Hello boys and girls, Read-a-roo here!

What a super-duper day I had with the North Carolina Symphony on January 7 for the Young People’s Concert Green Eggs and Ham. As a book loving kangaroo, Dr. Seuss is one of my favorite authors, and to watch his magical characters brought to life by the instruments and music of the symphony was the most terrific treat!

Plus, I absolutely adored all of the hugs and high-fives sent my way during the activity time before the concert. We had the best time at the UNC-TV Kids Club area playing “pin the green egg on the plate” and competing with friends in the “green egg spoon race” and “Cat in the Hat ball toss” and what about the marvelous marble race activity provided by our buddies at Marbles Kids Museum. Wowee, what a splendid way to spend a Saturday.

Thanks to my favorite friends at the N.C. Symphony for letting me join in on the musical fun!



Read-a-roo
UNC-TV

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The North Carolina Symphony is excited to welcome Broadway star Michael Cavanaugh to the stage of Meymandi Concert Hall this weekend. Check out the video below for a sneak peek at what to expect when he joins the Symphony for The Music of Billy Joel.

The great English poet Ezra Pound once said, “…When music strays too far from dance, it atrophies.” Not wishing to risk such a dreadful fate, the North Carolina Symphony has engaged two dancers for our upcoming Tango Nuevo concerts in Chapel Hill (Jan. 26) and Raleigh (Jan 27-28). We asked Tango artist Karen Jaffe to tell us a little bit about this exciting dance form.

Tell us about the art form—how and where did Tango develop?

Much is lost in myth and an unrecorded history. It is generally accepted that in the early 1900s, with the immigration to Argentina of many Africans, Spaniards, Italians and a mix of others, Tango was created. This melting pot of cultures, each borrowing dance and music from one another, encouraged the creation of new steps and music that eventually became what we know today as Tango. The dance continues to evolve over time, even today.

What sets it apart from other forms of dance?

Unlike other dances that are step sequence based, Tango requires a deep commitment to the other person in the moment of the dance. It is like an intense love affair that lasts only the length of the song. It is about the connection, communication and awareness of that other person, sharing the energy, moving to the music, together creating something greater than the two individuals. Within the technique of Tango, on the social dance floor, each dance is a unique creation built moment to moment, based on the movement of the entire floor and the interpretation of the music in our bodies.

What are Tango’s distinguishing features?

Communication that happens within the embrace, the subtleties and nuances, the personalities of the dancers becoming the dance, as well as the dialogue, the conversation between the couple during each dance. These qualities pull the dancers to be very much in the moment, present for what may be "said" next, never knowing what to expect. Of course everyone dances their personality, and depending on their “voice,” every dancer can feel dramatically different. My highest ideal of the dance is having a partner who is clear in his invitation, but also listens to my voice, my interpretation of the music, allowing space and time for me to express fully in my body that moment, while still being able to maintain the leader role. The roles of leader and follower can become ambiguous, as there are times when the leader actually follows the follower's movement, and the follower leads by completing a movement with her full range of motion. This blurring of the lines can create the feeling of oneness with the music. These moments for me, I can describe as Zen-like or dreamy. These may not be apparent to someone who is watching the couple, but certainly a huge attraction for me.

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Here are some events related to this weekend’s Passport to Hungary concerts in Chapel Hill (Jan. 12) and Raleigh (Jan. 13 & 14) that you should know about. Be sure to scroll down for an interview with soloist Petra Berényi. She’ll reveal the secrets of this performance’s featured instrument, the cimbalom!

Wednesday, Jan. 11
Associate Conductor Sarah Hicks previews the concert at Quail Ridge Books, 3522 Wade Avenue in Raleigh, at 7:30pm. She will discuss how the influences of Hungarian folk music can be heard in the works of so many of that country’s finest composers, including Liszt, Kodaly and Bartok. Sponsored by WCPE-Quail Ridge Local Arts Series.

Thursday, Jan. 12
Pre-concert talk at 7pm in Gerrard Hall, given by Dr. Letitia Glozer

Friday, Jan. 13
Pre-concert talk at 7pm in the West Pavilion, given by Dr. Jonathan Kramer
Ask a Musician at intermission
Post-concert Q&A on stage, with Sarah Hicks, Dovid Friedlander and Petra Berenyi

Saturday, Jan. 14
Meet the Artists at 6:30pm in the West Pavilion, hosted by Catherine Brand with guests Sarah Hicks, Dovid Friedlander and Petra Berenyi
Ask a Musician at intermission

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The science section in today’s New York Times offers news about two studies we think you might find interesting:

1. Will music help relieve your post-surgical pain? Many doctors think so, but is it true? See what scientists discovered here.

2. Violin acoustics expert Claudia Fritz attempts to answer the ultimate violin question: Does a Stradivarius really sound better than a modern violin? She is not the first to ask this question, but perhaps she will be the last. Read it for yourself.

The North Carolina Symphony was excited to welcome a new member this season in Assistant Principal Trombone Jonathan Randazzo. Anyone who heard him perform the Tuba mirum during the season-opening performance of Mozart's Requiem knows that he is a special talent and a fine addition to our roster of wonderful musicians.

Yet for any young professional musician, the transition into a new position among a new set of colleagues in a new city presents its challenges--especially when that group travels as much as this orchestra. Jonathan offered these observations of his first months as a member of the North Carolina Symphony:

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Sleigh bells and tiny tots with their eyes all aglow can mean only one thing—Mahler’s Fourth Symphony!

