The North Carolina Symphony and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences will celebrate the centennial of the North Carolina State Parks with a multimedia experience that combines the music of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons with breathtaking imagery of nature across our state on a video screen above the orchestra.
Led by Music Director Grant Llewellyn, three multi-media performances will take place on Friday, March 18 and Saturday, March 19 at 8 p.m. and Wednesday, March 23 at 7:30 p.m. in Raleigh’s Meymandi Concert Hall. The Friday and Saturday performances will also include “Musica celestis” by Aaron Jay Kernis and “Seeing is Believing” by Nico Muhly. The Wednesday performance will include “Seeing is Believing” by Nico Muhly. Featured NCS soloists will be Karen Strittmatter Galvin, electric violin; Elizabeth Phelps, violin; Jacqueline Saed Wolborsky, violin; Dovid Friedlander, violin; and Rebekah Binford, violin.
“I am thrilled at the opportunity to showcase the new department of Natural and Cultural Resources during this spectacular performance,” said Secretary Susan Kluttz of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. “I am thankful to Governor Pat McCrory in recognizing the synergy the State Parks and Science Museums, as well as the Zoo and Aquariums, brings to the Symphony and the rest of the former Cultural Resources. We are better together.”
Sandi Macdonald, North Carolina Symphony’s President and CEO says, “The North Carolina Symphony has a long tradition of successful partnerships. These collaborations are especially rewarding and the results are far greater than what could be created by the respective partners on our own. It’s an honor to work with the Museum of Natural Sciences to celebrate the heritage of our State Parks, illuminated by Vivaldi’s timeless musical landscapes.”
“I have long dreamed of compelling more-than-the-sum-of-the-parts opportunities to link the performing arts and the natural world,” remarks Emlyn Koster, PhD, Director of the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences. “Especially because we are recently conjoined by the new State Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, it is extra thrilling that the Museum and Symphony are performing together. One imagines that Vivaldi would have been delighted with today’s technical possibilities to augment the impact of his nature-inspired music.”
“The 2016 centennial of our state parks system is being celebrated in parks throughout the state and throughout the year, but this commemoration combining beautiful music and North Carolina’s beautiful landscape should be unique and memorable,” said Mike Murphy, State Parks Director. “It’s sure to inspire the audience to personally reconnect with that landscape in our state parks.”
This multimedia collaboration also kicks off the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau’s “Artify: The Arts in Parks,” a convergence of arts organizations celebrating 100 years of parks, the art that happens in them and the art inspired by them.
On Friday, March 18, Saturday, March 19 and Wednesday, March 23, Martin Sher, Vice President and General Manager of the North Carolina Symphony, will host a Meet the Artist session at 6:30 p.m. in the Swalin Lobby of Meymandi Concert Hall.
Tickets to the Raleigh performances on Friday, March 18, Saturday, March 19 and Wednesday, March 23, range from $18 to $66. Student tickets are $10. Concert tickets for all performances are also available at the door one hour prior to concert start time. Meymandi Concert Hall is located in the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, 2 E. South St., in Raleigh.
Concert sponsor for the Friday, March 18 performance is Fifth Third Private Bank. Weekend sponsor for March 18 and 19 is Duke Health.
About the Artists
Before being named Assistant Concertmaster of the North Carolina Symphony, Karen Strittmatter Galvin was a member of the Delaware Symphony Orchestra and had an active freelance career in Washington DC, performing regularly with the Washington National Opera and the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra. She is a former member and soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra and the Westmoreland Symphony. Ms. Galvin is also an avid chamber musician.
Principal Second Violin Elizabeth Phelps grew up outside New Haven, Connecticut, and began playing violin at the age of four. She received a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Paul Kantor and Stephen Rose. While a student, she also played in a number of orchestras, including the Canton Symphony under Gerhardt Zimmermann, where she was Assistant Principal Second Violin. Ms. Phelps joined the North Carolina Symphony in 2013.
Jacqueline Saed Wolborsky is the Associate Principal Second Violinist of the North Carolina Symphony and on the violin faculty at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Before coming to North Carolina, Jacqueline was a member of the Charleston Symphony and an adjunct professor of violin at the College of Charleston. She has been a featured soloist with the North Carolina Symphony and the Brussels Chamber Orchestra, received first prize and the audience choice award at the South Carolina Philharmonic Competition and was honored with the Russell Award at the Coleman International Chamber Music Competition in Pasadena, California
Dovid Friedlander joined the North Carolina Symphony as Associate Concertmaster in 2005. He previously performed with the Columbus Symphony and was the Assistant Concertmaster of the San Antonio Symphony. He has also played with the Boston Symphony at the Tanglewood Music Festival and regularly with the Pittsburgh Symphony in concerts and on tour, with such conductors as Seiji Ozawa, Mariss Jansons and Claudio Abbado. In addition to playing with the North Carolina Symphony, Mr. Friedlander is an active chamber musician in the Raleigh area.
Rebekah Binford joined the North Carolina Symphony as a violinist in the 1982-83 season. Binford studied with James Buswell at Indiana University, with David Cerone and Ivan Galamian at Meadowmount, and has taken Master Classes with Isaac Stern and Joseph Silverstein. She worked closely with Joseph Silverstein while at Tanglewood’s Berkshire Music Center in both orchestral and chamber music. She has performed with many chamber music groups including Aurora Musicalis, Mallarmé Chamber Players and Amici della Musica, which she helped found with other North Carolina Symphony members in 1986.