Now Working Mostly Offstage, Marc Uys Makes Sure the Princeton Symphony Orchestra Doesn't Miss a Beat

Princeton, NJ – The year that the Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) arrived on the Princeton scene, 1980, was coincidentally the same year I started working fulltime for the Princeton Packet.

One of my very first assignments was to interview PSO’s founding director Portia Sonnenfeld, a pianist, cellist, conductor, teacher, philanthropist, director of the orchestra program at Princeton High School, and beautiful individual inside and out. I found her to be simply the best without a hint of intimidating superciliousness. She died at the height of her professional achievements at the age of 53 in 1987. But her orchestral offspring lives on, overcoming the low notes, hitting the high notes and moving to a slightly different beat than the one she brought to life in 1980.

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After Sonnenfeld's death, Mark Laycock was appointed music director. During Laycock's 22-year tenure, the ensemble grew into a fully professional symphony orchestra and saw significant artistic growth. In 2009, the PSO appointed high-profile, high energy, internationally acclaimed Bulgarian born conductor Rossen Milanov as its third music director (officially titled the Edward T. Cone Music Director). He remains in that role today, while simultaneously serving as the music director of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra (CSO) and Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, and chief conductor of the Slovenian RTV Orchestra in Ljubljana.

The orchestra performs six Classical Series concerts, two PSO POPS! concerts, and four Chamber Series concerts each season. The orchestra season runs September through May. Recently, however, PSO took on a brand-new look when it adopted what is now known as the Princeton Festival

Last month I was moved – both literally and figuratively -- to provide an update about PSO. I had attended a Tina Turner tribute concert under a tent on the grounds of Morven that featured the Princeton Symphony Orchestra musicians and guest vocalists.  Three prominent artists, including Broadway star and American Idol finalist LaKisha Jones, plus guest conductor Lucas Waldin and the Princeton Symphony Orchestra performed some of the artist’s mega hits, including “What’s Love Got To Do With It,” “Proud Mary,” “River Deep, Mountain High,” and “Simply the Best.”

This concert brought young and most notably the old (including me) out of their seats, moving to the beats of performance enhancing music, bad knees and bad hips be damned. The ambiance was 180 degrees different from the PSO concerts I had attended over the past 45 years in Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University. I sang along with “Simply the Best” and concluded it was time to write about Portia Sonnenfeld’s legacy.

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Below is a Q&A with Marc Uys, PSO executive director. He succeeded Executive Director Melanie Clarke, who stepped down in 2015 after 25 years of tireless, devoted, creative, community and education focused service to the PSO.

Marc Uys (pronounced “Ace”) was born 46 years ago in Pietersburg, South Africa. Prior to being hired at PSO, Marc was a fulltime performing violinist. Educated in Cape Town, he was working fulltime with a string quartet when he came to New York City in 2008 to seek his fortune as a professional musician. He quickly discovered that having a busy performance schedule did not equate to a fortune or even a survival income in Manhattan. So he decided to change the direction of his professional life from making music to making sure others enjoy and engage in music. In the fall of 2014, he accepted the job as PSO’s operations manager.

“This was a big change for me psychologically -- going from fulltime musician to an administrator. But I was eager for the change. I have been playing the violin since I was four years old – and knew I would not stop playing, but rather develop another expertise in the music field that might prove equally gratifying,” says Marc.

His life’s focus on music was inspired by his parents, both university mathematics professors, but also amateur musicians.

After being operations manager for only a year, Marc was recruited for the job as executive director of the orchestra and found himself embracing the administrative jobs with the gusto previously reserved for performing.

“I have frequently played in the PSO for our concerts, although significantly less so since the pandemic and merger (PSO and Princeton Festival), as I have become a lot busier. I have done two programs on our chamber series, and hope to do another very soon,” he says.

Marc and his wife, also from South Africa, live in Skillman, enjoy the Princeton cultural scene, never miss the tension and chaos of the New York City life, but do miss the beauty and family in South Africa. He and his wife visit at least once per year.

Q: Describe the transition of Princeton Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1980, from a professional orchestra focused on classical music to much more today.

A: The Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) has grown steadily in size and stature since its founding. In the decade before I came, a huge amount of work was done to expand the reach of the organization beyond the symphonic subscription series – our education program (PSO Bravo!) especially and our chamber series became an excellent way to reach new audiences. Starting nine years ago, we made a concerted effort to grow our orchestral concert presence too, expanding from a subscription series of five single concerts to six pairs, and also doubling up on our Pops concerts. We began introducing full-length ballet performances with American Repertory Ballet. The 2021 merger with the Princeton Festival has really opened up the range of performances that are now offered.

Q: How did the merger of PSO and the Princeton Festival come about?

A: The Princeton Festival, founded in 2004, expanded beyond its initial opera productions and matured wonderfully, diversifying to meet the demands of a growing audience.

(Note a bit of PSO/Festival trivia: Marvin Reed, who died in 2020 and served as Princeton Borough mayor from 1990 to 2003 and councilman for 19 years, shared with his wife, Ingrid, a love of not only New Jersey politics, but also but also Princeton Symphony Orchestra and the Princeton Festival. Marvin actually played the role of the mayor in the opera “Carmen,” during the Festival’s early years of production at the Lawrenceville School).

Marc continues: When I proposed the merger to the Festival in the fall of 2020, one of the central ideas was that the benefit of a larger organization with a greater presence in the community would be the cross-marketing opportunities between our different programs. Our decision to transform the Princeton Festival into an outdoor event (under a tent on the grounds of Morven) in a centralized location further aided this drive for greater visibility. Having just completed the third year in this format, I’m pleased to say that we have seen significant positive results that are energizing our winter season subscription base as we have recovered from Covid.

Q: Do you have many sold out performances at the Festival or the PSO season?

A: We have had several, and this number is increasing. One of our best assets is PSO’s incredible board, led by Board Chair Stephanie Wedeking.

Q: You and others have described a challenge for PSO - appealing to a younger demographic. Is it content? Is it communication? Is it both?

A: The broad range of events at the Princeton Festival has attracted equally broad audience demographics – we have seen this since the first year in this format (2022), and more so each subsequent year. We are seeing a number of patrons who are introduced to the PSO during the Festival starting to attend our subscription concerts during the year. Our Saturday evening audiences are noticeably younger than those on Sunday afternoons.

So yes, it definitely starts with content. We deploy a range of communication tactics which ultimately aim to leverage word-of-mouth promotion. This is particularly important when trying to reach a new demographic, since we are trying to create new habits. Once people experience an event where it feels like they belong, there is a higher likelihood of a return visit.

Q: Please say a few words about the upcoming season.

A: The upcoming season offers a lot of opportunities to hear very mainstream, beloved classical works, which is a great thing for first time concert-goers - to have a chance to hear and see some of the music that causes all the hype. To make it extra special, this is Music Director Rossen Milanov’s 60th birthday season, and we are celebrating with an extraordinary lineup of guest soloists. Full details of the season can be found on our website. Subscriptions are currently available, and single tickets go on sale in late July.

Q: What is Princeton’s greatest quality as far as its ability to enable PSO to thrive?

A: The audiences. The audiences here are terrific.

I would say they are “simply the best.” For information and tickets, visit the website, www.princetonsymphony.org .

Note: The PSO just moved its headquarters to 1000 Herrontown Road, Princeton 08540.

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