2024-25 Season Schedule
The Durham Symphony Orchestra (DSO) under the direction of Music Director and Conductor William Henry Curry is pleased to announce its 49th season with eight performances in Durham and around the Triangle from September through May. Programs will feature gifted local artists, up-and-coming young musicians, world premieres, and thirteen works by American composers. The orchestra will return to the historic Carolina Theatre, Hayti Heritage Center, and The Rialto and continue its traditional holiday programs and free Pops Concerts.
Guest artists joining the Durham Symphony for the first time include Scott MacLeod (baritone) and Elizabeth Williams Taylor (soprano). Returning favorites include Alissa Roca (soprano); Kidznotes; the Concert Singers of Cary (Nathan Leaf, Director); and the NCCU Choir (Roberta Laws, Director).
Anchoring the season are two programs that speak directly to our time and place. The Promise of America, just two weeks before the presidential election, will engage listeners in the many visions of our country celebrated by American composers. In February, Voices of the Unarmed will feature works by African American and European classical composers speaking to the tragedy of injustice and to the courage, love, and resilience that forges freedom and healing.
All programs are subject to change.
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Fall Pops at Treyburn
September 15, 2024, 5 PM
Treyburn Country Club, Durham
Presented by the Treyburn Forum, this concert of light classical and popular selections includes works by Bizet, Bernstein, Tchaikovsky, and Ellington.
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The Promise of America
October 20, 2024, 3 PM
Hayti Heritage Center, Durham
Elizabeth Williams Taylor (soprano) and Scott MacLeod (baritone) animate the songs of Aaron Copland in this program of familiar and unfamiliar works depicting historic times and places in the American experience. Selections include Roy Harris’ “Awakening” from his “Gettysburg” Symphony, Aaron Copland’s “The Promise of Living” from his opera The Tender Land, Morton Gould’s American Salute, “Nimble Feet” by Florence Price, and Richard Rodgers’ music for the WW II documentary Victory at Sea.
World Premier: Morton Gould’s Song and Dance: “This is a piece for saxophone that Pulitzer Prize winning composer Morton Gould wrote for President Bill Clinton” soloed by local jazz star Gregg Gelb!
Please join us in the Hayti lobby immediately following the performance for refreshments and a chance to meet the artists.
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Winter Pops Concert, Joyous Music from Around the World
December 7, 2024, 7 PM, Durham Armory, Durham
Hear this program in Durham or Raleigh—or come to both. It’s a wonderful way to kick off the holidays! This highly popular and long-standing Triangle event for the whole family includes the traditional sing-along, classical works, and holiday music from Leroy Anderson, Afro-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Tchaikovsky’s Christmas ballet The Nutcracker. Soprano Alissa Roca joins the DSO for selections from Handel’s Messiah.
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Winter Pops Concert, Joyous Music from Around the World
December 14, 2024, 8 PM, The Rialto, Raleigh
Hear this program in Durham or Raleigh—or come to both. It’s a wonderful way to kick off the holidays! This highly popular and long-standing Triangle event for the whole family includes the traditional sing-along, classical works, and holiday music from Leroy Anderson, Afro-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Tchaikovsky’s Christmas ballet The Nutcracker. Soprano Alissa Roca joins the DSO for selections from Handel’s Messiah.
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Voices of the Unarmed: Justice, Love, Resilience
February 14, 2025, 8 PM
Carolina Theatre, Durham
Offering a mix of contemporary and classical composers, this concert honors Black History Month by centering three major works by African American composers. Taking its inspiration from the New Testament gospels and Haydn’s Seven Last Words, Joel Thompson’s haunting and beautiful Seven Last Words of the Unarmed (for chorus and orchestra) is the centerpiece of this program, foregrounding the difficult and painful feelings surrounding race and law enforcement. Each movement is a setting of the final words of unarmed Black men killed by police and other authority figures. Concert Singers of Cary and the North Carolina Central University Choir will collaborate with the DSO in this performance. The concert will also feature the world premiere of Herman Whitfield III’s Overture-Fanfare in G Major. Whitfield, a prodigiously gifted, award-winning young composer, died in 2022 in an encounter with police while he was unarmed and enduring a mental health crisis in his home. William Henry Curry’s renowned Eulogy for a Dream, setting the hopeful and love-infused words of Martin Luther King Jr., closes with King’s exhortation: “We will. . . transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.”
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Carnival of the Animals on the Family Saturday Series
April 12, 2025, 11 AM
Carolina Theatre, Cinema One, Durham
Join the DSO for a light-hearted, interactive musical adventure with some of the most popular orchestral works in the repertoire, including The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns! Through this fun and educational experience, Maestro William Henry Curry and the Durham Symphony musicians will show how instruments, music, and our imaginations can evoke stories and images from the animal world—from ferocious lions to beautiful, elegant swans. You’ll find something for everyone to enjoy, from classical masterpieces to pop songs!
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Family Concert at Emily K
April 26, 2025, 3 PM
Emily K Center, Durham
Music for the whole family with light classics and popular music are featured in this concert at the Emily K Center that serves over 2,000 Durham K-12 students on their college journeys. Gifted young musicians from nationally celebrated Kidznotes will sit side by side with DSO musicians sharing their joy in music and gaining invaluable experience from their professional colleagues in the DSO.
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