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Maestro Robert W. Butts has spent 30 years building one of the most distinctive orchestras in New Jersey, and this spring he is showing no signs of slowing down.
The Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey, which Butts founded in 1996, has a packed calendar of performances stretching from April through July. The run begins on April 18 at the Visitors Center at Jockey Hollow National Park in Morristown, where the orchestra will perform music from the Revolutionary period as part of the Jockey Hollow Encampment 2026 celebration. One day later, on April 19 at Grace Episcopal Church in Madison, the orchestra presents “Many Mozarts,” a program featuring works by four composers connected to the Mozart name. The centerpiece is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 with guest pianist Ron Levy, alongside Leopold Mozart’s Toy Symphony, an overture by Joseph Bologne (the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, known as “The Black Mozart”), and a symphony by Joseph Martin Kraus, who earned the nickname “The Swedish Mozart” while composing in Stockholm.
On April 26, BONJ makes its debut at The Growing Stage in Netcong with a concert in the style of Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts, focused on Baroque music and featuring works by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and others. That program also includes an America 250 segment with music from the Revolutionary era.
May brings even more. On May 3, Grace Church in Madison hosts a New Contemporary concert spotlighting original works by Butts and colleagues David Williams and Michael DeMaio, including the premiere of Butts’s Clarinet Quintet and a new piano piece, Canti di Venezia, performed by Ron Levy. On May 9, the orchestra performs at Washington’s Headquarters for a special event organized by Morris Tourism, America 250, NJ250, and other partners. Two commissioned works by Butts, the Jockey Hollow Suite and the Lafayette Suite, will be featured.
The season extends into summer with a June 14 Bach concert at Grace Church, exploring works by Johann Sebastian Bach and two of his sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian. On July 9, the orchestra performs an America 250 concert at the Morris Museum as part of their Back Deck Summer Series.
Butts wears many hats as conductor, composer, educator, and lecturer. He teaches at Drew University, lectures at retirement communities and libraries, and composes new works in whatever time remains. He has conducted orchestras from Berlin to St. Petersburg to Paris, but Morris County has remained home. Two of BONJ’s musicians, bassoonist Andrew Pecota and clarinetist Susan Smith, have been with the orchestra since its very first rehearsal.
Looking back on three decades, Butts recalled discovering a 300-year-old Alessandro Scarlatti oratorio in the archives at Washington’s Headquarters in Morristown and bringing it back to life in modern performance. He also pointed to conducting three of Wagner’s Ring Operas, performing all of Beethoven’s concertos and symphonies, and building deep relationships with musicians, patrons, and community organizations.
Butts also continues to host “Bach, Bagels, and Bob,” the online music show he launched during the pandemic lockdown in 2020 to keep the orchestra community connected. He now does two or three shows a year, each one part conversation, part video retrospective.
For anyone in Morris County who has never attended a BONJ concert, Butts offered a simple invitation: come discover music that ranges from the 16th through the 21st centuries, experience a live performance shared with musicians and fellow listeners, and find out why the feeling of hearing great music performed in person is something almost impossible to describe.
Tickets for the 2025-2026 season are available at https://baroqueorchestra.org/events/2025-2026~Season or by calling 973-669-1640. Season subscriptions covering the January, April, and June concerts are $100 ($70 for seniors). Individual concert tickets are $40.
