This preview has been provided by the North Carolina Symphony.

Music Director Grant Llewellyn will lead the North Carolina Symphony in a 2012-2013 classical season orchestra highlight of Handel’s Messiah.  The performances take place on Thursday, Nov. 29, at 8 p.m., in Lee Auditorium in Southern Pines, and on Friday, Nov. 30 and Saturday, Dec. 1, at 8 p.m., and again on Sunday, Dec. 2, at 3 p.m., in downtown Raleigh’s Meymandi Concert Hall at the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts.    

Written by George Frideric Handel in 1741, and orchestrated by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1789, scholar Dr. Richard E. Rodda says that “the Handel-Mozart Messiah is a fascinating stylistic gloss by one of the 18th-century’s greatest masters on the best-known creation of another, which allows us to hear anew this thrice-familiar music.”

Llewellyn and the North Carolina Symphony will be joined by soprano Jodi Burns, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Holloway, tenor Benjamin Butterfield, bass Robert Pomakov, and the North Carolina Master Chorale, under the direction of Alfred E. Sturgis.

In addition to stellar performances, North Carolina Symphony concertgoers can enjoy pre-concert talks and “Meet the Artists,” which feature interactive conversations with guest artists and select orchestra members, at many Symphony events. For the Southern Pines performance on Nov. 29, Timothy Haley, of Sandhills Community College, will conduct a pre-concert talk in the Pinecrest High School band room at 7 p.m.  For the Raleigh performances, Jonathan Kramer of N.C. State University will give a pre-concert talk on Nov. 30, and Kristen Turner, of N.C. State University, will give a pre-concert talk on Dec. 1.  Both talks will take place at 7 p.m. in Swalin Lobby at Progress Energy Center.   There will be “Ask A Musician” opportunities in front of the stage at intermission in Southern Pines, and in the lobbies at intermission at the Raleigh performances.

Tickets to the Southern Pines Series performance of Messiah on Thursday, Nov. 29, range from $40 to $60.  Tickets to the Raleigh Classical Series performance of Messiah on Nov. 30, and Dec. 1-2 range from $40 to $60.  Student tickets are $15 in both locations.

To purchase tickets, visit the North Carolina Symphony website at www.ncsymphony.org or call the Symphony Box Office at 919.733.2750 or toll free 877.627.6724.

Meymandi Concert Hall is located in the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts, 2 E. South St., in Raleigh.  Lee Auditorium is located at 100 Pinecrest School Road, on the campus of Pinecrest High School in Southern Pines.

Raleigh concert-goers are also urged to bring food items to donate to the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle BackPack Buddies Program.  To find a list of suggested food items click here.

Partners for the 2012/13 Southern Pines Series include Pinehurst Auto Mall, Quail Haven Village, and St. Joseph of the Pines. 

Partners for the 2012/13 Raleigh Classical Series include Clancy & Theys Construction; Duke Medicine: Smith Anderson Blount Dorsett Mitchell & Jernigan, LLP; The Freelon Group; and Piedmont Investment Advisors, LLC.  Media partners are WRAZ Fox 50 and Our State Magazine.

Statewide partnership and support is provided by Progress Energy.

About the North Carolina Symphony

Founded in 1932 and subsequently made an entity of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, the North Carolina Symphony employs 67 professional musicians under the artistic leadership of Music Director and Conductor Grant Llewellyn and Resident Conductor William Henry Curry. Every year, this orchestra performs over 175 concerts in more than 50 North Carolina counties, with some 60 of those concerts offered in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan area.

The Symphony boasts two spectacular home venues: Meymandi Concert Hall at the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Raleigh and Booth Amphitheatre in Cary, N.C. The Symphony also travels 12,000 miles each year to present concert series in Fayetteville, New Bern, Southern Pines and Wilmington; individual concerts in communities across the state; and one of the most extensive education programs of any U.S. orchestra.

Concert/Event Listings:

North Carolina Symphony
Grant Llewellyn, Music Director

November 29, 2012 8pm
Lee Auditorium, Pinecrest High School, Southern Pines

November 30 and December 1, 2012, 8pm
December 2, 2012, 3pm
Meymandi Concert Hall, Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh

Program Listing:

North Carolina Symphony
Handel’s Messiah
Grant Llewellyn, Music Director
Jodi Burns, soprano
Jennifer Holloway, mezzo-soprano
Benjamin Butterfield, tenor
Robert Pomakov, bass
North Carolina Master Chorale
       Alfred E. Sturgis, Music Director

November 29-30; December 1-2
Messiah
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) /orch. Mozart
    I. The Advent of the Messiah

Inermission

Messiah
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) /orch. Mozart
   II. The Passion of Christ
  III. His Resurrection