Orchestra on Campus

Orchestra on Campus 2009 photo show

Orchestra on Campus 2009 is a Charlotte Symphony project in partnership with the Levine Museum of the New South, the Mint Museum of Art, and six local colleges: UNC Charlotte, Central Piedmont Community College, Winthrop University, Davidson College, Johnson C. Smith University, and Queens University of Charlotte. The project encourages collaboration among students and professionals from different disciplines and provides students with hands-on learning in the arts.

The theme of Orchestra on Campus 2009 is inspired by a current exhibition at the Levine Museum called “Changing Places: From Black and White to Technicolor,” which looks at the growing population of “newcomers” to Charlotte and their impact on the region. The project includes a full orchestral concert performed on four college campuses, plus smaller ensemble performances, exhibitions, lecture demonstrations, and panel discussions that explore the effects of migration and immigration on artistic expression.

The Symphony concert repertoire has been chosen in discussions with faculty from the partner schools and features music from the 18th century to the 20th that demonstrates the cultural impact of migration and immigration.

Many of the ancillary programs will be designed, created, and executed by students in conjunction with faculty and professionals from Charlotte’s cultural community, including Charlotte Symphony musicians. These programs will take place on college campuses and in community venues such as museums, churches, or libraries.

The Orchestra on Campus 2009 project is supported in part by a grant from the Goodrich Foundation.

Composers’ Project

As part of the Orchestra on Campus 2009 project, composers from participating schools have been invited to create a short chamber piece that reflects on and interprets the “Changing Places” theme. The works will be performed individually as part of pre-concert activities at each concert venue in November (one per location). On February 6, the works will be performed together in a separate concert devoted to them, presented jointly by the CSO and the Friends of Music at Queens. Performers will include Charlotte Symphony musicians, as well as faculty and/or students from participating schools.

Orchestra on Campus 2009 Events:

Symphony Concerts:
Chelsea Tipton, II, conducting
http://chelseatipton.com/

W.A. MOZART
Overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio

Johannes BRAHMS                
Hungarian Dances Nos. 18-21

Antonín DVOŘÁK
Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95, “From the New World”
II. Largo
IV. Allegro con fuoco

Ernesto LECUONA
Andalucía
Córdoba
La Comparsa
La Malagueña

George GERSHWIN
Porgy and Bess: Symphonic Picture

Thursday, November 12, 2009
Halton Theater, Central Piedmont Community College
Pre-concert event at 6:30 p.m., featuring music by CPCC composer Craig Bove.
Concert at 8:00 p.m.

Friday, November 13, 2009
Anne Belk Theater, Robinson Hall, UNCC
Pre-concert event at 7:00 p.m., featuring music by UNCC composer John Allemeier.
Concert at 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, November 14, 2009
Duke Family Performance Hall, Davidson College
Concert at 8:00 p.m.

Sunday, November 15, 2009
Byrnes Auditorium, Winthrop University
Pre-concert event at 3:00 p.m., featuring music by Winthrop composer Ronald Parks.
Concert at 4:00 p.m.

Community Events:
All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.

Changing Places: A Student Colloquium
Friday, October 30, 2009 @ 3 p.m.
Sykes Auditorium, Queens University of Charlotte

Students from six local colleges and universities will be invited to respond creatively to the theme of “Changing Places,” through visual art, creative and scholarly writing, musical composition, drama, or dance. The best work examples will be presented in a colloquium, followed by a gathering for all participating students and faculty.

We Are What We Sing: Music and Cultural Identity
Sunday, November 8, 2009 @ 3 p.m.
Levine Museum of the New South

We Are What We Sing explores how our music expresses who we are and where we’re from. In performances, demonstrations, and discussions, this program celebrates the music of several cultures, including China, Peru, and the tribal cultures of the Amazon and the local Catawba.

Participants in We Are What We Sing are “newcomers” to Charlotte who have brought elements of their native cultures to their new home: Dr. Richard Chacon, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Winthrop University, is from Costa Rica; Ning Zhao, Charlotte Symphony violist, is from China; Julio Jeri, CPCC student and flutist, is from Peru. Other performers include the CPCC Early Music Ensemble, musicians of the Charlotte Symphony, and the Piedmont Open Middle School chorus.

This program is presented jointly by the Levine Museum of the New South and the Charlotte Symphony.

