News

This is how it went down, with millionaire patrons and government grants and contract negotiators nowhere in sight.A timpanist walked into a pizza joint to hang out with a violinist friend and her [..] Read More

Mark O'Connor has let no dust settle on his bow since landing in Charlotte with wife Maggie this summer, but no day has been more newsworthy than Dec. 7.The O'Connor Band, which he formed with [..] Read More

Just when you thought you'd seen it all out of the Carolina Panthers, the team has released a holiday music video featuring running back Jonathan Stewart winking at the camera and playing the piano [..] Read More

Beer may be the beverage of choice for football, basketball and baseball, outdoor festivals, backyard cookouts and rock concerts. But a pint is versatile enough to go with, well, everything.To [..] Read More

Christof Perick, music director of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra before Christopher Warren-Green, once told me, "You cannot forever hide from Bruckner."Those six words contain two important [..] Read More

The cramped look of the Charotte Symphony at the Belk Theater clearly confirmed to me that the music we were about to hear would be similarly dense and weighty, particularly when the Charlotte [..] Read More

What is an American?The child of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, a boy who grew up above his parents' shop in Brooklyn.The openly gay son of Pennsylvania patricians, a Pulitzer-winner who never [..] Read More

"Max loved to write music falling apart," music director Christopher Warren-Green told the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra audience Friday night at Belk Theater.What he didn't say was that Sir Peter [..] Read More

Now that Music Director Christopher Warren-Green has survived the honeymoon and is entering his seventh year with the Charlotte Symphony , it is fair to say that the marriage, judging from this [..] Read More

Mary Deissler's career might have turned out differently if she hadn't experienced crippling stage fright as a budding concert pianist.She might be performing with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra [..] Read More

The next time you see Christopher James Lees, he may have a beer in his hand. You will almost certainly have a beer in your hand, because Bach and a bock go together.That's the thinking behind [..] Read More

Forgive me if I spend the first half of this review on the last 12 minutes of Friday's Charlotte Symphony concert. I had never heard György Ligeti's "Concert Romanesc" played live. The piece [..] Read More

You may have doubts about making plans when a Friday the 13th is involved, but Thursday the 13th will be a lucky day: You can hear the local premiere of a Pulitzer Prize-winning choral piece, sung [..] Read More

Peter Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, perhaps more than any other work in the classical repertoire, is a warning to critics and musicians to watch what they say. Iosif Kotek, the violinist who [..] Read More

For the last three years, as the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra struggled to keep its annual budget in the black, it motored along at a speed that wouldn't jostle any passengers.Now Mary Deissler's [..] Read More

Cultural diversity needs representation.A free festival on Sept. 24, presented by Charlotte Symphony and Community School of the Arts, encourages the community to welcome new neighbors at [..] Read More

After six years, KnightSounds is dead. From the ashes has risen altsounds.Yes, capital letters are dead, too. This is the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra's most informal series for adults, the one [..] Read More

The performance season may be over, but the Charlotte Symphony hasn't been idle. The orchestra, which enters its 85th season this fall, has a new assistant conductor Christopher James Lees, who [..] Read More

When you need a toot from a ghostly fluteWho ya gonna call? Ben Smolen!If the BFG wants to dance with gleeWho ya gonna call? Ben Smolen!Smolen and three flute-playing compadres provided swirling [..] Read More

Christopher James Lees, music director of the UNC School of the Arts Symphony Orchestra, will join the Charlotte Symphony as assistant conductor beginning Sept. 1. He will continue in his roles at [..] Read More

Here are the events you can't miss this July chronologically, so you can hit them all.They're fun, patriotic, and, as always, include good food & beer. Enjoy the summer and don't forget to [..] Read More

With the recent deaths of iconic musicians Prince, Merle Haggard, Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmister, Glenn Frey and David Bowie, 2016 isn't short on tribute concerts. Thursday, the Charlotte Symphony [..] Read More

The scenario: You just moved here and don't know a single soul in this city, or all of your plans fell through for the night or your friends are busy and you feel lonely.The problem: You're not a [..] Read More

On the plus side, glorious light classical music and pop adaptations, delivered by the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra with irrepressible Albert-George Schramm behind the baton. Tickets that remain [..] Read More

A distinguished scholar who taught my undergrad Shakespeare course once told us that a precious folio edition of the Bard's plays was on display at one of England's most prestigious libraries, [..] Read More

When the Charlotte Symphony Chorus was known as the Oratorio Singers of Charlotte, they hooked up on numerous occasions with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra in the most popular piece in the [..] Read More

We pay homage to guys who build and design skyscrapers, but we don't always remember guys who cleared the land and made a place for the shining city of the future.But today I will. Today I pay [..] Read More

Some one-course dinners are complete meals, musically speaking: Gustav Mahler's 75-minute Fifth Symphony, which the Charlotte Symphony played so well in November, leaves us full of ideas in a world [..] Read More

Kenney Potter runs the Charlotte Symphony Chorus, which he has redesigned in less than a year. (You'll hear it blast through Orff's "Carmina Burana" this week at Belk Theater.)As of last fall, he [..] Read More

Broadway star Bernadette Peters nearly canceled her upcoming appearance in Charlotte over House Bill 2.Booked for a return engagement Saturday with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Peters said she [..] Read More

To non-English conductors, Ralph Vaughan Williams often looks like trouble. His nine symphonies are the most important set in 400 years of English music. Yet Claudio Abbado, Leonard Bernstein, [..] Read More

The Charlotte Symphony kicks off its annual outdoor Summer Pops series at Symphony Park at SouthPark Mall on Sunday, June 5.Conductor Albert-George Schram will lead the orchestra (and audience) [..] Read More

Mary Deissler will succeed Robert Stickler as president and CEO of the Charlotte Symphony.The organization made the announcement Friday that Deissler is transitioning from her role as president of [..] Read More

Mary Deissler, now president of the Chicago Academy for the Arts, will take over as president and CEO of the Charlotte Symphony June 1, the group announced Friday.She'll succeed Robert Stickler, who [..] Read More

BY LAWRENCE TOPPMANMasterworks of Russian classical music fit into the span of one long human life. Every great concerto, symphony, opera, ballet, choral or chamber work by Tchaikovsky, Rimsky- [..] Read More

BY COURTNEY DEVORESBoyz II Men performs with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra Saturday. One third of the Grammy-winning chart toppers, Shawn Stockman, spoke to the Observer from his adopted home of [..] Read More

Embrace the sound of the symphony. In collaboration with the Charlotte Symphony, Boyz II Men's performance at Belk Theater on March 12 at 8 p.m. is a reminder that a digitized sound cannot compare [..] Read More

BY LAWRENCE TOPPMAN
Optimism has always been America's selling point to the world: The exuberance of the Jazz Age with World War I safely behind us, the boisterous rattle of construction [..] Read More

BY LAWRENCE TOPPMANltoppman@charlotteobserver.com Nobody covered Tryon Street in flowers or dropped confetti from office towers, but a champion flew back to Charlotte this week.
Eva [..] Read More

BY LAWRENCE TOPPMANltoppman@charlotteobserver.com
Wow.A world-premiere percussion concerto. Choral masterpieces by Bruckner, Mendelssohn and Mahler. Seven works the Charlotte Symphony [..] Read More

Anybody can promise to wear the opponent's jersey should their own team fall short. As far as friendly wagers go, that's pretty pedestrian (I'm looking at you, Denver and Charlotte mayors).But a [..] Read More

As told to Michael J. SolenderEugene Kavadlo, 70, is the Principal Clarinetist with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. This is his 41st year with CSO.
Right out of college, my first job was a [..] Read More