“Stand Up For Your Symphony” Rally On The Square
The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra hosts a rally in Uptown Charlotte at Trade and Tryon streets, at high noon on Thursday, August 27th. Ensembles of Charlotte Symphony musicians will perform, and...
View ArticleWDAV To Broadcast Live Reports from Charlotte Symphony Uptown Rally
The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra hosts a rally in Uptown Charlotte at Trade and Tryon Streets tomorrow, Thursday, August 27, at noon, and WDAV will take you there. Midday host Jennifer Foster brings...
View ArticleCharlotte Symphony Musicians Ratify Contract
The Charlotte Symphony Board and musicians have agreed to a new four-year contract which reduces the number of paid working weeks in the Symphony season. The parties negotiated the contract in the face...
View ArticleWDAV Previews the Symphony Seasons
This week Jennifer Foster will host two season preview programs – for the Charlotte Symphony and the Winston-Salem Symphony. She’ll take a look at what’s coming up on their classics series and will...
View ArticleCharlotte Symphony Receives Two Million-Dollar Gifts in One Day
The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra announced today that it has received pledges of $1 million contributions from two of the region’s most generous arts philanthropists: Jane & Hugh McColl, and the...
View ArticleCharlotte Symphony Announces Replacement Conductor for Season Finale
POSTED Monday, April 19, 2010 — As a result of the ash cloud from the recent volcano eruption in Iceland that has mandated closures of virtually all European airports and cancellations of flights, the...
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Mei-Ann Chen Makes a Triumphant Return with Charlotte Symphony
by Lawrence Toppman The most recent Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (CSO) concert at Knight Theater was Old Home Week. Concertmaster Calin Ovidiu Lupanu got his annual solo outing in Bruch’s First Violin...
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A Happy Union of Erik and Igor and Ludwig and Paolo
By Lawrence Toppman Officially, the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (CSO) concert last weekend paid homage to the exhibit of Picasso landscapes next door at the Mint Museum. Picasso designed sets and...
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Why The New Charlotte Symphony Season Matters Next Year More Than Ever
By Lawrence Toppman British auto engineer Alec Issigonis famously described a camel as “a horse designed by a committee.” Yet in the absence of a music director, a committee from the Charlotte...
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Has Jessica Cottis Pulled Ahead in CSO’s Music Director Race?
By Lawrence Toppman “I wonder if I can outdo Beethoven at the top of his game,” said no sensible composer ever during the last 220 years. But I’d bet Felix Mendelssohn had that fleeting thought as he...
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Symphony Unfurls Rachmaninov in His Long, Emotional Glory
By Lawrence Toppman Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (CSO) officials have been close-mouthed about which guest conductors this season have applied for the job of music director. I’d guess Lan Shui isn’t...
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Fleming Defies Time, Genre Boundaries in Charlotte Symphony Gala
By Lawrence Toppman I’ve been lucky enough to hear many great singers in their 60s. Frank Sinatra captivated a casino crowd for two full hours. Leontyne Price bewitched an audience with baroque arias...
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Musical Metamorphosis: Melissa White Shines at the Charlotte Symphony
By Lawrence Toppman If I say I spent Friday night watching a beautiful violinist shed her garments, the words “Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (CSO)” will not leap to your lips. But Melissa White did...
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From Faust to Triumph: A Night of Orchestral Wonders
By Lawrence Toppman Until last weekend, I had two opinions about Christopher James Lees. I formed the first from our interviews long ago; there he was funny, articulate, relaxed and insightful about...
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Kwamé Ryan Leads Orchestra from Fearful Whispers to Heaven-Storming Prayers
By Lawrence Toppman The Decca Recording Company used to boast about ”ffrr” discs: full frequency range recordings, which captured everything from barely audible pianissimos to ground-shaking fortes....
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Kwamé Ryan Has Been Named the Next Music Director of the Charlotte Symphony...
The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (CSO) has announced that Kwamé Ryan, hailed as a “dynamic conductor” by The Baltimore Sun, will assume the role of the Orchestra’s next Music Director beginning in...
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Charlotte Symphony Gets the Blues
By Lawrence Toppman Patrons arrived with lips turned blue by the sudden savagery of a January wind. Soloist Jennifer Koh stood on the Knight Theater podium, her bright blue hair shining like a...
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Fullana’s Fire, Harada’s Charm Light Up Knight Theater
By Lawrence Toppman How does the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra find these whizbangs? Almost all the youngish music director candidates of the last two years impressed me, and the trend has continued...
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Pianist Cann Electrifies an Otherwise Staid Concert
By Lawrence Toppman When I started going to concerts back in the LP era, a college friend could offer no higher praise than this afterward: “Man, I would buy a record of that!” I thought of him...
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A Musical Journey: Unearthing Oskar Böhme and Julia Perry’s Brilliance at the...
By Lawrence Toppman The least interesting things about the Charlotte Symphony (CSO) concert billed as “Wagner & Strauss” were the pieces by Wagner and Strauss. The orchestra gave workmanlike...
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