This preview has been provided by the North Carolina Symphony.

The North Carolina Symphony’s Classical Season continues Friday, Nov. 6, and Saturday, Nov. 7, as conductor Edwin Outwater and the North Carolina Symphony perform Beethoven’s 8th Symphony and Beethoven’s Overture to King Stephen, Stravinsky’s Dumbarton Oaks, and Caroline Shaw’s “Lo,” which will be performed by the composer and violinist herself, in Meymandi Concert Hall.  Ms. Shaw’s piece was co-commissioned by the North Carolina Symphony and the Cincinnati Symphony. The concerts begin at 8 p.m. each evening.

Caroline Shaw is a New York-based musician appearing in many different guises. Trained primarily as a violinist from an early age in North Carolina, she is a Grammy Award-winning singer in the group Roomful of Teeth. In 2013, Ms. Shaw became the youngest winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music for her enigmatic composition Partita for 8 Voices (nominated for a Grammy, Best Classical Composition). In the fall of 2014, she was the inaugural Musician in Residence at Dumbarton Oaks and is now the Composer in Residence with Vancouver’s Music on Main through 2016. While committed to maintaining a busy freelance career as a violinist and singer, performing primarily contemporary classical music, she has taken commissions to create new work for the Carmel Bach Festival, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Guggenheim Museum (FLUX Quartet), The Crossing and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.

Edwin Outwater is Music Director of Ontario’s Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony (KWS) and regularly guest conducts the Chicago and New World Symphonies. Equally at home interpreting canonical masterworks, premiering new commissions, and creating truly innovative, audience building programming initiatives, the American conductor is, as San Francisco Classical Voice recently observed, “headed for a top-tier future.”   Guest conducting appearances include the Tokyo Symphony, the New York City Ballet, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Alabama Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Phoenix Symphony, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra, as well as the symphonies of Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Victoria. International appearances include the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the New Zealand Symphony, the Adelaide Symphony, the Malmö Symphony, the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, the Mexico City Philharmonic, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa, and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta.

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 Friday, Nov. 6, performance Catherine Brand of WUNC-91.5 FM will host a Meet the Artist session at 6:30 p.m. in the Swalin Lobby of Meymandi Concert Hall. Before the Saturday, Nov. 7 performances, Dr. Jonathan Kramer of N.C. State University will give a pre-concert talk at 7 p.m. in the Swalin Lobby. 

Tickets to the Raleigh Classical Series performances on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 6-7, range from $18 to $66.  Student tickets are $10.  Concert tickets at all performances are also available at the door one hour prior to concert start time.

The North Carolina Symphony expresses its appreciation to Concert Sponsor Mr. and Mrs. Edward O. Woolner for their generous support.

Other 2015-16 season highlights include A Baroque Christmas featuring music from Bach, and Handel, including the Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah,  and “Cirque Musica Holiday Spectacular” in December, the beautiful Firebird on Valentine’s weekend, and Beethoven’s Triple and Brahms Double in April, featuring Grant Llewellyn conducting cellist Zuill Bailey, violinist Philippe Quint, and pianist Awadagin Pratt.

Subscriptions to all of the Symphony’s concert series are available online at www.ncsymphony.org/subscriptions or by calling the North Carolina Symphony Box Office at 919.733.2750 or toll free 877.627.6724.                                    

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

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, Resident Conductor William Henry Curry, and Associate Conductor David Glover.

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.

Nov. 6-7 Program Listing
North Carolina Symphony
Beethoven’s 8th
Edwin Outwater, conductor
Caroline Shaw, violin

Nov. 6-7, 2015, 8 p.m.
Meymandi Concert Hall
Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh

BEETHOVEN:  Overture to King Stephen, Op. 117

SHAW:  Lo for Solo Violin and Orchestra (NCS Co-Commission)

STRAVINSKY:   Concerto in E-flat major for Chamber Orchestra, “Dumbarton Oaks”
   I.     Tempo giusto
   II.    Allegretto

   III.   Con moto

BEETHOVEN:  Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93
   I.     Allegro vivace con brio
   II.    Allegretto scherzando
   III.   Tempo di menuetto
   IV.   Allegro vivace