(NEWARK, NJ) -- In the first part of a collaboration between the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and Paper Mill Playhouse, Broadway veteran Rema Webb and an NJSO string quintet give an at-home performance of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from Carousel on January 5 at 7:00pm. The performance video will be available on demand on the Orchestra’s YouTube and social media channels, as well as at njsymphony.org/papermill.
The NJSO quintet features violinists Bryan Hernandez-Luch and Héctor Falcón, violist David Blinn, cellist Sarah Seiver and Principal Bass Ha Young Jung.
Rema Webb, vocalist, is a 20-year Broadway veteran who made her Paper Mill debut last season in the world premiere of Unmasked: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. In summer 2019, she was featured in the Public Theater/Disney Theatrical production of Hercules at the Delacorte Theater. Rema’s Broadway credits include Escape to Margaritaville, The Color Purple, Violet, The Lion King, The Book of Mormon and Ragtime, and her off-Broadway and regional credits include Little Shop of Horrors, The Cradle Will Rock, The Colored Museum and A New Brain, among others. She has appeared on television and film in NBC’s The Sound of Music Live!, First Born, Beloved, Sudden Death and “Murphy Brown.” Webb debuted her critically acclaimed solo concert, Children Will Listen, at 54 Below and gave an encore performance at 42 West. With a mission to pass on her knowledge and inspire the next generation of young artists, Webb is the founder and executive director of On Broadway Performing Arts Training Program.
Bryan Hernandez-Luch, violin, of Peruvian descent, has been described by The Deseret News as “strikingly imaginative … he is an artist to be reckoned with.” Hernandez-Luch began his violin studies at age 6, and at 15 he made his solo debut with the Utah Symphony Orchestra. As a soloist, Hernandez-Luch has performed with the symphony orchestras of Detroit, Cleveland, Atlanta, New Jersey, Nashville, Utah, Chautauqua, New World, Colorado, Princeton, Grand Rapids and Battle Creek; Prince George Philharmonic and Canada’s National Arts Center Orchestra. He has worked with such conductors as Franz Welser-Möst, Robert Spano, Keith Lockhart, Rossen Milanov, Arthur Fagan and Thomas Wilkins.
As an avid chamber musician, Hernandez-Luch has toured extensively across Columbia, the United States, Russia, Japan, Korea and South Africa. He was a founding member of the Catalyst Quartet, whose performances have been featured in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Weill Hall and major concert halls worldwide. The New York Times called a Catalyst Quartet performance “invariably energetic and finely burnished.” The quartet held residencies at the University of South Africa, Grand Canyon Music Festival, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Juilliard Quartet Seminar, Sphinx Performance Academy at Northwestern University, Oberlin Conservatory, Roosevelt University and The Walnut Hill School. Hernandez-Luch had the distinct privilege of performing with the Guarneri Quartet in Mendelssohn’s String Octet and a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence at Carnegie Hall.
A frequent collaborator with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Hernandez-Luch is currently performing in the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of My Fair Lady. He has played recently in Miss Saigon and Fiddler on the Roof and was the music director/conductor and on-stage musician for The Cherry Orchard starring Diane Lane. Hernandez-Luch has been a member of the Radio City Music Hall Orchestra and performed regularly in the Broadway productions of The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, The King and I, Something Rotten!, Cinderella and On the Town.
Hernandez-Luch earned a master’s degree from The Juilliard School and a B.M. from the University of Utah. His major teachers have included Joseph Lin, Igor Gruppman and Nell Gotkovsky.
Hernandez-Luch loves living in New York City with his wife, concert pianist Desirae Brown, and their two children, Poppy and Rowan.
Héctor Falcón, violin, has been described by music critics as an artist who “displays a solid technique, beautiful sound and great maturity” and possesses “an excellent sense of style and musicality.” He has won numerous awards and competitions both in the United States and Puerto Rico, including first prize in the Sam Levenson Violin Competition and the R. J. Reynolds Career Grant award. He began his violin studies with Jose Figueroa, a member of Puerto Rico’s most prestigious family of musicians, and with Jaime Medina, a member of the Orquesta Sinfónica of Puerto Rico.
Falcón has been a member of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra since 2000, and he regularly plays with the New York City Ballet, Opera Orchestra of New York, American Symphony Orchestra and Houston Symphony Orchestra. For the past 12 years, he has toured Japan with the New York Symphonic Ensemble. A busy soloist and chamber musician, Falcón has performed in prestigious music festivals, including the Pacific Music Festival of Japan and OK Mozart Festival. He made his solo debut with the NJSO in January 2012, performing François Dompierre’s Les Diableries; The Star-Ledger praised his “charismatic performance throughout, with fluid, silky tone and impressive precision.”
At The Juilliard School, where he obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, he studied with Dorothy DeLay, Hyo Kang and Masao Kawasaki. He has attended master classes with Itzhak Perlman, Igor Bezrodny and Ruben Gonzalez.
