Wharton Music Center & New Jersey Youth Symphony Spring Benefit

Judith G. Wharton Music Center (WMC) and New Jersey Youth Symphony (NJYS) are uniting to present a joint 2012 Spring Benefit to celebrate their mutual commitment to music education and music excellence on Saturday, April 21 at Temple Sinai in Summit, New Jersey. At the Benefit, the two non-profit charitable organizations will honor Jacques Lacombe, Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Robert Cronheim, President of the Chatham-based David Cronheim Company, a real-estate property manager, and Tricia Brancatella, a devoted parent volunteer who has chaired NJYS’s most important fundraiser, the Playathon, for the past two years.

Maestro Lacombe is being honored for his artistic leadership and commitment to music education. From the beginning of his career in Montréal, Mr. Lacombe has been highly praised as a remarkable conductor whose artistic integrity and rapport with orchestras have propelled him to the international stage. Before joining the NJSO, Mr. Lacombe had been the Music Director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières in Québec, Canada since 2006.

Robert Cronheim has been a force in the New Jersey real estate community for over 50 years. He has been a developer of major industrial parks and supervised sales, construction, and management. Over the course of his successful career, Mr. Cronheim has actively supported the arts. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Opera at Florham, Fairleigh Dickinson University and has been an extremely valued supporter of New Jersey Youth Symphony. Mr. Cronheim is being honored for his lifetime commitment as a patron of the arts.

As a dedicated volunteer supporting many of the organizations in which her four children are engaged, Tricia Brancatella is being honored for her invaluable leadership, unstinting support, and immense generosity. Mrs. Brancatella, a former officer in the U.S. Army whose tours of duty included the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and South Korea, has chaired and co-chaired NJYS’s annual Playathon fundraiser for the past four years.

Performing at the 2012 Spring Benefit will be the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra conducted by trumpeter Brandon Lee. Additionally, the New Jersey Youth Symphony String Quartet composed of violist Johanna Nowik, violinist Lucia Nowik, cellist Cecelia Sha, and violinist Alex Wang, will perform Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden”.

Sponsors of the Wharton Music Center New Jersey Youth Symphony Benefit are Gold Sponsors Hayward Industries and McCarter & English, LLP; Impresario Sponsors Ruth Charos, Honey M. Kurtz, and Judith G. and Lennard Wharton; and Maestro Sponsors Goldman Sachs, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, and Ralph N. Wharton, M.D.

To obtain a reservation to the Spring Benefit, please contact Wharton Music Center at 908 790-0700.

As one of the largest independent community music centers in New Jersey, Wharton Music Center, located at 60 Locust Avenue in Berkeley Heights, provides music instruction, educational programs, and performances to students of all ages and abilities, the public, and to underserved populations. For more information visit www.WhartonMusicCenter.org.

One of the foremost youth orchestras in New Jersey, New Jersey Youth Symphony, located at 570 Central Avenue in New Providence, provides orchestral and related musical education experiences to talented young musicians of elementary through high school age to reach their highest potential as performers and listeners. For more information visit www.NJYS.org.