This preview has been provided by North Carolina Symphony.

The North Carolina Symphony and Triangle Youth Ballet will bring “Peter and the Wolf,” Sergei Prokofiev’s timeless story of bravery and teamwork, to life on stage in NCS Kids Series Young People’s Concerts on Saturday, Jan 3, 2015, at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. at Meymandi Concert in downtown Raleigh.

The concerts, which will feature playful music, colorful costumes and beautiful dance, will be led by Symphony Associate Conductor David Glover. Free pre-concert activities, which begin an hour before each concert, include the MetLife Instrument Zoo, face painting with Paint Savvy, and Music Makers with Marbles Kids Museum.

Founded in 1995 by Lauren Lorentz de Haas, the Triangle Youth Ballet is dedicated to training dancers and instilling a deeper understanding of dance arts in the Triangle community.  Since its affiliate school opened in 2003, Triangle Youth Ballet has worked with thousands of young dancers, many of whom have been accepted into training programs at esteemed dance companies across the country.

Narrator Heather Patterson King is a New York-based actor and singer who has directed and performed in regional theaters, concert halls and cabarets for over 20 years.  She has performed with the North Carolina Symphony as solo vocalist in the Red Carpet and Silver Screen concert and as the narrator for Peter and the Wolf and Carnival of the Animals. She currently teaches acting and voice in New York City. She studied theater and music at Franklin College of Indiana, Indiana University and University of Louisville.

Director Tito Hernandez made his Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning musical Jerome Robbins’ Broadway. Other credits include Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats, the National Tour of Evita and The Gingerbread Lady starring Oscar winner Shelly Winters. As a choreographer or director, Mr. Hernandez has worked at Houston’s Theatre Under the Stars, The Alley Theatre, Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre and Disneyland, and has choreographed or directed productions of Evita, (starring Ray Walker and Lauren Kennedy), The King and I, (starring Lou Diamond Phillips) and NCT’s Summer Theatre Arts School for the past eight years. He is also the Dance Department Head at The North Carolina Theatre Conservatory.

Joseph Gaitens, who plays Peter, has appeared in North Carolina Theatre productions of Disney’s The Little Mermaid , Les Misérables, and Oliver! An eighth-grader, he plays timpani and percussion in his middle-school band, twice being awarded timpanist for the All-County Symphonic Honor Band. He studies voice with Elizabeth LaBelle and he studies voice, acting and dance at the North Carolina Theatre Conservatory with Ray Walker and Tito Hernandez.

Kurt Uphoff, who plays The Grandfather, has danced in the Triangle Youth Ballet’s The Nutcracker for 16 seasons. Originally inspired by his nine year old son who has gone on to a career as a professional dancer, his roles in recent Nutcracker performances have been as Grandpa and Mother Ginger. He has also performed as Don Quixote, the doctor in Dracula and the King in Sleeping Beauty, all of which were Triangle Youth Ballet performances.

Tickets to “Peter and the Wolfe” are $23. For more information, go to the North Carolina Symphony’s website at www.ncsymphony.org, or call 919.733.2750 or toll free 877.627.6724.  Tickets can also be purchased one hour prior to concert times at Meymandi Concert Hall. 

The 2014-15 NCS Kids Young People’s Concerts sponsor is WakeMed.  The Peter and the Wolf concerts are also made possible in part by The Drs. James and Mary Susan Fulghum Fund.

All NCS Kids performances take place on Saturdays at 1 p.m. and again at 4 p.m. at Meymandi Concert Hall in Raleigh’s Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts. This concert series is a wonderful way to introduce children to classical music and makes for great innovative family outings.  The final concert in the 2014-15 NCS Kids Young People’s Concerts series in Raleigh is “Mozart’s Magnificent Voyage” on March 7, 2015.

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 65 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.

Jan. 3 Concert/Event Listings:

North Carolina Symphony
“Peter and the Wolf”
David Glover, conductor
Triangle Youth Ballet
Heather Patterson King, narrator
Tito Hernandez, director
Joseph Gaitens, Peter
Kurt Uphoff, The Grandfather

Saturday, Jan. 3, 2015, 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.
Meymandi Concert Hall, Raleigh

Jan. 3 Programs

North Carolina Symphony
“Peter and the Wolf”
David Glover, conductor
Triangle Youth Ballet
Heather Patterson King (Narrator)
Tito Hernandez (Director)
Joseph Gaitens (Peter)
Kurt Uphoff (The Grandfather)

ROSSINI  Overture to La gazza ladra  

ELGAR  The Wand of Youth (Music to a Child’s Play), Suite 2, Op. 1B
  5. The Tame Bear
  6. The Wild Bears

RESPIGHI  Gli Uccelli   

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV  “Flight of the Bumblebee”

PROKOFIEV  Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67