Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Hiraeth Played by the North Carolina Symphony With Jean-Yves Thibaudet Thursday, Sept. 24, 7:30 p.m., $10–$75 Memorial Hall, 208 E. Cameron Ave., Chapel Hill Friday, Sept. 25–Saturday, Sept. 26, 8 p.m., $18–$75 Meymandi Concert Hall, 2 E. South St., Raleigh 919-733-2750, www.ncsymphony.org When North Carolina Symphony General Manager Martin Sher approached New […]
Dan Ruccia
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Record review: Now Ensemble’s Dreamfall
Dreamfall, the third record by the New York-based NOW Ensemble, features seven pieces by seven composers, all with distinctive voices, exploring the idea of dreams. Its title track, written by group guitarist Mark Dancigers, tries to narrate a dream using a mix of post-minimalist grooves and classical flourishes. Scott Smallwood’s “still in here” re-creates the […]
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Live: The North Carolina Symphony mixes the old with the new
North Carolina Symphony’s “Appalachian Spring” Meymandi Concert Hall, Raleigh Friday, April 24, 2015 In a preconcert conversation on Friday night, North Carolina Symphony Music Director Grant Llewellyn talked about discovering the term “indie classical” as he prepared music by Judd Greenstein and Sarah Kirkland Snider for the night’s concert. At first, he wasn’t sure what […]
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North Carolina native Caroline Shaw ignores the divides between composer and performer, the finished and unfinished
American Contemporary Music Ensemble: “The Music of Caroline Shaw” Saturday, April 18, 8 p.m., $10–$24 Motorco, 723 Rigsbee Ave., Durham, 919-684-4444 dukeperformances.duke.edu In Conversation with Caroline Shaw Friday, April 17, 3 p.m., free Biddle Music Building, 9 Brodie Gym Dr., Durham, 919-684-4444 dukeperformances.duke.edu I knew I’d heard the music that had just won the Pulitzer […]
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Live: A more intimate mastery with Gabriel Kahane at Cat’s Cradle
Gabriel Kahane with the North Carolina Symphony String Quartet and Jennifer Curtis Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro Monday, March 23, 2015 I missed Gabriel Kahane’s last performance in Chapel Hill. He was premiering the staged version of his new album, The Ambassador, at Memorial Hall with a nine-piece ensemble, intricate scenery and lavish theatricality. But I couldn’t […]
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Live: The music of Boulez, in real life
Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich play Boulez Memorial Hall, Chapel Hill Wednesday, March 18, 2015 Pierre Boulez turns 90 Thursday, March 26. During his decades, he has demanded a great deal from both performers and audience. His musical vision is as uncompromising as his notes are challenging to play. Consequently, his music doesn’t get performed […]
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Modernist master: Schoenberg conference honors retiring UNC Music Department professor
When an eminent scholar retires, their department will often hold some kind of event—a conference, a panel discussion, so on—to celebrate their contribution to the field. And Severine Neff, the Eugene Falk Distinguished Professor of Music at UNC-Chapel Hill, is indeed a scholar worthy of celebration. During the past 40 years, she has helped expand […]
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Pierre Boulez wrote difficult music. But listen with persistence, and the payoff is big
Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich Wednesday, March 18, 7:30 p.m. $15–$49 UNC’s Memorial Hall 114 E. Cameron Ave. Chapel Hill 919-843-3333, carolinaperformingarts.org During his second piano sonata, French composer Pierre Boulez instructs players to “avoid absolutely … what are customarily called ‘expressive nuances.’” He tells them, instead, to sound percussive, violent, broken, strident, exasperated and […]
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How the sounds of World War I shaped the new program from the Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet Thursday, Feb. 12, 7:30 p.m. $10–$29 UNC’s Memorial Hall 114 E. Cameron Ave., Chapel Hill 919-843-3333 carolinaperformingarts.org Is it possible to be radical 40 years into your musical career? After commissioning 800 new pieces and performing works that span a millennium? After groups like the JACK Quartet, ETHEL, Brooklyn Rider and, locally, New […]
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Live: Jeremy Denk pounds out a classical music mixtape
Jeremy Denk Duke’s Baldwin Auditorium, Durham Friday, Jan. 23, 2014 I inexplicably missed Jeremy Denk’s last concert in the Triangle, a Duke Performances set in February 2011 in which he played György Ligeti’s Piano Etudes Books 1 & 2 and Bach’s Goldberg Variations. I’m still kicking myself just thinking about how amazing that concert must […]