bringing music to south orange since 1949
Performing at the South Orange Middle School on Ridgewood Avenue, the South Orange Symphony presents three admission-free concerts per season of the most wonderful and cherished symphonic works. Our members are a diverse mix of amateur and professional local musicians. Most of our members have extensive training in classical music and we encourage both seasoned musicians as well as students. One concert will be designated as a family-oriented event where our goal is to have community outreach and collaboration in an effort to provide education and exposure to those who may not be familiar with classical music. This is accomplished by including other local organizations such as a chorus, dancers, soloists and other local artists. Established community organizations are encouraged to collaborate with us on projects. The South Orange Symphony is proud to enrich the South Orange/Maplewood communities with great music and musical opportunities to all.
Conductor / Susan Haig
Board President / Janet Poland
Concertmaster / Joseph Tornquist
Selections from the Symphony
by South Orange Symphony Orchestra
Music from a few of our previous season’s concerts
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South Orange Symphony
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South Orange Symphony
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South Orange Symphony
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South Orange Symphony
South Orange Symphony Members of the board
Janet M. Poland - Springfield, NJ - SO Symphony President of the Board - Accounting Associate with Sal LaGreca, LLC (Fiduciary Tax and Accounting). Violist with the SO Symphony for the past 19 years. President of the Oratorio Singers of Westfield, NJ. Volunteer with the Rome Festival Orchestra in Rome, Italy for 25 years.
Martin Gelfond - Manalapan, NJ - SO Symphony General Manager. Grew up in West Orange and has been a member of the orchestra for over 40 years. Violist. Private violin and viola teacher. Chairman, Manalapan Arts Council. Member Special Olympics New Jersey Winter Games Organizing Committee. An on-air radio personality with the Tommy G Show on 1450 WCTC AM Radio, New Brunswick,
Marguerite Stewart - Summit, NJ - SO Symphony Treasurer - Retired biology teacher and member of the orchestra for over 46 years. Chairperson of Biology department for a Community College. Currently employed part-time by SAGE, a non-profit dealing with the elderly. Counselor in the State Health Insurance Assistance Program.
Anthony Scriffignano , Ph.D.- West Caldwell, NJ - SVP Leader, Worldwide Data & Insight at Dun & Bradstreet, Short Hills, NJ. New Jersey State Certified EMT. Primary Inventor on several patents & patents pending Internationally in processes related to entity matching and linguistic disambiguation. Deep expertise in languages and multinational business.
Elizabeth Harris, South Orange, NJ - Algebra teacher at SO Middle School and School Musical Director. Sings with Harmony Celebration Chorus, a women's Acapella group in Ridgewood.
Erica Walsh Oakland, NJ - Flutist. Instrumental music educator for over twenty years. Degrees in music education and educational leadership. Certifications in music education, elementary education and as a school principal and supervisor.
Susan Haig, conductor
Susan Haig is a conductor, producer, and cultural leader dedicated to fostering creative and civic vitality in New Jersey. Her work throughout Canada and the U.S. has included orchestral and opera conducting, video producing, solutions-based news, and broadcasting. Haig has served as Music Director of Canada’s Windsor Symphony and the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, Associate Conductor of the Florida Orchestra, and Resident Conductor of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. Formerly a coach and assistant conductor with the Canadian, Santa Fe, and New York City Opera companies, she has conducted numerous opera performances in Canada and the U.S., and hundreds of orchestral educational concerts for students of all ages.
In 2009, Haig founded CivicStory.org (formerly NJ Arts News), a nonprofit solutions-based news site focused on civics and sustainability, that has produced over 100 short-form videos showing creative transformation in New Jersey. The organization received the Garden State Film Festival's 2016 Broader Vision Award for "filmmaking dedicated to the greater good." Haig has been featured both as conductor and commentator for statewide and national radio broadcasts in the US and Canada, and was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Humanities from the University of Windsor.
Ms. Haig was born and raised in Summit, N.J., graduated from Princeton University and received Master's and Doctoral degrees in piano and conducting from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She served as a trustee of the National Music Museum, and was President of the Summit-New Providence Rotary Club and a 2017 Lead NJ Fellow. A founding member of Summit Area GreenFaith Circle - dedicated to engaging congregations and citizens in caring for the environment - Haig is a new resident of South Orange.
2024/2025 Season
FALL concert
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2024
3:00 PM
Rimsky-Korsakov - The Tsar’s Bride Overture
Glazunov - Autumn
Brahms - Symphony No. 4 in E minor
family concert
SUNDAY, JANUARY 26, 2025
3:00 PM
John Williams - Superman March
Grieg - Peer Gynt Suite Selections
Leroy Anderson - The Typewriter with Special Guest Mayor Sheena Collum
John Williams - Dry Your Tears, Afrika from Amistad and
a South African Greeting Song - Hlolonolofatsa
with the Columbia High School Festival Choir, Nicholas Diaz, Director
Faure’s Pavane
Final Waltz from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker and the majestic 4th movement of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5
Be sure to visit the Instrument Petting Zoo with instruments from -
Finlay + Gage Musical Instruments and Elefante Music
before and after the concert and during the intermission.
SPRING CONCERT
SUNDAY, APRIL 27, 2025
3:00 PM
Rossini - La Cenerentola
Liszt - Les Preludes
Florence Price - Symphony #1 in E minor
ALL CONCERTS HELD IN STERLING HALL, SOUTH ORANGE MIDDLE SCHOOL
70 NORTH RIDGEWOOD ROAD, SOUTH ORANGE, NEW JERSEY