Music Director Grant Llewellyn and the North Carolina Symphony will continue an exploration of the works of Gustav Mahler with performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 on Thursday, May 8, at 7:30 p.m., in Memorial Hall on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and on Friday, May 9, and Saturday, May 10, at 8 p.m. in Meymandi Concert Hall in downtown Raleigh.  Joining the orchestra for the performances will be mezzo-soprano Susan Platts, the Raleigh Boychoir, and the North Carolina Master Chorale Women’s Choir.

In notes for the program, scholar Dr. Richard E. Rodda writes, “Mahler’s deepest ambition was to compose, to embody in tone the complexity, profundity and humanity of the world around him. Indeed, composition was for him an almost insatiable need. ‘I don’t choose what to compose,’ he often said. ‘It chooses me.’”  Mahler envisioned his third Symphony as a “grand musical evocation of the forces and creations of nature.”

British-born Canadian mezzo-soprano Susan Platts brings a uniquely rich and wide-ranging voice to concert and recital repertoire for alto and mezzo-soprano. She is particularly esteemed for her performances of Gustav Mahler’s works.

The Raleigh Boychoir, under the direction of Robert Unger, Artistic Director, and Vicki Oehling, Training Choir Director and Principal Accompanist, is comprised of four choirs (Training, Resident, Performing and Millennium) totaling about 60 choristers. The Raleigh Boychoir performs locally 15-20 times per year, as well as traveling both nationally and internationally.

One of the major choral organizations of the Southeast, the North Carolina Master Chorale has been performing choral-orchestral masterworks for more than 60 years. The Master Chorale boasts two renowned ensembles: a 170-voice symphonic choir and a 22-voice professional chamber choir that presents a diverse repertoire from the Renaissance to Contemporary. Its singers, selected by audition, regularly perform with symphony orchestras, opera companies, ballet and touring productions.

In addition to stellar performances, North Carolina Symphony concertgoers can enjoy pre-concert talks, post-concert discussions, and “Meet the Artists,” which feature interactive conversations with guest artists and select orchestra members, at many Symphony events.  Before the Chapel Hill performance on May 8, Dr. Letitia Glozer of UNC will give a talk beginning at 6:40 p.m. in Gerrard Hall, adjacent to Memorial Hall. 

Before the Friday, May 9, performance in Raleigh, Dr. Jonathan Kramer of N.C. State University will give a pre-concert talk at 7 p.m. in the Swalin Lobby of Meymandi Concert Hall.  Before the Saturday, May 10, performance in Raleigh, Catherine Brand of WUNC will host a Meet the Artist session at 6:30 p.m. in Swalin Lobby.

Tickets to the Chapel Hill Classical Series performance on April 24 range from $18 to $72.  Tickets to the Raleigh Classical Series performances on Friday and Saturday, April 25-26, range from $18 to $75.  Student tickets at both locations are $15.  Concert tickets at all performances are also available at the door one hour prior to concert start time.

Memorial Hall is located at 114 East Cameron Ave., on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  The Symphony provides a free shuttle service from two locations:

  • University Mall between Dillards and Wells Fargo bank.
  • Southern Villages near the Village Green Stage on Aberdeen Drive.

The shuttle service departs between 6:15 p.m. and 6:20 p.m.

Meymandi Concert Hall is located in the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, 2 E. South St., in Raleigh.

Partners for the 2013/14 Chapel Hill Series include Carol Woods Retirement Community, Harrington Bank, and The Businesses of Market Street, Southern Village. 

Partners for the 2013/14 Raleigh Classical Series include Clancy & Theys Construction; Duke Medicine; Smith Anderson; and Marriott Raleigh City Center.

Statewide partner is Duke Energy.

About the North Carolina Symphony

Founded in 1932, the North Carolina Symphony gives more than 200 performances annually to adults and school children in more than 50 North Carolina counties. An entity of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, the orchestra employs 66 professional musicians, under the artistic leadership of Music Director and Conductor Grant Llewellyn and Resident Conductor William Henry Curry.

Based in downtown Raleigh’s spectacular Meymandi Concert Hall at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts and an outdoor summer venue at Booth Amphitheatre in Cary, N.C., the Symphony performs about 60 concerts annually in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Cary metropolitan area. It holds regular concert series in Fayetteville, New Bern, Southern Pines and Wilmington — as well as individual concerts in many other North Carolina communities throughout the year — and conducts one of the most extensive education programs of any U.S. orchestra.

May 8-10 Concert/Event Listings:
North Carolina Symphony
“Grant Conducts Mahler”
Grant Llewellyn, Music Director
Susan Platts, mezzo-soprano<
The Raleigh Boychoir
North Carolina Master Chorale Women’s Choir

Thursday, May 8, 2014, 7:30 p.m.
Memorial Hall, UNC-Chapel Hill

Friday, May 9 and Saturday, May 10, 8 p.m.
Meymandi Concert Hall, Raleigh

May 8-10 Program
North Carolina Symphony
“Grant Conducts Mahler”
Grant Llewellyn, Music Director
Susan Platts, mezzo soprano<
The Raleigh Boychoir
North Carolina Master Chorale Women’s Choir

Symphony No. 3 in D minor
Gustav Mahler  (1860-1911)
Kräftig, Entschieden
       I.  Tempo di menuetto: Sehr mässig
      II.  Comodo, scherzando, Ohne Hast
     III.  Sehr langsam, misterioso
     IV.  Lustig im Tempo und keck im Ausdruck
      V.  Langsam. Rulevoll. Empfunden.
              Susan Platts, mezzo soprano
              Raleigh Boy Choir
              North Carolina Master Chorale, Women’s Choir