ANDREW ECCLES
Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet will perform with New Jersey Symphony in Newark, Princeton and New Brunswick.
Here is a roundup of arts events taking place around New Jersey, through Jan. 11.
MUSIC
• French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, who has received Grammy nominations for albums featuring works by Ravel and Saint-Saëns, will perform Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G with New Jersey Symphony at Prudential Hall at NJPAC in Newark, Jan. 9 at 1:30 p.m. and Jan. 11 at 8 p.m.; The Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University, Jan. 10 at 8 p.m.; and The State Theatre in New Brunswick, Jan. 12 at 3 p.m.
Kevin John Edusei will conduct, and the program will also include Donghoon Shin’s Of Rats and Men; and Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2.
“Classical Conversations,” featuring symphony musicians and others, will be offered an hour before the Jan. 9-10 and 12 concerts.
• Jan. 11 will mark the 83rd anniversary of Clarence Clemons’ birth, and on that day at 5 p.m., the 14th annual Big Man’s Bash, a tribute concert and fundraiser for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Monmouth County, will take place at The Headliner in Neptune, with Clemons’ son Nick’s Nick Clemons Band, touring E Street Band member Michelle Monique Moore, Des & the Swagmatics, Dale Lakata, Mike Gaspari, Pam McCoy, Gary Cavico, Phil Robinson, Chuck Lambert and others.
• Singer-songwriters Cliff Eberhardt, John Gorka, Lucy Kaplansky and Patty Larkin will perform in a show titled “On a Winter’s Night,” Jan. 9 at 8 p.m. at Sony Hall in New York, and Jan. 11 at 8 p.m. at The Outpost in the Burbs at The First Congregational Church in Montclair. The tour is being billed as a “Reunion Tour”; Gorka, Larkin and others appeared on the 1994 compilation CD On a Winter’s Night, organized by Christine Lavin to celebrate the winter season through music, and they, along with Eberhardt and Kaplansky, have participated in many “On a Winter’s Night” tours over the years. (For a chance to win two tickets to the Montclair show, send an email to njartscontest@gmail.com by 11 a.m. Jan. 7.)
STEPHEN PARISER
ROSSEN MILANOV
• Princeton Symphony Orchestra music director Rossen Milanov will turn 60 on Jan. 13, and the orchestra will celebrate with concerts at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium, Jan. 11 at 8 p.m. and Jan. 12 at 4 p.m. Milanov will conduct, Leila Josefowicz will be featured on Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto, and the symphony will also perform Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony.
Milanov will also give a talk at Richardson Auditorium, Jan. 12 at 3 p.m., at no extra charge to ticket-holders.
• Rossen Milanov will also participate in a talk titled “PSO Soundtracks: A Symphony Celebration,” also featuring the orchestra’s former executive director (and current board advisor) Melanie Clarke, Jan. 7 at 7 p.m. at The Princeton Public Library. According to the orchestra’s website, the talk will offer “a look back at some of their favorite moments together on and off stage.”
• Dream Syndicate frontman and solo artist Steve Wynn will present a show titled “I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True: A Night of Songs and Stories,” Jan. 11 at 7 p.m. at The 503 Social Club in Hoboken.
Wynn published a book, “I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True: A Memoir of Life, Music, and The Dream Syndicate,” last year. It is described in promotional material as “a tale of writing songs and playing in bands as a conduit to a world its author could once have barely imagined — a world of major labels, luxury tour buses, and sold-out theaters, but also one of alcohol, drugs, and a low-level rock’n’roll Babylon. … This is Wynn’s story, but it also features some of the biggest and most colorful characters of the period, offering a detailed field guide to the music business that manages to both glorify and demystify in equal measure.”
PAUL POROWSKI FOR PLAYHOUSE 22
Keturah Adeyemi and Stephen Mennella will co-star in Playhouse 22’s production of “American Son.”
THEATER
• “American Son,” Christopher Demos-Brown’s intense, topical play about a woman trying to get answers about a police incident that may have involved her missing son, was memorably presented by George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick in 2017, and Kerry Washington starred in a Broadway production of it in 2018 and 2019. Playhouse 22 will present it, Jan. 3-5 and 10-12, at The Elliott Taubenslag Theater at The East Brunswick Community Arts Center.
The show is part of Playhouse 22’s On the Edge black box series, which is “focused on smaller, little-known shows, transforming the traditional stage into a new theatrical experience with the audience sitting on stage, close to the action,” according to a press release.
• The Ritz Theatre Company will present “Angels in America, Part 1: Millennium Approaches” — the first half of Tony Kushner’s AIDS Era epic, and the 1993 Tony Award for Best Play as well as that year’s winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama — Jan. 10-12, 17-19, 22 and 24-26 at The Ritz Theatre Black Box in Haddon Township.
“Hundreds of Beavers” will screen in Madison, Jan. 4.
FILM
• NJArts.net film critic Stephen Whitty included “Hundreds of Beavers” among his Top 10 movies of 2024. He wrote that it is a “defiantly unhinged adventure full of slapstick humor, do-it-yourself effects and an aesthetic that is equal parts Charlie Chaplin, Jack London and ‘Dudley Do-Right.’ ” The Film Society of Summit will screen it at The Madison Community Arts Center, Jan. 4 at 7:30 p.m. (see trailer below)
VISUAL ARTS
• The Art Alliance of Monmouth County in Red Bank will present an exhibition titled “Good Storytellers of the Land of the Lenape: Lenapehoking Achimwisàk Wëlapènsit,” Jan. 4-28, with a reception with the artists scheduled for Jan. 4 at 6 p.m.
According to a press release, this is “a diverse collection of pieces created by Indigenous People who have followed the path referred to as the ‘Red Road,’ a phrase used by Native Americans to describe a way of life that involves respecting others, the environment, and oneself, and avoiding substances that are harmful.
“The works in this exhibit predominantly come from the minds and hands of those who are Lenape, the original caretakers of Lenapehoking, a territory which includes all of New Jersey. Other pieces are created by the Indigenous Youth adopted by one of the local tribal nations and State Recognized Tribes, coming from multiple cultural backgrounds, as well as work from sister nations that neighbor this territory.”
REVIEWS
“2024 New Jersey Arts Annual: Exploring Our Connections” at Montclair Art Museum. (Through Jan. 5)
“Under a Southern Star: Identity and Environment in Australian Photography,” presented by Princeton University Art Museum at Art on Hulfish. (Through Jan. 5)
“Kimberly Camp – Cross River: A Parallel Universe” at Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton. (Through Jan. 12)
“New Sculpture/New Jersey” at Morris Museum, Morris Township. (Through Feb. 2)
“Morven Revealed: Untold Stories From New Jersey’s Most Historic Home” at Morven Museum & Garden, Princeton. (Through March 2)
“Bony Ramirez: Cattleya” at Newark Museum of Art. (Through March 9)
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