Roosevelt Porter is the principal bassist for the Plainfield Symphony Orchestra.Steve Hockstein | For NJ Advance
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include the event’s postponement due to the weather.
Roosevelt Porter has performed with the Plainfield Symphony Orchestra for the last decade and acknowledges that Black musicians are underrepresented in classical music. Still, he says, they have shaped every genre.
So Porter, 63, was thrilled when he learned that the orchestra would celebrate the works of Black composers and artists during its annual concert this year.
“As an African American musician, I want people, especially minorities, to know that voices like ours have always existed within the classical tradition,” said Porter, principal bassist in the orchestra.
“Those voices helped shape and enrich what we call classical music,” he said. “When people overlook that, especially when this music is happening in their own community, they miss something meaningful.”
This year’s free concert, initially scheduled for Saturday, has been postponed until the spring due to weather-related concerns. The family-focused program, “Swinging Valentine,” will blend classical and jazz traditions, offering an inviting entry point for first-time listeners and younger audiences.
The concert will highlight works by Black artists rooted in American musical history, including swing-era jazz and selections by composer William Grant Still, whose music fused classical forms with blues and jazz rhythms, shaping a distinctly American orchestral voice that continues to influence generations of musicians.
Maestro Charles Prince, above, said he intentionally designs family programs for the Plainfield Symphony Orchestra to be interactive.Plainfield Symphony Society
Music director Charles Prince said the program will also feature music associated with Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, two giants whose influence helped define swing and jazz as America’s original art form.
“Jazz is our roots,” Prince said. “It’s vitally important for young people to be in touch with that because it tells the story of who we are as a country.”
Prince, who has led the 70-member orchestra of volunteers since 2009, brings both international experience and deep theatrical lineage. He is the son of the late Hal Prince, the legendary Broadway producer behind such landmark shows as “The Phantom of the Opera,” “West Side Story” and “Sweeney Todd.”
While his father reshaped American musical theatre, Prince forged his own path in classical music, conducting orchestras across Europe and leading an ensemble in Vienna. He has called Plainfield his artistic and emotional home.
Prince said he intentionally designs family programs to be interactive and accessible, often speaking directly to the audience and explaining what they are about to hear.
“I don’t want there to be a wall between the orchestra and the audience,” he said. “It’s not just a concert. It’s an experience.”
Now in its 106th season, the Plainfield Symphony Orchestra traces its roots to 1919 and gave its first public performance in 1921. It is the oldest continually operating orchestra in New Jersey and among the oldest community orchestras in the nation, according to the Plainfield Symphony Orchestra.
Belinda Smiley, a board member who oversees community outreach, has been with the orchestra for nearly a decade and says its longevity is matched by its commitment to inclusion, education and local engagement.
“One of the things people say over and over is, ‘I don’t have to go to New York to hear a great orchestra,’” Smiley said. “I can hear it right here at home.”
Smiley, a church musician and former music teacher in the Elizabeth school system, said some of the orchestra’s most memorable performances have involved collaborations with choirs and student musicians.
“Those moments really show what this orchestra can mean to the community,” she said. “We want people to feel that this is theirs.”
For Porter, whose life spans professional music, a legal career and a lifelong devotion to listening and collecting recordings, the upcoming concert represents something larger than a single performance.
“There’s something that I think music generates,” Porter said. “I would just call it humaneness, or humanity that I think we all are part of, and that’s what I hope people hear when they listen to jazz, blues, classical music or whatever.”
For more information about “Swinging Valentines,” call Mark Miller at 908-561-5140.