Falcón is an avid violin recordings collector and violin historian.
David Blinn, viola, has been a violist with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra since 1993. He received a bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School, where he was principal of the Juilliard Orchestra for three years; he completed a graduate degree in Orchestral Studies at the Manhattan School of Music. A passionate chamber musician, Blinn frequently performs with a variety of ensembles in New York and New Jersey. He was a founding member of the Allendale String Quartet, which has performed in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall.
Blinn enjoys a variety of music; he is currently the violist in Broadway’s hit revival of Evita. Other credits include the Tony Award-winning South Pacific at Lincoln Center, as well as Stephen Sondheim’s revivals of Follies and A Little Night Music. He is also a member of the City Center Encores! Orchestra. Blinn can be heard on many recordings and soundtracks.
Sarah Seiver, cello, has been a member of the NJSO cello section for more than 25 years. Seiver and NJSO bassoonist Mark Timmerman created the Orchestra’s “Ask a Musician” intermission feature, for which the NJSO presented them with the Orchestra’s Award for Audience Development in 2006. In 2008, Seiver started the NJSO’s board member/musician partnership program, pairing NJSO trustees one on one with members of the Orchestra in an initiative designed to promote awareness and interaction within the organization.
In addition to the NJSO, Seiver is a member of the American Ballet Theatre Orchestra and has been a cellist for many musicals on Broadway.
Seiver graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University and a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School.
Ha Young Jung, bass, is a dynamic and engaging musician who captivates audiences with her performances. A graduate of the Royal College of Music, Juilliard School, Yale University and Boston University, Jung regularly appears in high-caliber ensembles including Grammy-nominated string orchestra A Far Cry (Boston), Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, Chineke! Orchestra (United Kingdom), Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players (New York) and New York Philharmonic and as acting principal double bass at Riverside Symphony (New York).
Jung garnered first prize at the International Society of Bassists’ Competition (USA, 2007) and the Grand-Prix of International String Competition (Moscow, 2006) and Musician of the Year at the Solti Foundation (Belgium, 2006).
Additional collaborative videos will air on February 9, March 2 and April 13 at 7:00pm.
The February 9 performance features Jacob Keith Watson singing “Out There” from The Hunchback of Notre Dame; the March 2 performance features “Tonight” from West Side Story sung by Belinda Allyn and Matt Doyle, and the April 13 performance features “Being Alive” from Company performed by Tally Sessions.
This four-part collaboration is part of NJSO Virtual 20–21, the Orchestra’s digital season. For more information, visit njsymphony.org/virtual.
You’ll Never Walk Alone” was written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Williamson Music Company by arrangement with Concord
Series sponsored by JCP&L/First Energy Foundation and PNC Bank.
Paper Mill Playhouse, recipient of the 2016 Regional Theatre Tony Award, is a nationally renowned not-for-profit theater under the direction of Mark S. Hoebee (Producing Artistic Director) and Michael Stotts (Managing Director). A beloved NJ arts institution since 1938, Paper Mill creates and produces groundbreaking new musicals and reimagined classics. Several productions have gone on to Broadway and launched national tours, including Disney’s Newsies, Les Misérables, Honeymoon in Vegas, A Bronx Tale and Bandstand. The theater is also the home of an award-winning center for musical theater education and artist training, with outreach programs that impact thousands of students each year. As one of the nation’s premier musical theaters, Paper Mill fosters a creative environment to advance the art form, educate students, develop future theater lovers, nurture inclusion and provide access for all. Paper Mill Playhouse programs are made possible, in part, by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Paper Mill Playhouse is a member of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, the Council of Stock Theatres and the New Jersey Theatre Alliance.
Named “a vital, artistically significant musical organization” by The Wall Street Journal, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra embodies that vitality through its statewide presence and critically acclaimed performances, education partnerships and unparalleled access to music and the Orchestra’s superb musicians.
Music Director Xian Zhang—a “dynamic podium presence” The New York Times has praised for her “technical abilities, musicianship and maturity”—continues her acclaimed leadership of the NJSO. The Orchestra presents classical, pops and family programs, as well as outdoor summer concerts and special events. Embracing its legacy as a statewide orchestra, the NJSO is the resident orchestra of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark and regularly performs at State Theatre New Jersey in New Brunswick, Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, Richardson Auditorium in Princeton, Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown and bergenPAC in Englewood. Partnerships with New Jersey arts organizations, universities and civic organizations remain a key element of the Orchestra’s statewide identity.
In addition to its lauded artistic programming, the NJSO presents a suite of education and community engagement programs that promote meaningful, lifelong engagement with live music. Programs include school-time Concerts for Young People and the NJSO Youth Orchestras family of student ensembles, led by José Luis Domínguez. NJSO musicians annually perform original chamber music programs at community events in a variety of settings statewide through the NJSO Community Partners program.