Conquistadors and Collaborators: Early Folk and Art Music in South AmericaThursday, November 12, 2009 @ 12:30
Tate Recital Hall, CPCC

Two early music ensembles, made up of CPCC students and Charlotte Symphony musicians, will perform folk music and art music from 16th and 17th-century South America as part of the Music Department’s weekly one-hour recital series.

First Look Fridays: Loїs Mailou Jones
Friday, November 13, 2009 @ 6 p.m.
Mint Museum of Art
http://www.mintmuseum.org/first-look-friday.html
$10, free for museum members
By reservation. Please call 704/337-2022

The Mint Museum opens its large fall exhibition, a retrospective of paintings by African-American artist Loїs Mailou Jones. Jones “changed places” multiple times in her life, moving from Boston to North Carolina, to Paris and Haiti and Africa. At this opening reception and lecture, students from Queens University of Charlotte and Johnson C. Smith University will perform music inspired by Loїs Mailou Jones’s travels and art.

Changing Charlotte in the Great Depression:
The Birth of the Mint and the Symphony
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 @ 7 p.m.
Mint Museum of Art

The 1930s was a time of great change in Charlotte’s cultural life. In 1932, a “newcomer” to Charlotte, the Spaniard Guillermo S. de Roxlo, founded the Charlotte Symphony. Four years later, the United States Mint in Charlotte literally “changed places” and identities, moved brick-by-brick to its current site on Randolph Road and formally opening on October 22, 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum. This event explores Charlotte’s cultural history and the birth of the two cornerstone arts organizations, concluding with a performance of 1930’s-era music by a student ensemble from participating schools. In partnership with the Levine Museum of the New South.

New Lives/New Arts/New Challenges
UNC Charlotte Community Conversations
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Levine Museum of the New South

The November lecture presentation in the UNC Charlotte Community Conversations series at the Levine will be presented by the UNCC College of Arts + Architecture in conjunction with the Orchestra on Campus project. The program will include student work created as part of the Orchestra on Campus project.

Interpreting History through Art:  An Educational Initiative at Piedmont Open IB Middle School

The Charlotte Symphony will continue its multi-disciplinary Interpreting History through the Arts program at Piedmont Open Middle School in 2009-2010, focusing this year on the “Changing Places” concept. Program partners include the Levine Museum of the New South and the Light Factory; teaching artists are David Crowe (orchestra / band), Jen Crickenberger (visual art), Alyce Cristina Vallejo Moran (drama), and Chris Stonnell (chorus). The program will engage students in the creative process, using the “Changing Places” theme as inspiration. After conducting oral histories and community-based research of “newcomers” to the Charlotte area, the students will combine different artistic disciplines into a single performance piece inspired by their research. The project will begin in September and will culminate in April (Date TBA) with a performance of the final artistic product.

Partner Exhibitions:

Changing Places: From Black and White to Technicolor
Levine Museum of the New South, 200 East Seventh St.
Through February 28, 2010

This lively exhibition explores how people in the Charlotte region are dealing with the growing cultural diversity and change created by the influx of newcomers from across the U.S. and around the globe. Part of a year-long project that includes a wide range of programs, Changing Places: From Black and White to Technicolor,® focuses on culture, telling stories and exploring traditions of both new and longtime residents.

For more information, visit www.museumofthenewsouth.org or www.changingplacesproject.org

Approaches/Annäherungen—Artists from Mecklenburg
Max L. Jackson Gallery, Watkins Building, Queens University of Charlotte
November 12 through December 12

This exhibition of four artists from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, and three artists from Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, is the second part of a cultural exchange that began with a 2008 exhibition in Pasewalk, Germany. The project fosters creative dialogue by pairing Charlotte and German artists who, though living in different cultures, address similar concerns in their work. Opening Reception: Thursday, November 12, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., which will include a discussion by visiting German artists. For more information visit http://www.queens.edu.arts .

Loïs Mailou Jones: A Life in Vibrant Color
Mint Museum of Art, 2700 Randolph Road
November 13 through February 27, 2010

The work of Loïs Mailou Jones (1905-1998), a pioneering 20th century African-American artist, will be featured in a retrospective exhibition at the Mint Museum of Art. Jones “changed places” multiple times in her life, moving from Boston to North Carolina, to Paris and Haiti and Africa. The exhibition features more than 70 works from the artist’s estate as well as from public and private collections, and includes paintings, sketches and textile designs. For more information, visit www.mintmuseum.org.