How much is a ten-minute phone call to Croatia?

I interviewed Croatian guitarist Robert Belinić – who speaks impeccable (and, to my ear, unaccented) English, by the way – for my article in today’s Trenton Times.

Belinić will join the Princeton Symphony Orchestra for Joaquin Rodrigo’s beloved “Concierto de Aranjuez” at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium this Sunday at 4 p.m. The program will also include Ottorino Respighi’s “Three Botticelli Pictures” and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.

Daniel Boico, for two seasons assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, will guest conduct. I find it amusing – or perhaps bemusing – that although the focus of the article is Belinić, the Times selected a photo of Boico.

You can read more about it here:

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2015/01/classical_music_princeton_symp_1.html

BTW – As a follow-up to my Shakespeare article the other week, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra will present their second program of Bard-inspired works this weekend, including a concert at Richardson Auditorium tonight at 8 p.m.

The program will include Dvorak’s “Othello Overture,” Sergei Taneyev’s recovered love duet from a projected opera on “Romeo and Juliet” by Tchaikovsky, selections from Samuel Barber’s rarely-heard “Antony and Cleopatra,” and the “Walk to the Paradise Garden” from “A Village Romeo and Juliet” by Frederick Delius.

In addition, violinist Sarah Chang will appear in a suite after Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” (of course inspired by “Romeo and Juliet”) in an arrangement by film composer David Newman.

If you missed the write-up, here it is again:

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2014/12/classical_music_nj_symphony_or_1.html

Happy listening!

PHOTO: Robert Belinić, the guitarist whose image the Times would not print