Performance Box: NJSO winter festival

NJSO Winter Concert trio

"Coming to America" is the theme for New Jersey Symphony Orchestra's Winter Festival.

8 p.m. Saturday, Newark

TELL ME MORE: Estonian-born NJSO director Neeme Jarvi is tapping the rich body of classical music written by foreign composers with ties to America. "We'll be bringing the audience great music, which we rarely perform in our regular subscription concerts," Jarvi said in a statement.

The festival, at New Jersey Performing Arts Center and other venues, includes three concerts in three weeks: "Bronfman Plays Prokofiev," featuring naturalized Uzbekistani pianist Yefim Bronfman; "From the New World," which includes Antonin Dvorak's famous ninth symphony of the same name; and "Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto," featuring British conductor Gilbert Varga and young Chinese pianist Haochen Zhang.

Jarvi says the concert also pays tribute to the musicians within the orchestra who are immigrants.

"I definitely wouldn't be the same kind of player had I not come to America," section first violinist Judy Wu said in a statement. Wu came to the U.S. from Taiwan at age 11. "It's so different here – you're always encouraged to explore, to be creative, to step outside the box."

DETAILS: Other performances through Jan. 27, at NJPAC, 1 Center St., Newark; Richardson Auditorium, Princeton University, Princeton; State Theatre, 15 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick; War Memorial, West Lafayette and Barrack streets, Trenton. $20 to $78. Call 800-255-3476 or visit njsymphony.org.