Author: rhoda_yakowenko

Taking even a small part in the running of the Symphony’s concert was a really exciting experience! I started my time there with Mr. Schiller introducing me to several employees of the Symphony and showing me around the venue. Afterwards, I spent some time behind the marketing table near the entrance to the amphitheater, answering questions from concertgoers and passing out brochures for the upcoming Summerfest shows and the 2022-23 season, and then once the music started I was allowed to just listen and enjoy! Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade was the main item on the program, which is one of my absolute favorite pieces of music, so it was really lovely to get to watch the performance. Aside from the music, it was also neat to see the community that has built around these shows. Via just watching the evening play out, no behind-the-scenes tour or insider pointers required, it became clear how much people genuinely love coming to these concerts, from the grandparents excitedly bringing their grandchildren for the first time to the families that would show up as much as two hours early to compete in the pre-show picnic contest held weekly for the outdoors summer shows. Everyone at the Symphony puts in a lot of effort to make these concerts as enjoyable as possible, and it really pays off!

Sorry that this is a few days late, I just started writing my Day 4 update and realized I never actually uploaded this post! Slight delay aside, Thursday was another good day interning with the Symphony! Day 3’s work mainly consisted of working on the spreadsheet I began work on the previous day, digging up contact information for music teachers at schools in some of the rural counties that the Symphony’s education program has yet to reach. Even though the work was a bit tedious, seeing the tiny or nonexistent arts programs at some of the schools I was researching really highlighted how privileged a lot of Wake County schools and especially Cary Academy are to have the resources we do!

Much smaller but still interesting, another task I had on Day 3 was to sort through a pile of education concert booklets for previous years’ shows, similar to the one I helped prepare on Days 1 and 2.

Exemplifying the extensive history of the Symphony, one of the oldest booklets in the pile, from the 90’s, proudly advertised that its year of creation was the 50th anniversary of the education concerts! North Carolina has such a rich musical history, and it is really cool to see the Symphony continue such long-running traditions to this day.

Day 2 was mostly a continuation of the work I started Monday. Aside from a meeting with Ms. Haddock, who went over expectations and rules regarding working with the Symphony, I spent the most of the day continuing my research for the education concert booklets. Research subjects of the day included Georges Bizet, a French romantic era composer, J. Rosamond Johnson, an American composer from the Harlem Renaissance, Anthony Kelley, a contemporary American composer who is currently a professor at Duke, and Arturo Marquez, a contemporary Mexican composer.

Knowledge of not only the music written by the super traditionally famous names, but also of the more diverse composers throughout history is both really interesting and important, so it’s cool to see the effort the Symphony puts into that when planning these concerts.

Nearing the end of the day, after I finished my research for the booklets, I worked on finding contact information for music teachers in schools from counties that the NC Symphony’s education program has not yet been able to extend to and organizing the information in a spreadsheet. Even though the Symphony’s education program has reached counties all over the state, the organization aims to reach every single one, so hopefully some of the information I compiled will be useful in continuing that mission!

All in all, today was a fun first day interning with the NC Symphony! Mr. Schiller and Mr. Spencer, the CFO and director of education for the symphony, respectively, gave us presentations on the financial and outreach/education aspects of the organization, after which I began my main task of the day with Mr. Spencer. Each year, the NC Symphony performs concerts for elementary school children around the state, providing teachers and kids with booklets containing some information about the music and activities to help students better understand the music and how it connects to other subjects they study in school.

I worked on researching and compiling information on the various composers and pieces that will be part of the concerts next year to include in these booklets. Some of the composers that I read about I was already fairly familiar with, but others I was less familiar with, such as Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a half black English composer from the early 20^th century, who I spent probably the most time researching. Even though the classical music community of the time was generally very white and racist, Coleridge-Taylor was able to rise to prominence as a composer. Becoming interested in African American folk music later, he began to incorporate it into his own compositions and arrangements aiming to shed positive light on the music and reduce the racist stigmas white classical musicians of the time had placed on it.

Overall, getting to learn more about the history behind such a wide variety of music today was a lovely experience! Next up on my list of composers is Georges Bizet, who I know of but not very much about, as well as a few contemporary composers who I am entirely unfamiliar with but look forward to researching.

Your friendly local music nerd,
Rhoda

Half a day until my internship with the NC Symphony starts! I am looking forward to getting to see how the organization runs and helping out. Moreover, I really love the music that the orchestra is scheduled to play in the upcoming weeks and am excited to see the concerts! Yesterday I had the privilege of watching them perform Elgar’s Enigma Variations and the Brahms violin concerto with James Ehnes, and I can’t wait to see the process that creates such beautiful performances.

NC Symphony Intern signing off,
Rhoda