Raleigh Civic Chamber Orchestra

Voices of America

Sunday, November 3, 2024 at 4 PM
Stewart Theatre, Talley Student Union, Raleigh, NC
Peter Askim, conductor

Featuring the World Premiere of Ahmed Al Abaca‘s Beacons 

Program:

Ahmed Alabaca: Beacons (World Premiere)
John Corigliano: Elegy 
Julia Perry: Prelude and Ye, Who Seek the Truth 
Aaron Copland: Selections from Eight Poems by Emily Dickinson
Andrea Edith Moore, Soprano Soloist
Lee Hoiby: Lady of the Harbor
Andrea Edith Moore, Soprano Soloist
Peter Askim: To Make a Prairie (World Premiere, Orchestral Version)
Andrea Edith Moore, Soprano Soloist

Celebrating Democracy and the upcoming election, Voices of America presents the music of composers and poets from across the American experience.

The concert will feature soprano Andrea Edith Moore singing Copland’s iconic songs on Emily Dickson’s poetry. She will also perform the orchestral World Premiere of Peter Askim’s To Make A Prairie, also set to Dickinson’s poetry, and Lee Hoiby’s Lady of the Harbor,  with Emma Lazarus’ text from the Statue of Liberty (“Give me your poor…”)

The orchestra will also present the North Carolina premieres of Julia Perry’s Prelude and Ye, Who Seek The Truth. Ms. Perry, a Black composer whose works had largely been forgotten, would have celebrated her 100th Anniversary this year.

Continuing the orchestra’s nine-year project of presenting a World Premiere on every concert, the orchestra will perform the World Premiere of Ahmed Al Abaca‘s Beacons. The music will explore the richness of Black American Music. Envisioned as a tone poem that weaves in and out of the lush, spiritual, intricate and complicated spirit of the Black American musical tradition, Beacons will draw from the great Black American composers whom they consider to be beacons of light for contemporary Black composers — keeping them inspired, alive, and focused. Al Abaca will compose a piece that is reflective of their own musical voice, while also paying homage to those who came before them.

The concert will also feature NC State Professor of Political Science Stephen Greene speaking on the upcoming election and North Carolina’s unique place in the national conversation.

Join us in the lobby from 3pm for representatives from Voting Arts Lab and NC State’s Pack the Polls for more information on how to make YOUR American voice count!

Tickets are available here.

$4.66 for NC State Students, $10 for faculty, staff, and seniors, and $12 for the general public

Raleigh Civic Symphony Orchestra

Greatest “Hits”!: Percussion in the Spotlight

Sunday, November 10, 2024 at 4 PM
Stewart Theatre, Talley Student Union, Raleigh, NC
Peter Askim, conductor
Dr. Ksenija Komljenović, percussion

Featuring the World Premiere of Chris Boardman‘s Episodes 

Program:

Valerie Coleman: Seven O’ Clock Shout 
Christopher Boardman: Episodes (World Premiere)
Ksenija Komljenović, Marimba Soloist (faculty, UNC School of the Arts)
Arturo Márquez: Danzón No. 2
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio espagnol, Op.34

Percussion instruments take center stage in this concert, with the energy and driving rhythms of Márquez’s Danzón No. 2 and Rimsky-Korsakov’s classic favorite Capriccio espagnol. Honoring the Serbian percussionist Ksenija Komljenović, Emmy Award-winning Oscar nominee Chris Boardman has composed a world premiere for the Raleigh Civic Symphony with dazzling virtuoso Dr. Komljenović as soloist. Boardman writes, “‘Intellectually brilliant, musically curious, intuitive, with the heart of an artist’ is how I would describe Dr. Komljenovic. As with other supremely gifted people I have had the privilege to work with, she is humble, sensitive and consistently displays a compassionate graciousness towards everyone she meets… This is a personal statement and showcase that unabashedly pulls on the audience’s heartstrings to share the power of music, to inspire hope, and remind us all that there is beauty wherever we turn… if we only stop to listen.” The concert opens with Valerie Coleman’s lyrical and thrilling ode to the pandemic’s essential workers, including the whooping, clanging, celebratory 7 o’clock daily odes to their heroic work.

Raleigh Civic Chamber Orchestra

Sunday, March 30, 2025 at 4 PM
Stewart Theatre, Talley Student Union, Raleigh, NC
Peter Askim, conductor

Featuring the World Premiere of a new work for chorus and orchestra by Nathan Leaf

The non-violent civil rights movement, in the manner envisioned and perpetuated by Martin Luther King, Jr., has taught and continues to teach the entire country about far more than the importance of racial equality. It has also taught the country about how to engage in the democratic process, and the ways in which we must work together to achieve a just society. This new work for choir and chamber orchestra will utilize texts of democratic leaders in a work about how the work of non-violence points us towards solutions of our conflicts and can save us from ourselves.

Free admission for NC State Students, $10 for faculty, staff, and seniors, and $12 for the general public

Raleigh Civic Symphony Orchestra

Sunday, April 13, 2025 at 4 PM
Stewart Theatre, Talley Student Union, Raleigh, NC
Peter Askim, conductor

Featuring the World Premiere of  Michael R. Dudley, Jr.’s A Heretic’s Prayer for Orchestra 

A Heretic’s Prayer is a meditation on what it means to be a part of a community, to face loss and hardship together, and to still have hope for a better future. Through collective acknowledgement of the present, being active in creating the kind of life we wish to live, and navigating the intersections of our pasts, presents and what we may or may not see as important in the story of our lives, we can recognize the beauty in living a more simple life.