This preview has been provided by the North Carolina Symphony.

Showstoppers from Broadway, opera and popular music will fill Meymandi Concert Hall in two performances at Meymandi Concert Hall in downtown Raleigh, Friday, Jan. 18, at 8 p.m., and Saturday, Jan. 19, at 8 p.m.  Led by North Carolina Symphony Resident Conductor William Henry Curry and performed by vocalists Katie Rose Clarke and Nicole Parker, the performances will feature favorites from Tony Award-winning musicals like “Wicked,” “Gypsy,” “Spamalot,” and “Titanic,” and the beloved opera “Carmen” in a night of wickedly good vocal fireworks.

Katie Rose Clarke was most recently seen in the Broadway production of “Wicked” as Glinda the Good.  She also played the role for nearly two years in the first national touring company.  Clarke made her Broadway debut as Clara Johnson in Lincoln Center Theatre’s production of “The Light in the Piazza,” under the direction of Bartlett Sher.  In that role, Clarke appeared in the national broadcast “Live from Lincoln Center.”  Clarke appeared in the East Coast debut of Craig Lucas’ play “Prayer for My Enemy,” as Marianne Noone at the Long Wharf Theatre Company in Connecticut. 

Best known for playing the role of Elphaba in the hit Broadway production of “Wicked,” Nicole Parker has also been seen on Broadway in “Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me,” and originating the role of Red in “The People in the Picture.”  Currently, she is starring as Elphaba in the national tour of “Wicked.”  Parker has also appeared as Rosemary in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” with Reprise! in Los Angeles, and Juliet in “The Second City’s Romeo and Juliet Musical” at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.  For six years, Parker was a cast member and contributing writer on Fox’s MADtv.  Her films include “Funny People,” directed by Judd Apatow.

Program Listing:

North Carolina Symphony
Grant Llewellyn, Music Director
Lara St. John, Violin

Francesca da Rimini, Op. 32
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Spring from The Four Seasons, Op. 8, No. 1 (R. 269)
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
I.     Allegro
II.    Largo e pianissimo sempre
III.    Danza Pastorale (Allegro)
    Lara St. John, violin

Summer from The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires
Ástor Piazzolla (1921-1992)
    Lara St. John, violin

Autumn from The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires
Ástor Piazzolla (1921-1998)
    Lara St. John, violin

Winter from The Four Seasons, Op. 8, No. 4 (R. 297)
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
I.     Allegro non molto
II.    Largo
III.    Allegro
    Lara St. John, violin

Capriccio italien, Op. 45
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

 

Tickets to “Wicked Divas” on Friday, Jan. 18, and Saturday, Jan. 19, range from $18 to $66.  Student tickets are $15. 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.

Pops Series Sponsors include CEI: The Digital Office, Highwoods Properties, Triangle Business Journal, and North State Strategies.  Statewide partnership and support provided by Progress Energy.

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

About the North Carolina Symphony

Founded in 1932, the North Carolina Symphony performs over 175 concerts 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 Progress 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.