Raleigh Civic Symphony and NC State Music Department Commemorate Earth Month with The Great Animal Orchestra Symphony

This preview has been provided by the Raleigh Civic Symphony Association.

In commemoration of Earth Month and in conjunction with community, university, educational, and local business partners, the NC State Music Department and Raleigh Civic Symphony Association present the East Coast premiere of The Great Animal Orchestra Symphony.

Based on the groundbreaking soundscapes of Dr. Bernie Krause, the music was composed by renowned British composer Richard Blackford and combines recordings of animals in their natural environments with a live symphony orchestra. Using Krause’s vast library of almost 5,000 hours of soundscape recordings, Blackford’s composition is an exciting, thought-provoking and moving look at man, animals, the environment, and the relationship between them all.

An innovative blend of science, music and environmental education, the event will include a keynote talk by the composer and a special video from Dr. Krause on the cross-disciplinary collaborative process and the science behind the music. The concert will be followed by a discussion and question and answer session with a panel drawn from musicians and scientists engaged in environmental research and advocacy.

The concert will be held Sunday, April 17 at 4pm in Stewart Theatre, on the NC State Campus. The event is hosted by the orchestra in cooperation with the NC State Sustainability Office, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, the NC State Earth Week committee, and numerous partners from NC State and the Triangle. This performance of The Great Animal Orchestra Symphony is supported by a grant from the NC State Sustainability Fund and with the generous assistance of the NC State Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources.

The NC State students participating in the orchestra are both undergraduates and graduate students, and represent a wide variety of majors and fields, many directly related to the issues raised by the GAOS. Though none of the students are music majors, the orchestras give the students an opportunity to pursue their passion for music while simultaneously working at a high level in their given fields.