The New Jersey Intergenerational Orchestra (NJIO) will hold its free Young People’s Concert at 3:00 pm on Sunday, November 22 at Oak Knoll School, 44 Blackburn Road, in Summit, NJ. Guest artists are classical guitarist Anton Del Forno and violinist Yuji Sugimoto, the Second Place Winner of NJIO’s 2009 Young Artist Baroque Concerto Competition.

"We are honored to have two such accomplished musicians featured in our Young People’s Concert," said Len Avdey, president of NJIO’s Board of Directors. "Anton Del Forno is a remarkably versatile musician who has been tireless throughout his career in introducing listeners to his instrument’s rich repertoire. Yuji Sugimoto is a young man whose career as a violinist holds tremendous promise. NJIO is pleased to be able to bring this caliber of classical music to our audiences."

Born in New Jersey, Del Forno started with the electric guitar, initially launching a successful career as a pop musician. Realizing the tremendous potential of the classical guitar, he decided to switch to classical music and studied at Mannes College of Music in New York. His teachers included the esteemed Russian violinist Leonid Bolotine. Del Forno has observed that the art of violin fingering can shed light on fingering problems facing a guitar player. In fact, Del Forno believes that every young guitarist should study with a teacher, exemplified by Bolotine, whose knowledge of music is not limited to one instrument and one tradition.

Del Forno is left-handed, but plays guitar as a right-handed musician. Favoring a Ramirez guitar, whose unusually large fingerboard poses special technical problems, Del Forno is passionate in his quest for a rich, resonant sound, which he believes should complement impeccable technical prowess.

In addition to the concert stage, Del Forno has played extensively on radio and television programs. His stage work includes an acclaimed performance as solo guitarist in the Joffrey Ballet "Viva Vivaldi" production. Del Forno’s compositions for guitar can be heard on his Del Forno Plays Del Forno CD, which includes a variety of guitar pieces. Among his works in progress are two concertos for guitar and orchestra. Also a dedicated teacher, Del Forno is the founder of the guitar department at St. John’s University in New York.

A seventh grader at New Providence Middle School in New Providence, NJ, Yuji Sugimoto began his violin studies at the age of four in Japan and currently studies with Elzbieta Winnicki of the Judith G. Wharton Music Center. Sugimoto won second prize at the Goldblatt Scholarship Competition Junior Division in 2009. In addition, he is a three-time winner at the Golden Key Music Festival and has performed at Carnegie-Weill Recital Hall and Merkin Concert Hall. He has been a member of the New Jersey Youth Symphony for four years and served as the principal of Philharmonia in the 2008 – 2009 Season; he has also joined the NJ Regional II Intermediate String Orchestra. Sugimoto has participated in master classes with Stefan Milenkovich, Yi-Jia Susanne Hou, Weigang Li and Emy Ohi Resnick.

For NJIO’s 2009 Young Artist Baroque Concerto Competition, competition musicians were required to play one movement of a Baroque concerto by memory, which had to be selected from the standard Baroque orchestral repertoire. Sugimoto captured Second Place and the guest violinist role in the 2009 Young People’s Concert. First Place Winner was violinist Allegra Whiting, a seventh grader at Grover Cleveland Middle School in Caldwell, NJ. Whiting will perform at NJIO’s Spring Concert on April 25, 2010, which is also free of charge.

Founded in 1994, the New Jersey Intergenerational Orchestra is a unique organization where musicians young and old come together to experience the joy of making music together. For Joe Gluck, NJIO’s music director and conductor, NJIO is a place where people can make music an integral part of their lives from childhood through adulthood. "For people of all ages, NJIO is not only a place to learn to appreciate and play orchestral music, but also a place where they are surrounded by living examples of lifelong learning through the arts."

NJIO seeks to blend a vision of artistic excellence with a strong educational component, setting high artistic goals and welcoming musicians with a range of ages and skill levels. NJIO performs several times a year in the Union County area. Funding for NJIO has been made possible in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Department of State, through a grant administered by the Union County Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs and the L. P. Schenck Fund.

For more information or to join the orchestra, visit the NJIO Web site (www.njio.org) or contact Elizabeth Nowik at info@njio.org or (908) 603-7691.