NC Symphony 2017-18 season brings back cellist Zuill Bailey
What do the movie “Home Alone,” the Broadway musical “My Fair Lady” and a live CD recording session with a Billboard chart-topping soloist have in common? They’re all part of the North Carolina Symphony’s 2017-18 Raleigh season in Meymandi Concert Hall. The September-to-May schedule includes over 30 different programs in more than 60 separate performances.
Grant Llewellyn, in his 14th season as music director, conducts classical concerts that include favorite symphonies and concertos by Bach, Beethoven, Schubert and Mendelssohn, but also explores lesser-known works by Rachmaninoff (“The Rock”) and Sibelius (“En Saga”). He also leads a concert staging of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” with actors from the UNC School of the Arts and music by Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev. Cellist Zuill Bailey returns for his third live recording collaboration with Llewellyn in Schumann’s Cello Concerto. A half-dozen guest conductors lead programs that mix established classics with new works by Nico Muhly, Missy Mazzoli and Sarah Kirkland Snider, among others.
The orchestra’s pops series includes an Irish Celtic celebration, The Kruger Brothers and an evening of Rolling Stones music, plus a semi-staged version of “My Fair Lady.” Three young people’s concerts feature dance, puppetry and humor in “Peter and the Wolf,” “The Firebird” and a program about listening and audience participation. Special off-series programs offer the screening of “Home Alone,” with John Williams’ score played live, and “A Candlelight Christmas,” with handheld lights and luminaries enhancing the performance of traditional hymns and carols.
For information about all subscription options, dates, times and ticket prices, call 919-733-2750 or visit ncsymphony.org.
Correspondent Roy C. Dicks
This story was originally published February 5, 2017 at 6:00 PM with the headline "NC Symphony 2017-18 season brings back cellist Zuill Bailey."