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North Carolina Symphony Announces 2010-11 Concerts

Posted: February 21, 2010
	Ambitious programming, incomparable guest artists and repertoire that displays the brawn and talent of the orchestra in a generous span of colors, textures and moods mark the North Carolina Symphony’s outstanding 2010-11 season. “We’re taking a bold view, examining the orchestral canon in big, broad strokes,” says Music Director Grant Llewellyn. “Our intent is to take the audience on a fantastic musical journey over the course of the year. Offering a balanced musical diet is what we strive for as the season unwinds.” The Duke Medicine Raleigh Classical Series opens September 24-25, 2010 with a powerful program featuring iconic works by Schubert, Mahler and Beethoven. “Mahler is bookending the season as perhaps only Mahler can,” says Llewellyn. “There is probably no other single composer for symphony orchestras who has so stretched the medium. By programming the first movement of Mahler’s last symphony, the Tenth, at the top of the season and ending the season with his Ninth Symphony, we mean to make a powerful statement.” Because Mahler never finished his Tenth Symphony, Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, “Unfinished,” makes a perfect concert companion. Beethoven’s joyful Concerto for Piano, Violin and Cello, “Triple,” rounds out this first offering and features an exciting trio of emerging young artists: Navah Perlman, piano; Giora Schmidt, violin; and Zuill Bailey, cello. A focal point of the season will be four composer portraits: a deeper examination of Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Mahler and John Adams. “We’ll investigate these masters and really get to know them,” says Llewellyn. The Tchaikovsky program includes two well known works: the Overture from the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy and Rococo Variations for Cello and Orchestra, featuring the Symphony’s exquisitely gifted principal cellist, Bonnie Thron. Likely new to audiences will be the composer’s Symphony No. 7, compiled by Russian musicologist Semyon Bogatiryov using several sources from among Tchaikovsky’s works. It has all the characteristic symphonic sweep that listeners adore. For the Mozart portrait, the Symphony will collaborate with PlayMakers Repertory Theatre Company and director Joseph Haj in a semi-staged production of Sir Peter Shaffer’s popular play Amadeus. We’ll take a look at Mahler through the lens of his magnificent Symphony No. 9. The John Adams portrait will explore three works that represent the spectrum of his career: Eros Piano, Short Ride in a Fast Machine and Harmonium. Setting up these pieces will be works by Britten and Ives, as well as Beethoven’s rarely heard Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage. Pianist Christopher Baylor and the North Carolina Master Chorale will join the Symphony for this program. Other highlights from the season’s repertoire include some of the most celebrated works of the orchestral canon including Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, “Eroica;” Brahms’s Symphony No. 3; Haydn’s Symphony No. 49 in F minor, “La passion;” Elgar’s Symphony No. 1; Dvorák’s Symphony No. 5; Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10; and Vaughan Williams’s Symphony No. 2, “London.” Audiences will hear piano concertos by Rachmaninoff, Liszt and Saint-Saëns, as well as concertos for violin, violin and oboe, and the aforementioned Beethoven “Triple” Concerto. Among the season’s featured soloists will be several North Carolina Symphony musicians: Brian Reagin, concertmaster; Bonnie Thron, principal cello; Dovid Friedlander, associate concertmaster; and Melanie Wilsden, principal oboe. Extraordinary guest artists on the 2010-11 Duke Medicine Classical Series include several who will be introduced to North Carolina audiences for the first time. In addition to Navah Perlman and Giora Schmidt, violinist Baiba Skride and pianists Peter Donohoe, Jean-Phillipe Collard and Christopher Taylor make their North Carolina Symphony debuts next season. Returning to the Symphony will be exceptional pianists Noriko Ogawa and Stewart Goodyear as well as cellist Zuill Baily. Highly-praised guest conductors Alexander Mickelthwate, Andrea Quinn and Carlos Miguel Prieto will lead the orchestra in November, January and February. Widely considered one of classical music’s great emerging young talents, Mickelthwate is music director of the Winnipeg Symphony while Carlos Miguel Prieto is the dynamic young music director of the Louisiana Philharmonic. North Carolina Symphony audiences will remember British conductor Andrea Quinn as a finalist in the 2002-04 music director search. The Fidelity Investments Pops Series will open October 1-2 with Cirque de la Symphonie, a smash hit at the 2009 Summerfest series. Featuring the breathtaking acrobatic feats of some of the world’s top circus performers combined with some of the greatest classical music ever written, this performance will be fun and exciting for the entire family. The Series will also feature Motown legend Mary Wilson of The Supremes, as well as the delightfully entertaining Marvin Hamlisch presenting the Barbra Streisand Songbook with vocalist Julie Budd. Back by popular demand will be the little orchestra that rocked the music world in a big way. Pink Martini, with their mix of Paris café orchestra, classical wizardy and Brazilian samba, bring an unstoppable electric energy to their