Halloween with Sinfonia

The PRINCETON UNIVERSITY SINFONIA is a full symphony orchestra that unites eager, music-loving Princeton University undergraduate and graduate students, as well as community friends, to explore diverse symphonic repertory from four centuries. Its members are passionate musicians with diverse interests and backgrounds who come together for the rich rewards of making music together and for others. Find out more about Sinfonia and ways that you might support our ongoing musical mission at: sinfonia.princeton.edu

DR. RUTH OCHS is a passionate and sought-after conductor and educator based in central New Jersey. Since 2002 she has been conducting at Princeton University in various capacities. Soon after beginning graduate studies in the Department of Music at Princeton, she took over directorship of the Princeton University Sinfonia and quickly steered its growth from a chamber orchestra into a full-size symphonic orchestra performing repertory from the baroque to the most recent, including accompanying a fully-staged version Mozart’s Die Gärtnerin aus Liebe in 2019. Under Dr. Ochs’ leadership, the orchestra regularly premieres new compositions by Princeton University undergraduate composers. She also serves as Associate Conductor of the Princeton University Orchestra and has led the ensemble in a variety of performances, including on its tour of Spain in 2019. Off the podium, her work in the classroom and introducing concert programs puts into action her belief that performers
and audiences alike benefit from a closer understanding of the materials and makers of a musical composition.

Passionate about nourishing and inspiring community and youth musicians, Dr. Ochs also shares her time with local musical initiatives in central Jersey. She is now in her eighteenth season as conductor and music director of the Westminster Community Orchestra, with whom she has led successful opera gala performances, collaborations with youth ensembles from the Westminster Conservatory of Music,
and popular family and holiday concerts. Musical outreach lies close to her heart, and she has taken small ensembles of Princeton University musicians to perform in Mercer County elementary schools. In 2019 she received the Princeton University Pace Center for Civic Engagement’s Community Engagement Award. Ruth Ochs holds degrees in music, orchestral conducting, and music history, from Harvard University (magna cum laude with highest honors in music), the University of Texas at Austin, and Princeton University, respectively. As a Fulbright Scholar, she studied musicology at Humboldt Universität in Berlin, Germany, and, as a student of the Polish language, she studied at the Uniwersytet Jagielloński in Kraków, Poland. She is currently Senior Lecturer in Princeton University’ s Department of Music.