North Carolina Symphony inspires local community with classical music

On Friday evening, friends and family sat on various blankets and chairs — with picnics in tow — at the Southern Village Green, the excited chatter of over 2,000 people crescendoing in anticipation of the North Carolina Symphony’s performance: a free, annual event to kick off the summer. 

A cacophony of sound erupted from the platform, instruments humming and tuning over one another, and the crowd’s thrum decrescendoed into silence. Soon, “Overture to ‘The Magic Flute’” by Mozart began, the loud crash of the horns capturing any distracted listeners, the soft harmonies of the strings grasping their attention. 

Michelle Di Russo is the associate conductor of the Symphony, and she picked the evening’s selection. She said she thought about what she might like to listen to while enjoying a picnic. The event featured nine pieces in a diverse program that Di Russo described as having a little bit of everything. 

“I tried to bring a lot of different ideas and composers from different backgrounds because I wanted everyone to expand their ears too and not listen to all the same pieces we usually perform when we’re outside,” she said. 

In addition to familiar names like Mozart and Gershwin, she introduced the Chapel Hill audience to composers she said they might not know about. For example, the second piece of the night was by Joseph Bologne, who she said was a contemporary of Mozart and the first Black composer to be successful at the time. 

Before conducting each piece, Di Russo told stories behind the composers and their songs, while also preluding to what the audience might hear in the number.

Before the Symphony played the Bologne piece, “Symphony No. 1 in G Major, Op. 11,” Di Russo told the audience a little about Bologne’s background. She said that while Mozart was traveling in Paris, he attended one of Bologne’s concerts, and was inspired by his composition of the string instruments’ lines. 

“One other detail, we don’t know if this is true, but apparently Mozart was really jealous of Bologne because he was a bit older and was having a lot of success and was one of Marie Antoinnette’s confidantes and friends,” she said to the crowd. “That is one of the gossips I can tell you. It’s unconfirmed, but I think it’s funny.” 

Before the fifth performance, Johann Strauss II's “Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka,” Di Russo said that the piece is a lot of fun, asking the audience if anyone else loved the piece before saying she might be the only one that does. 

“It’s supposed to imitate the sound of chit-chatting and gossiping at the time,” she said, her words met with chuckles from the audience. 

Lauren Raab is a Chapel Hill native who attended Friday's event, and she said that she has fond memories of listening to the symphony at a variety of venues. She said the annual outdoor event at the Southern Village Green is unique because it offers a variety of activities to accompany the summer event.

“It’s a nice outdoor space, and there are so many nice shops around here, so we could grab a burger at Al's [Burger Shack] or they have food trucks, or I'm planning to get ice cream later,” she said. “And so it's nice, there's options. It's all in one.”

Throughout the summer, the walkable living community hosts a variety of public events on the green several days a week, like live music events and outdoor movie screenings. The symphony’s annual performance, however, is its most popular. 

Under the setting sun, the hour-long event concluded with a standing ovation that extended from the stage to the very back of what Southern Village’s developer D.R. Bryan said is always a diverse audience, with people of all ages and backgrounds.

Whether they are a newcomer to the orchestra or a long-time goer, he said it is an event meant for everyone. As musicians played their instruments onstage, children played in the grassy isles — skipping, laughing and hugging their picnicking parents. 

“When you see the kids running around, it’s a joyful event for them,” he said. “And so it's a good way to introduce children to the symphony.”

Di Russo said there’s no risk in them experiencing the music in whichever way they need to, describing the event as one that is relaxed and fit for everyone. The evening is always a fun way to get the community thinking about classical music, she said. 

Friday was just one of hundreds of concerts the symphony performs across the state each year. Di Russo said her favorite part of her work is connecting with students through educational concerts for students. 

“They're seeing it with fresh eyes — maybe some of them have never seen an orchestra before or been to a concert before,” she said. “Seeing how much they enjoy that, how much they love the music, it just makes me have hope for classical music.”

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