performances that always leaves us wanting more. The annual Holiday Pops concert in Raleigh celebrates the season with The Broadway Tenors, three outstanding performers who will team up with the orchestra and the Concert Singers of Cary to bring audiences the best of the musical holiday spirit. The Pops season concludes with Blues in the Night, a riveting journey through the history of jazz and blues in America featuring blues duo Phil Wiggins and Corey Harris and sopranos Tina Morris-Anderson and Rozlyn Sorrell. Friday Favorites, the Symphony’s popular weekday series, again includes three 75-minute daytime concerts. North Carolina Symphony conductors will offer insight from the stage into the music they love. Resident Conductor William Henry Curry’s October Friday Favorites concert features composer Stella Sung’s Rockwell Reflections, in collaboration with the North Carolina Museum of Art’s planned Norman Rockwell exhibition. In February, pianist Valentina Lisitsa will join Associate Conductor Sarah Hicks for Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No.2, along with by works Borodin, Debussy and Stravinsky. May brings Grant Llewellyn’s Shakespeare-themed look at works by Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Dvorák, Delius and Nicolai. Chapel Hill, Durham, Southern Pines, Fayetteville, New Bern and Wilmington offer performances that include the same great programs and artists that make up the Duke Medicine Classical Series and Friday Favorites Series, as well as some programs and guest artists heard only in those communities. “Performing in communities around the state continues to be one of the North Carolina Symphony’s most central missions,” says Llewellyn. “Meeting North Carolinians and taking our music to them is enjoyable to us, and it is hoped, to them.” Summerfest, the Symphony’s popular open-air concerts under the pines at Cary’s Koka Booth Amphitheatre, gets underway on May 29, 2010 for Play with the Pros, featuring area musicians of all ages. June 5 finds the Symphony honoring our troops in Red, White and Blue: A Salute to America’s Armed Forces. On June 12, fiery Cuban jazz ensemble Tiempo Libre will join Resident Conductor William Henry Curry for a night of hot rhythms from Spain, Central and South America. Everyone is invited to an anniversary party on June 19 when we celebrate our 10th season at fabulous Booth Amphitheatre. We’ll perform favorite repertoire from our wonderful decade under the stars. On June 26, we’ll share the stage with the Ahn Trio, one of classical/crossover’s hottest acts in music, featuring three talented sisters performing Kenji Bunch’s Hardware Concerto. Heading down the Yellow Brick Road on July 10, we’ll see the beloved and iconic film The Wizard of Oz on the big screen while the orchestra plays the soundtrack live. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, just enjoy the music! We’ll finish out the Summerfest season on July 17 with two great and powerful works: Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto and Saint-Saëns’s titanic “Organ” Symphony. And as always, we’ll be at Regency Park and on July 4 for all the excitement and fireworks of the Triangle’s best Independence Day celebration. Special Events for the 2010-11 season includes Branford Marsalis and Friends: A Benefit for the North Carolina Symphony. For one special night only, saxophonist and Symphony trustee Branford Marsalis will collaborate with amazing performers from across the musical spectrum, including gospel vocalist Tina Morris-Anderson, old-time string band Big Medicine and blues harmonica genius Phil Wiggins. Grant Llewellyn serves as host for this once-in-a-lifetime event. All proceeds support North Carolina Symphony statewide and education programs. Also on offer is a concert with the incomparable pianist Lang Lang on January 31. Following his appearances at the 2008 Bejing Olympics, Lang Lang has truly become a global icon as well as an electrifying performer. With the North Carolina Symphony, he’ll play Tchaikovsky’s superb Piano Concerto No. 1. And of course, we’ll welcome in the New Year with Grant Llewellyn, who promises his distinctive mix of fun and surprises to ring in 2011. Concertgoers agree: the North Carolina Symphony’s New Year’s Eve Celebration is the Triangle’s best party! Young People’s Series concerts are designed to delight children of all ages and their favorite adults. The series opens October 30 with Halloween Magic! A magician will perform mysterious and astounding illusions while the orchestra plays spooky and chilling music including Dukas’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Gounod’s Funeral March of a Marionette. Kid favorite Magic Circle Mime Company will return to Meymandi Concert Hall on January 22 for The Mozart Experience, a lively show designed to lead the audience in experiencing Mozart’s life as a very human story as well as a great musical adventure. Finally, on March 12, Prokofiev’s thrilling musical story Peter and the Wolf will come to life with actors and dancers to help tell the tale of bravery and teamwork. Information about subscription options, dates, times and ticket prices is available on the Symphony’s website at www.ncsymphony.org, through the season brochure, by calling Audience Services at 919.733.2750, 10am-5pm, Monday through Saturday or by visiting our box office located at North Hills in Raleigh. Call for directions. Read the complete season series list here (pdf). Back

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