Janice Carissa

Janice Carissa

Thrill to one of the most exciting musicians today, 17-year-old piano phenomenon Janice Carissa, who will be the featured soloist for an evening of music of beauty and power by Mozart and Beethoven with the Bay Atlantic Symphony. The Symphony will close the 2016 “Symphony By The Sea” summer series of concerts, sponsored by the Avalon Free Public Library, on Saturday, August 13, at 7 p.m., at the Avalon Elementary School, 235 32nd St., Avalon, NJ. Carissa will perform in place of the originally-scheduled Gavin George.

The finale of this two-concert series—conducted by Bay Atlantic Symphony Music Director Jed Gaylin—will feature Carissa, who has won numerous piano competitions and who has performed in recitals and with orchestras in this country and abroad. She will perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in D major, K.175.  Composed when Mozart was 17, it was his first fully-original piano concerto after freeing himself from models by other composers.

The program will also feature Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92. One of the most rhythmically energized symphonies ever composed, this ebullient, powerful work was described by Richard Wagner as “the apotheosis of the dance.” The concert will open with the overture to Mozart’s dramatic opera Idomeneo.

Tickets are free and available to the general public from the Avalon Free Public Library, 235 32nd St., Avalon. Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

For more information on the concert series, call the Avalon Free Public Library at (609) 967-7155, or visit the library’s website at www.avalonfreelibrary.org. For more information on the Bay Atlantic Symphony, call its office at (856) 451-1169, visit the Symphony’s website at www.bayatlanticsymphony.org, or visit them on Facebook.

About Janice Carissa

A native of Indonesia, pianist Janice Carissa entered Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music in 2013, where she studies with Gary Graffman and Robert McDonald. All students at Curtis receive merit-based full tuition scholarships, and she is the Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest Fellow.

A recipient of numerous awards and honors, Carissa is a Young Scholar of Lang Lang’s International Music Foundation and the runner-up winner of the 2014 piano competition at the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival and School. She also was the Star Performance Award Winner of the 2012 American Protégé International Music Talent Competition in New York and the Top Prize Winner of the IBLA Foundation’s 2006 International Piano Competition.

Carissa has been featured on television and radio stations, including Indonesia Mencari Bakat, Inspirasi Pagi, Sang Juara, Global TV, RCTI, Trans TV, BC TV, Metro TV, TV One, Voice of America, and, in the United States, WHYY-TV in Philadelphia, The Greene Space on WXQR in New York, and National Public Radio’s From the Top.

Recent career highlights include her orchestra debut performing Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with St. Peters by the Sea Orchestra in New Jersey, a Beethoven concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Cristian Macelaru at the Mann Center in Philadelphia, and performances with the Midwest Young Artists Symphony Orchestra in Chicago conducted by Dr. Allan Dennis, and a Symphony in C Chamber Concert. Other performances include those at the United Nations Day Concert 2014 in New York, Oxford University’s St. Hilda’s College in England, Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, and Jay Priztker Pavillion Millennium Park.

Carissa has also performed in Weill Recital Hall of New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Frederick Chopin University of Music’s Grand Concert Hall in Warsaw, at the Theatre Hall of The Lipinski Academy of Music & Ryszard Bukowski Wroclaw in Poland, and at Rimini, Cesena, and Ragusa in Italy as IBLA winner. She has performed for the President of Indonesia and other dignitaries at the Presidential Palace in Indonesia and for Lady Dewi Sukarno in Bali. Together with her brother Ryan Ferguson, Ms. Carissa performed in duo recital in the “Fantastic Sound of Two Pianos” held at Australia’s Sydney Opera House in November 2011.

About The Bay Atlantic Symphony

The aim of the Bay Atlantic Symphony is to share and develop a love for transcendent, live concert music in southern New Jersey communities through performance and education. Since its founding as the Bridgeton Symphony in 1983, the orchestra has been recognized for its world-class performers, diverse programs, and outstanding community services. Under the talented baton of passionate Music Director Jed Gaylin since 1997, the Bay Atlantic Symphony is the only professional orchestra to serve the five southern-most counties of New Jersey. The Orchestra makes great music accessible through live concerts with low ticket prices at the Stockton University Performing Arts Center, the Avalon Symphony by the Sea Series, the Cape May Music Festival, Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa, and starting with the 2016-17 season, the historic Landis Theater in Vineland.

 

The Symphony’s value to the community goes far beyond performing great music. As a cultural centerpiece, the BAS is a treasured music education resource.  By creating meaningful, interactive music experiences for children, adults, the visually-impaired, veterans, and seniors with limited mobility, the BAS strives to create vibrant communities rooted in the love of music. To learn more, visit BayAtlanticSymphony.org, call (856) 451-1169, or visit them on Facebook.