INFORMATION FOR
William Paterson University in Wayne has formed a partnership with the Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra (RSO), a regionally based, auditioned orchestra located in Ridgewood, New Jersey, that will bring a high-quality orchestral concert series to the William Paterson campus and engage the University’s music students in live performances with professional musicians.
The partnership will kick off on Tuesday, October 15 at 7:30 p.m., when the RSO performs in concert in William Paterson’s Shea Center for the Performing Arts. The program will feature Academic Festival Overture by Johannes Brahms and The Planets by Gustav Holst, accompanied by stunning visuals of the planets on screen from the stage. The RSO, which will be the ensemble-in-residence at William Paterson during the 2024-25 academic year, will also perform on campus on March 25, 2025.
The partnership offers William Paterson music students an opportunity to improve their instrumental skills by rehearsing and performing with a full-size, high-quality community orchestra. Students selected to participate will also perform with the RSO during their regular four-concert 2024-25 season in Ridgewood. Kyunghun Kim, artistic director of the RSO, will serve as an adjunct professor of music at William Paterson, teaching and mentoring the students selected to participate.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for our student musicians to have regular interaction with a professional community orchestra,” says Payton MacDonald, professor and chair of the Department of Music at William Paterson. “In addition to performing with the RSO, we have opportunities for our students with music business internships, and collaboration with our acclaimed Jazz Studies Program.”
“We are excited to expand the quality of our orchestra by inviting these talented William Paterson University student musicians to perform with the Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra,” says Kyunghun Kim, conductor of the RSO, noting that students will be invited to remain in the orchestra long-term upon graduation. “This is also an opportunity to build a new audience in Passaic County for live, orchestral music.”
Tickets for the inaugural RSO concert at William Paterson University are $25, $15 for senior citizens, and $5 for non-William Paterson students. William Paterson students are admitted for free. For tickets or additional information, visit wp-presents.org, or contact the Shea Center Box Office at 973.720.2371 or boxoffice@wpunj.edu.
About the Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra
For more than 80 years, the RSO has served northern New Jersey with high-quality performances, internationally renowned guest soloists, and unique education opportunities for young musicians through its Young Musicians Festival. The orchestra is focused on collectively expanding the artistic expression of its member musicians, presenting exciting and affordable concerts to its audiences, and providing impactful education experiences to all members of the community.
Kyunghun Kim was appointed Artistic Director of the Ridgewood Symphony in 2021. He frequently appears as a guest conductor with major South Korean orchestras such as the Bucheon Philharmonic Orchestra, the SungNam Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Korean Chamber Orchestra. He also serves on the music faculty at Lehman College in New York teaching string instruments, in addition to conducting the Lehman College Chamber Orchestra, and is the orchestra director of the Music and Medicine Initiative at Cornell Medical Center. He holds a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from The Juilliard School and an artist diploma in donducting from the Curtis Institute of Music.
About the William Paterson University Department of Music
William Paterson University’s Department of Music offers bachelor’s degree programs in classical performance, jazz performance, sound engineering arts, music education, music and entertainment industries, digital music creation, and popular music, and master’s degree programs in jazz performance, jazz composition and arranging, and music education. Students work directly with world-renowned faculty and perform in a wide variety of instrumental and choral ensembles, both on campus and throughout the New York metropolitan area and gain hands-on experience in its state-of-the-art music production and recording studios.
