North Carolina Symphony to give more concerts in New Bern

The last act of Mum Fest on Sunday was the first performance of the North Carolina Symphony in New Bern for the local chapter's new season.

The orchestra will return for three more performances during the season.

At the end of a full weekend of activities, the N.C. Symphony still nearly filled Riverfront Convention Center for Rodrigo's Spanish Concierto de Aranjuez in a concert featuring acclaimed classical guitarist Scott Tennant, now a teacher at the University of Southern California.

Many in the orchestra have also played annually for school children in Craven County, as they will again this year for third-, fourth- and fifth-graders on Wednesday in Havelock, and for the annual rendering of Handel's Messiah at Centenary Methodist Church.

Those members of the orchestra, which was conducted on Sunday by resident conductor William Henry Curry, got a standing ovation following a program introduction by New Bern Chapter director Pat Rowlett.

The N.C. Symphony performs again at New Bern Riverfront Convention Center on Dec. 6, with Curry again conducting a holiday sing-along program; on Jan. 11 with N.C. Symphony Music Director Grant Llewellyn conducting Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 and featuring Antonio Pompa-Baldi on Piano and Dovid Friedlander on violin; and April 26, with Llewellyn conducting a Musical Kaleidoscope with music with Catrin Finch on harp with the orchestra with music from composers Paul Dukas, Osvaldo Golijov, Alberto Ginastera, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.