New Jersey Youth Symphony Concert Featuring New Jersey Composer Amanda Harberg and Violist Brett Deubner

New Jersey Youth Symphony’s premier orchestra, Youth Symphony, performs its mid-season concert on Tuesday, January 21, at 7:30 p.m. at Dolan Hall at the College of St. Elizabeth located at 2 Convent Road in Morristown. The concert is open to the public. Tickets are available at the door for $20 adults and $15 students and seniors.

Youth Symphony will perform New Jersey composer Amanda Harberg’s Concerto for Viola and Orchestra featuring solo violist Brett Deubner. The performance of Ms. Harberg’s concerto is made possible in part by a grant from the Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy. Composed in 2011, Ms. Harberg’s Concerto for Viola and Orchestra is in three movements. Youth Symphony will also perform Bernstein’s Candide Overture and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64. Conducting Youth Symphony is New Jersey Youth Symphony Artistic Director, Jeffrey Grogan.

A prolific composer, Ms. Harberg has composed works for Grand Rapids Symphony, Dogs of Desire, Thuringer Symphoniker in Germany, the University of Nevada Symphony, Faust Youth Orchestra in Denmark, and Freespace Dance Company. Recent performances of Ms. Harberg’s music have been with National Symphony of Ecuador, Olympia Philharmonic Society, Quito Philharmonic, String Orchestra of the Rockies, and string players from the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Her music has been recorded on Koch International, Albany Records, Centaur Records, and Walking Frog Records.

She has taught at the Juilliard School, Interlochen, Luzerne Music Center, and the ASTA Chamber Music Institute as well as maintaining an active private teaching studio since 1997. Ms. Harberg received a bachelor and master of music from the Juilliard School where she studied with Stephen Albert, Robert Beaser, and David Diamond, and where she was awarded the Peter Mennin Prize for outstanding accomplishment.

Violist Brett Deubner recently debuted with the Grand Rapids Symphony, Thuringer Symphoniker, and Omaha Symphonic Winds. Recent concerto appearances have included New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Knoxville Symphony, Grainger Wind Symphony in Australia, Filharmonic del Quito, String Orchestra of the Rockies, National Symphony of Ecuador, State Orchestra of Merida in Venezuela, New Symphony of Sofia in Bulgaria, Peninsula Symphony of California, and the Kiev Camerata in Ukraine. Mr. Deubner has served on the faculty of Temple University’s Boyer School of Music and Dance in Philadelphia and Kean University’s Conservatory of Music.

New Jersey Youth Symphony is the orchestral and ensemble division of Wharton Music Center, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. New Jersey Youth Symphony (NJYS) is located at 570 Central Avenue in New Providence. NJYS, one of the foremost youth orchestras in the state, has eleven orchestras and ensembles for which auditions are held annually. NJYS’s premier orchestra, Youth Symphony, has performed in internationally-renowned concert halls such as Carnegie Hall in New York City and Musikverein in Vienna.

Wharton Music Center, located at 60 Locust Avenue in Berkeley Heights, provides music, theatre, and dance instruction, educational programs, and performances for children, teens, and adults. In addition to instruction in all instruments and voice, WMC offers classes in musical theatre, drama, choral music, vocal music, music theory, audio recording, early childhood music, and music for children with special needs. Offering a range of musical genres including classical, rock, jazz, and blues, WMC is one of New Jersey’s largest independent non-profit community performing arts centers serving students in Union, Morris, Essex, Somerset, Middlesex, and surrounding counties.