Sinfonia Spring Concert

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, scholar 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 on the 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. In 2019, she led Sinfonia in a fully-staged version Mozart’s Die Gärtnerin aus Liebe (David Kellett, director) with a cast of student singers. Under Dr. Ochs ’ leadership, Sinfonia regularly premieres new compositions by Princeton University undergraduate composers and features student and faculty soloists. 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 deeper understanding of the materials and makers of music.

Passionate about nourishing and inspiring community and youth musicians, Dr. Ochs also shares her time with musical initiatives in central New Jersey. She is now in her twentieth season as 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 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, the University of Texas at Austin, and Princeton University, respectively. As a Fulbright Scholar, she studied 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.

SPENCER BAUMAN is a senior from Boca Raton, FL majoring in Chemical and Biological Engineering. He began playing horn at age 10, studying with the same horn teacher as Ariana Grande! On campus he plays French horn in Sinfonia, PUO, and the Wind Ensemble, writes for the Daily Princetonian Humor Section, and is an RCA in New College West. After graduation, he will attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for his Master of Science in Chemical Engineering Practice.

Tubist WESLEY SANDERS is a junior from Vernon, New Jersey. He is pursuing a minor in tuba performance, but majors in chemistry, where he is a member of the Roque Lab. Wesley is an active member of the music community at Princeton, participating in groups including the Princeton University Orchestra, Sinfonia, Creative Large Ensemble, African Music Ensemble, the Princeton Triangle Club, and the Princeton University Wind Ensemble, where he serves as Brass Section Leader. He also volunteers through the Trenton Youth Orchestra to teach private trombone lessons. He was a winner of the Princeton University Orchestra Concerto Composition in the fall of 2023, performing with the orchestra in March of 2024. From that performance, where he played the first tuba concerto ever written, he is excited to perform That Which I Cannot See, the most recent tuba concerto written, and the hard work and creativity of a fellow Princeton student.

TOUSSAINT NGOZI SANTICOLA JONES ‘25 is a self-taught composer from Albany, NY. His music is motivated by a deep love of orchestration, and he thinks of his sound as the infusion of motion into atmospheres, and the contrapuntal weaving of timbre. Toussaint’s native progressive rock music initially led him to the orchestral realm, so his music holds echoes of Rush, Gentle Giant, and Genesis along with those of Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and Ravel. He plays bass, sings, and writes music and lyrics in the rock band Strawberry Milk, and plans to do this professionally. Toussaint is a music major with a minor in medieval studies—having a fascination with medieval Scandinavia and Ireland that inspires much of his music—and is writing a senior thesis on the cultural and linguistic origins of Beowulf, in addition to the work on this program. Toussaint drinks way too much coffee, enjoys etymology podcasts and videos, and is a die-hard Harry Potter fan.

A native of Houston, Texas, MASON THIEU is a senior at Princeton University studying economics. He began playing the clarinet at the age of eleven and has kept music close in his life ever since. In high school, he enjoyed playing in the wind ensemble, clarinet choir as well as marching band and was a Texas All-State clarinetist. Mason is lucky to be able to continue pursuing his love for music at Princeton where he studies under Jo-Ann Sternberg and is an active member of the Princeton Sinfonia under the baton of Dr. Ruth Ochs. He owes a lot to the incredible music educators he’s met in his life and hopes to pay forward all the opportunities afforded to him by volunteering as a clarinet teacher with Trenton Arts at Princeton, an organization dedicated to highlighting the musicianship and artistic talent of students in the Trenton area. In his free time, when not playing clarinet, he enjoys listening to music, running, and reading good books.