News

The Violin Channel -- Kwamé Ryan will join the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra as its 12th music director, succeeding Christopher Warren-Green, who completed a 12-year tenure. Before beginning his new [..] Read More

Eric Teel, WFAE -- The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra today announced Kwamé Ryan as its new music director. Ryan is currently based in Freiburg, Germany, and tours the world as a guest conductor.He's [..] Read More

WDAV -- 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 [..] Read More

Glenn H. Burkins, QCity Metro -- The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (CSO) announced today that Kwamé Ryan, a Canadian-born conductor who grew up in Trinidad, has been named music director, beginning [..] Read More

Ronald Blum, Associated Press -- Kwamé Ryan was hired Tuesday as music director of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra in North Carolina and given a four-year contract to start with the 2024-25 season. [..] Read More

Adam Bell, The Charlotte Observer -- Like many kids in the late '70s, Kwamé Ryan recalled the electrifying thrill of seeing "Star Wars" for the first time. It was at a drive-in theater on his home [..] Read More

Adam Bell, The Charlotte Observer -- For the first time in its nearly century-long history, the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra will be led by someone other than a white man. On Tuesday, the orchestra [..] Read More

Lawrence Toppman, WDAV -- The Decca Recording Company used to boast about "ffrr" discs: full frequency range recordings, which captured everything from barely audible pianissimos to ground-shaking [..] Read More

Catherine Muccigrosso, The Charlotte Observer -- The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra is taking its music to the streets of Charlotte with free concerts in various neighborhoods thanks to a new set of [..] Read More

Lawrence Toppman, WDAV -- 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 [..] Read More

Perry Tannenbaum, CVNC -- Face it: in the wake of #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter, and COVID-19, we've entered a complex cultural transition. The Charlotte Symphony, never the most daring nor the most [..] Read More

Lawrence Toppman, WDAV -- 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 [..] Read More

Lawrence Toppman, WDAV -- 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 [..] Read More

Timothy H. Lindeman, CVNC -- Lyric soprano Renée Fleming joined the Charlotte Symphony for an evening of music ranging from the deadly serious, to a potpourri of opera arias and Broadway songs, and [..] Read More

Eric Teel, WFAE -- World-renowned soprano Renée Fleming is the special guest at this year's Charlotte Symphony Orchestra annual gala. In addition to her performance Wednesday with the CSO, Fleming [..] Read More

Catherine Muccigrosso, The Charlotte Observer -- Charlotte's performing arts groups have lined up of a mix of beloved classic performances, along with a number of firsts and some surprises in the [..] Read More

Lawrence Toppman, The Charlotte Observer -- If you're a fan of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, its announcement of a new music director has a lot in common with Christmas: The day is taking [..] Read More

Adam Bell, The Charlotte Observer -- For one of the world's best-known opera stars, Renée Fleming has sure popped up in some expected places. The soaring soprano is the only classical singer to [..] Read More

WBTV Web Staff -- The Charlotte Symphony has officially kicked off its "Summer Pops" series at Symphony Park.Whether it's "Family Night at the Movies" or "The Music of John Williams," this summer [..] Read More

Perry Tannenbaum, CVNC -- It's time to admit that the Charlotte Symphony has flipped the script. After a string of four consecutive concerts that I've reviewed in 2023, with four different guest [..] Read More

WDAV Piedmont Arts Podcast -- Conductor Lan Shui joins the Charlotte Symphony (CSO) for concerts at Belk Theatre in Charlotte. He gives us a rundown of the works on the CSO program, and he explains [..] Read More

PBS Carolina Impact -- Perfect harmony between the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, at their annual series of concerts for thousands of CMS students. For many, this [..] Read More

Lawrence Toppman, WDAV -- "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 [..] Read More

Lawrence Toppman, The Charlotte Ledger -- I'll let a great composer of the mid-20th century sum up the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra's 2023-24 season: "Roll over Beethoven, and tell Tchaikovsky the [..] Read More

Perry Tannenbaum, CVNC -- You might have thought that a symphony orchestra performing in a college gymnasium would prove to be an odd coupling. Sure, there can be satisfying concerts staged at [..] Read More

Rachel Stewart, WDAV Piedmont Arts Podcast -- The Charlotte Symphony (CSO) has just announced its 2023-24 season, and it's filled with variety and diversity across all the series: Classics, Pops, [..] Read More

Lawrence Toppman, WDAV -- 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 [..] Read More

Marshall Terry, WFAE -- The Charlotte Symphony has announced performances for its 2023-24 season, which starts this fall. David Fisk, its president and CEO, says the season is arguably the most [..] Read More

Adam Bell, The Charlotte Observer -- The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra unveiled its new season Tuesday, one that's heavy on guest artists but light on conductors. In fact, the only one listed so far [..] Read More

Lawrence Toppman, WDAV -- 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 [..] Read More

Perry Tannenbaum, CVNC -- For Charlotte Symphony guest conductor Paolo Bortolameolli, Satie, Stravinsky, and Beethoven all have at least one thing in common: music of modernity. Connecting the dots [..] Read More

Lawrence Toppman, WDAV -- 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 [..] Read More

Perry Tannenbaum, Broadway World -- But until now, not a word about the meteor that struck the Knight Theater in the heart of Uptown Charlotte. Her name is Mei-Ann Chen, and we can only hope that [..] Read More

By Lawrence Toppman, WDAV -- You can play Edvard Grieg's piano concerto weightily, with thundering chords and noble grandeur. Or tenderly, with a romantic flame at its core. Or dreamily, with what [..] Read More

By Larry Toppman, WDAV -- Like many classical concertgoers, I often raise my eyebrows when folks erupt into applause during the silence between movements of a symphony. I know that behavior can be [..] Read More

By Daija Peeler, QCity Metro -- The CSYE debuted in Feb. 2022 and is the Charlotte Symphony's youngest orchestra with children as young as age 8. Unlike the Charlotte Symphony Philharmonic and [..] Read More

By Perry Tannenbaum, CVNC -- Between the evening's two fanfares -- for the Copland Symphony famously repackages his well-known Fanfare for the Common Man -- Korngold's Concerto made for a lyrically [..] Read More

WDAV -- The Charlotte Symphony will perform a concert called "Together We Rise" at the Sarah Belk Gambrell Center at Queens University. It will explore themes of freedom, strength, and justice [..] Read More

WBTV -- Christopher James Lees, the symphony's resident conductor, stopped by the studio to talk more about the event.Watch Now > [..] Read More

By Adam Bell, The Charlotte Observer -- For pianist and composer Malek Jandali, the Queens University of Charlotte motto holds special significance. It's "non ministrari sed ministrare," or for non- [..] Read More