The perfect symphony for the holiday season is all about heaven as seen through the eyes of a child. Based on the song Das Himmlischer leben (a child's heaven) from the Youth's Magic Horn cycle, it beautifully captures a fairy tale world of innocence and fantasy. There is no place for the day of judgment or purgatory, let alone hell (though Mahler does inject a sardonic twist with the inclusion of a “fiddler” in the second movement who is required to play a second instrument tuned up a tone to give it a brighter, more strident, demonic effect). But even the pathologically neurotic Gustav Mahler cannot allow himself to dwell on the dark side here. He is happily composing, it is summer and he is in his beloved mountains with a new love in his life.

So we enter a heavenly landscape populated by all our favorite Saints. The disciples are in charge of the hunting and fishing and gardening, so food is in abundance. The various game--deer, hares, oxen and fishes--veritably throw themselves onto the grill. Vegetables and fruit leap out of the earth and off the vine, notwithstanding the time of year (they don't seem to have seasons in heaven). St. Martha (remember Lazarus) is the obvious candidate as cook and even St. Ursula has a good laugh (a bit of a stretch after witnessing the murder of 11,000 virgins). Finally St. Cecilia is put in charge of the musical entertainment. Just picture the orchestra—every great musician who has ever lived...and died. I wonder who might have been the concertmaster? No doubt Heifetz and Kreisler would have fought over it. Joachim might have had something to say. And who could deny Paganini his place. The keyboard continuo would be a toss-up between Horowitz, Rubinstein, Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Beethoven, Mozart, Handel and Bach. Take your pick.

And then who could possibly conduct such an orchestra? I hear that God was up for it, but was pipped at the post by Maazel!

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Music Makers is an exciting ongoing partnership between the North Carolina Symphony and Marbles Kids Museum to help Marbles educate their patrons about classical music. Four times a year from 11am to 2pm Marbles kindly opens its doors to the Symphony for hands-on activities that showcase the magic and enjoyment of live performance to music lovers of all ages. And Marbles comes to all of our NCS Kids concerts to let our youngest Symphony patrons continue their exploration of music before every kids concert.

Below are some of the fun moments from the most recent Music Makers. Join us at our next Music Makers event THIS SATURDAY, Dec. 3, at Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh from 11am to 2pm. You'll have the chance to win tickets to our next NCS Kids Young People's Concert, Green Eggs and Ham, on Jan. 7, 2011 at 11am and 4pm. Or click here and secure your seats today!

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This weekend, the North Carolina Symphony premieres a new holiday piece by Laurelyn Dossett. “The Gathering, A Winter’s Tale in Six Songs" features some of today’s most noted musicians, writers and singers in old time and traditional music circles. A four-piece string band will perform the song series live with the North Carolina Symphony at Meymandi Concert Hall at the Progress Energy Center in downtown Raleigh on November 25, 2011, at 8pm and November 26, 2011 at 3pm and 8pm.

Last year when the North Carolina Symphony asked songwriter Laurelyn Dossett to write a song cycle for a holiday concert, she said, “Yes.”

“Then I went home and googled song cycle,’” Dossett says.

As Dossett learned from her Google search, a song cycle is a group of songs performed in a narrative sequence. The narrative she wrote is a story about a daughter going home for the holidays and the family preparing for her arrival.

“I was trying to celebrate all the things we love about family gatherings, as well as capture the more complicated things about it,” Dossett says. “I also wanted to share images of the region in the winter: the clear Carolina nights, the lights in the lowlands, the frost in the trees and the diamonds in the pines.

“These songs were written specifically to work with the Symphony, as well as stand on their own,” Dossett says. “To tell a story of a journey home on a winter’s night.

“To help set a time and place for that story, and to set the atmosphere that’s uniquely North Carolinian, I chose these string band musicians—who also have the virtuosity to play with the symphony.”

This performance features the Symphony and Music Director Grant Llewellyn together with the Concert Singers of Cary and a four-piece string band hand-picked by Dossett for the performances.

The quartet features Dossett, Rhiannon Giddens Laffan from the Grammy Award-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, mandolinist Mike Compton from Elvis Costello’s Sugarcanes band and the O Brother, Where Art Thou? recordings, as well as singer and banjo player Joe Newberry of North Carolina’s Big Medicine.

“For many of us, the holidays are about the desire to go home, to be with our loved ones and reconnect with our roots, “ says Symphony General Manager & Vice President of Artistic Operations Scott Freck. “With this program we invite the audience to experience that feeling, with familiar and favorite holiday songs, the distinctive sounds of a North Carolina string band, and Laurelyn Dossett’ s magnificent new piece which is all about the return of a long-lost but beloved family member.”

Dossett is known for writing songs that set a time and place for a story. She’s written music for four plays featuring North Carolina folklore. Dossett recently performed one of those songs with the North Carolina Symphony in July 2011 for its pirate-themed performances. She first performed with the Symphony in 2009 for the “Blue Skies and Golden Sands” tour, celebrating the region’s musical connection to the coast.

Symphony fans will also recognize Giddens Laffan, who recently performed with Llewellyn in “Around the World in 80 Minutes” last summer at Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary. Newberry, the holiday string-band banjoist, was one of the chief architects of the Symphony’s “Blue Skies and Red Earth” and “Blue Skies and Golden Sands” tours in 2007 and 2009 respectively, and also performed with the orchestra in its 2006 New Year’s Eve concert and on the “Branford Marsalis and Friends” benefit concert on June 8, 2010.

The string band quartet is also releasing a holiday compact disc of the music that features the stringed arrangements, which will be available online and at concert performances.

Pianist Louis Lortie joins Grant Llewellyn and the North Carolina Symphony for concerts in Chapel Hill (Nov.10) and Raleigh (Nov.11 & 12), featuring works by Rachmaninoff and Liszt. Hailed as “one of perhaps half a dozen pianists it is worth dropping everything to go and hear,” (Daily Telegraph, London), Lortie is known for the fresh perspective and individuality he brings to his performances. He took a few moments to answer some of our burning questions about his life and work.

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