The Rutgers Symphony Orchestra collaborated with the Rutgers University Glee Club and the Rutgers University Choir, the Voorhees Choir and the Kirkpatrick Choir to perform “On the Banks of the Old Raritan” at NJPAC in 2010.
Rutgers University’s alma mater, “On the Banks of the Old Raritan,” dates back to 1873, but was turned into an orchestral epic in 2010 by Michael Lucas Strother, then a student of musical composition at Rutgers’ Mason Gross School of the Arts. His composition was performed at NJPAC in Newark that year — at an event kicking off Rutgers’ Capital Campaign — by the Rutgers Symphony Orchestra along with the university’s Glee Club and its University, Voorhees and Kirkpatrick choirs.
Check it this unique performance of the venerable song, below.
The song’s lyrics were written by 1874 Rutgers grad Howard Newton Fuller, to the tune of the Scottish folk song, “On the Banks of the Old Dundee.”
New Jersey celebrated its 350th birthday in 2014. And in the 350 Jersey Songs series, we marked the occasion by posting 350 songs — one a day, from September 2014 to September 2015 — that have something to do with the state, its musical history, or both. To see the entire list, click here.
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