New Jersey Symphony Orchestra

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The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (NJSO) is a symphony orchestra located in the state of New Jersey, United States. Philip James founded the orchestra in 1922. The orchestra is headquarted in Newark, New Jersey.

1 Location and venues
2 "Golden Age" string collection
3 Music directors
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Location and venues

The NJSO does not have a single main performance venue. Instead, the orchestra makes a point of performing at venues in seven cities around the state:

Newark: New Jersey Performing Arts Center
Englewood: Bergen Performing Arts Center
Red Bank: Count Basie Theatre
Morristown: Community Theatre
New Brunswick: State Theatre
Princeton: Princeton University, Richardson Auditorium
Trenton: Patriots Theater at the War Memorial

During the 1940's, the orchestra performed at Newark Symphony Hall.

[edit] "Golden Age" string collection

In recent times, the NJSO is known for its purchase of 30 string instruments, including several made by Stradivari, for its string players, purchased from the collection of Herbert R. Axelrod in 2003. Lawrence Tamburri, then the orchestra's president and chief executive officer, speculated that this purchase would help make the orchestra more of a tourist attraction. Neeme Järvi has stated that this was one major reason that he chose to accept the NJSO music directorship. The orchestra named this collection the "Golden Age" string collection, and had hoped that this acquistion would enhance the prestige of the orchestra, and attract increased audiences and donations.^[1]

However, this purchase ran into controversy after doubts surfaced as to the actual value of the collection. Axelrod had claimed their value at USD $49 million, and sold it to the NJSO for USD $17 million^[2]. However, it turned out that the $17 million value was closer to the current market value. Furthermore, investigations raised doubts as to the complete claimed authenticity of several of the instruments in the collection.^[3] The later criminal charge and guilty plea of Axelrod for an unrelated charge of federal tax fraud caused embarrassment to the NJSO on this transaction^[4] ^[5] ^[6] ^[7] ^[8]. In spite of the unfavourable publicity as a result of this controversy, the NJSO had planned to retain the violins and not sell them, as of July 2006^[9].

In October 2006, the NJSO announced that André Gremillet would become the new President and Chief Executive Officer of the orchestra, succeeding Simon Woods. Gremillet assumed the post in January 2007. In March 2007, Gremillet and the NJSO stated that, faced with severe budgetary fiscal and deficit issues, they are planning to sell the Golden Age instrument collection. The original agreement with Axelrod was that the orchestra would retain the instruments for at least 10 years, but Axelrod gave his assent to allow the orchestra to try to sell them.^[10] The intention is to use the funds from the sale of the instruments to retire orchestra debt.^[11] The orchestra has stated that their ideal scenario would be that the collection is bought as a whole and then lent back to the orchestra, but commentators have noted that realizing such a plan is very difficult.^[12]

There has been press speculation that Järvi might reconsider extending his contract with the NJSO in light of this planned sale of the instruments. When asked about this, he has stated: "It's very possible, but I haven't thought about it yet."⁹ Other press comments have noted that in spite of the financial troubles and controversy over this instrument collection, the orchestra has improved artistically during Järvi's tenure.^[13]