Classical concerts to hit airwaves

The Post and Couruier

WDAV Classical Public Radio and the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra have announced a three-year agreement to bring North Carolina's largest professional orchestra to the airwaves.

Beginning with the 2010-11 season, WDAV will produce and broadcast seven of the Charlotte Symphony's classical concerts each season through 2013. They will be available on South Carolina stations through South Carolina Public Radio.

The agreement, forged among WDAV, orchestra management, musician representatives and Local 342 of the American Federation of Musicians, is pending ratification by the full membership of the Charlotte Symphony.

"I am absolutely thrilled by this agreement, which I view as a critical step to the future of this orchestra," said Christopher Warren-Green, the orchestra's new music director.

Warren-Green will inaugurate his tenure in Charlotte conducting the season-opening concert on Sept. 24. Beginning at 7 p.m., WDAV's Jennifer Foster and Joe Brant will present the broadcast live on WDAV 89.9 and on wdav.org, direct from the Belk Theater of the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center. Cellist Alisa Weilerstein, who performs at Spoleto Festival USA with the Chamber Music Series, will make her Charlotte Symphony debut playing Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor.

The Charlotte Symphony concerts will be a central feature of WDAV's "Carolina Live," a weekly showcase of the Carolinas' best live classical-music performances, produced and broadcast jointly with the stations of South Carolina ETV Radio.

"Since the show's inception, we've regularly included live concert recordings from the Greensboro Symphony, The Asheville Symphony, the South Carolina Philharmonic, the Greenville Symphony, the Spoleto Festival Orchestra and the Brevard Music Center Orchestra," WDAV General Manager Benjamin K. Roe said.