Wharton Institute Presented Meet The Strings

Members of the New Jersey Youth Symphony performed for Meet the Strings December 6 at 3:00 p.m. at 60 Locust Avenue in Berkeley Heights.
Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts (WIPA) kicked off its 2015-2016 Meet the Orchestra series with an interactive concert for the entire family on Sunday, December 6 at 3:00 p.m. at 60 Locust Avenue in Berkeley Heights. Meet the Strings was free and open to the public.
Meet the Orchestra, a fun, informative and interactive series where children and adults explore the instrument families of the orchestra, features members of the New Jersey Youth Symphony (NJYS) and includes a musical petting zoo where the members of the audience are given the chance to play each instrument. The New Jersey Youth Symphony string quartet, made up of violinist Emily Wang of Scotch Plains, an 11th grader at Union County Magnet High School; violinist Emily Kwon of Warren, a senior at The Pingry School; violist Aidan Garrison of Sparta, an 11th grader at Evergreen Academy; and cellist Iris Peng of Livingston, a senior at Livingston High School, is led by NJYS Conductor and WIPA instructor Michelle Hatcher on this melodic journey. The string quartet will perform two movements of Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op. 96 American as well as other selections guaranteed to delight the audience.
Michelle Hatcher, violist and string specialist, received her Bachelor and Masters of Music at Manhattan School of Music. While freelancing and teaching in NYC, she found her true passion, sharing her love of music with children. While receiving her Suzuki certification at the School for Strings in NYC, she started the string program at Rutgers Preparatory School and helped to build the Suzuki Program at Montclair State University. Having established a successful private studio in Montclair, Ms. Hatcher founded Fiddle Fun, an intensive music camp for Suzuki trained musicians to learn how to fiddle in many styles. She is the conductor of the Preparatory String Ensemble and Junior String Ensemble atthe New Jersey Youth Symphony.
The Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts’ mission is to provide the highest quality performing arts education to a wide range of students in a supportive and inclusive environment, where striving for personal excellence inspires and connects those we teach to the communities we serve.
Wharton is New Jersey’s largest independent non-profit community performing arts center serving over 1,400 students through a range of classes and ensembles including the 14 ensembles of the New Jersey Youth Symphony which serve 500 students in grades 3 – 12. Beginning with Early Childhood music classes for infants and toddlers, WIPA offers private lessons, group classes and ensembles for all ages and all abilities. We believe in the positive and unifying influence of music and the performing arts and believe that arts education should be accessible to all people regardless of their ability to pay. We teach all instruments and voice and have a robust musical theatre program.
The Paterson Music Project is Wharton’s El Sistema-inspired program held at the Community  Charter School of Paterson and Paterson Public School 1/26. Students receive 6 hours of intensive music instruction each week with the goal of creating social change through the ambitious pursuit of musical excellence.
Wharton institute for the Performing Arts is located in Berkeley Heights, New Providence and Paterson, NJ and reaches students from 13 counties. All of WIPA’s extraordinary faculty members and conductors hold degrees in their teaching specialty and have been vetted and trained to enable our students to achieve their personal best.