Live music has returned in North Carolina—and this month the North Carolina Symphony is thrilled once again to perform free concerts in Chapel Hill and New Bern through the annual Concerts in Your Community series. The orchestra performs on Tryon Palace’s South Lawn in New Bern (hosted by Tryon Palace and the North Carolina History Center) on Thursday, June 24.
At this summer’s free program, NCS Associate Conductor Wesley Schulz will lead the Symphony in music perfect for a fun and relaxing summer night, from the country-inspired “Hoe-Down” from Copland’s Rodeo, to Rossini’s whirlwind overture to the opera The Barber of Seville, to the iconic theme music of the James Bond series.
As North Carolina’s state orchestra, NCS is committed to making orchestral music performances of the highest artistic quality accessible to all North Carolinians. The opportunity to experience a performance by the state’s premier arts organization at no cost, in a laid-back atmosphere, makes for a perfect evening out for families and friends. At the outdoor performances, concertgoers are invited to bring lawn chairs, blankets, and picnics to enjoy as the Symphony performs.
PROGRAM
Beethoven: Egmont Overture
Copland: “Hoe-Down” from Rodeo
Grainger: Irish Tune from County Derry
Rossini: Overture to The Barber of Seville
Jennifer Higdon: Amazing Grace
Mozart: Overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio
Various: Bond…James Bond
Copland: Variations on a Shaker Melody from Appalachian Spring
John Williams: Summon the Heroes
Brahms: Hungarian Dances No. 1 and No. 10
This program is FREE and open to the public; tickets are not required.
About the North Carolina Symphony
Founded in 1932, the North Carolina Symphony (NCS) is a vital and honored component of North Carolina’s cultural life. Each year, the North Carolina Symphony’s 300 concerts, education programs, and community engagement events are enjoyed by adults and schoolchildren in more than 90 North Carolina counties—in communities large and small; in concert halls, auditoriums, gymnasiums, restaurants, clubs, and outdoor settings; and, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, online.
In immediate response to the pandemic, NCS began creating high-quality digital education and performance content in March 2020. The Symphony’s streaming concert series has now been enjoyed by more than 124,000 people.
NCS’s state headquarters venue is the spectacular Meymandi Concert Hall at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Raleigh. The Symphony’s service across the state includes series in Chapel Hill, Fayetteville, New Bern, Southern Pines, and Wilmington, as well as the Summerfest series at its summer home, the outdoor Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary. NCS brings some of the world’s greatest talents to North Carolina and embraces home-state artists from classical musicians to bluegrass bands, creating live music experiences distinctive to North Carolina.
Committed to engaging students of all ages across North Carolina, NCS leads the most extensive education program of any symphony orchestra. In alignment with the curriculum set by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, the Symphony provides training and resources for teachers, sends small ensembles into classrooms, offers introductions to the instruments, and presents full-orchestra Education Concerts that bring the fundamentals of music to life. Music Discovery for preschoolers combines music with storytelling, and at the middle and high school levels, students have opportunities to work directly with NCS artists and perform for NCS audiences. In the 2019/20 season, the Symphony engaged more than 100,000 learners—across North Carolina, in all 50 U.S. states, and around the world—through its in-person and online programs.
NCS is dedicated to giving voice to new art, and has presented more than 50 U.S. or world premieres in its history. In 2017, NCS appeared at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., as one of four orchestras chosen for the inaugural year of SHIFT: A Festival of American Orchestras—an honor that recognized the Symphony’s creative programming and innovative community partnerships.
The first state-supported symphony in the country, NCS performs under the auspices of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. To learn more, visit ncsymphony.org.
Submitted by Meredith Kimball Laing, Director of Communications