

Performances have been held in such traditional concert spaces as the Madison Public Library and The Somerset County Public Library and in such non-traditional spaces as Barnes and Noble Bookstores and Kings Super Markets. 

Outreach Performances

The orchestra's outreach performances are two-pronged: bringing educational performances to schools and bringing the concert experience to people who might otherwise not have the opportunity to attend.  In school settings (most recently at Birchwood School in Rockaway Township), musicians from the orchestra demonstrate the instruments and sounds of early music.  Reaching audiences which otherwise could not attend live orchestral concerts, the Orchestra has performed at nursing homes and retirement communities.

Rising Stars Program

Our Rising Stars program enables talented high school and college students to perform alongside professional musicians in an orchestral setting.  Solo opportunities are provided for young musicians with the orchestra and in chamber music concerts.  Rising Stars artists who have appeared with the orchestra include high school students violinist Connor Dugan Leszczuk of Madison,  oboist Elizabeth Engelberth of Denville, violinist Alexandra Jenkins of Westfield,  violinist David Watts of Rockaway, and violist Kevin Hanse of Pompton Plains.

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Last modified: 06/29/08