North Carolina Symphony Announces Free Independence Day Concerts

The North Carolina Symphony celebrates our nation's 236th birthday with a concert of patriotic favorites and high-spirited classics capped by the area's biggest fireworks displays.

The orchestra performs its traditional free "Independence Day" concerts with fireworks at Fayetteville's Festival Park on Sunday, July 1 at 8:00 p.m. and Lake Benson Park in Garner on Tuesday, July 3 at 8:30 p.m.

The free performance and fireworks on Wednesday, July 4 are part of the Symphony's Rex Healthcare Summerfest Series at Cary's Booth Amphitheatre. The Cary concert begins at 7:30 p.M. Gates open at 3:00 p.m.

As with every Summerfest concert, outside food and beverages, including wine and beer, are welcome, though concertgoers will have to arrive early to grab the best seats.

The performances mark just the second time Music Director Grant Llewellyn conducts the Symphony's Independence Day performances in Fayetteville and Garner and just his third July 4 appearance in Cary. He last conducted an Independence Day concert in 2008, and those audiences can attest that though he is Welsh, Llewellyn has American patriotism to spare.

He launches into the festive program with The Star-Spangled Banner and leads the orchestra in rousing, all-American selections including Sousa's Semper Fidelis March, music from South Pacific and Saving Private Ryan and-in anticipation of the upcoming London Olympics-John Williams's commanding Olympic Fanfare and Theme.

The Symphony's principal trumpet, Paul Randall, is featured as soloist on a pair of challenging numbers: Jacques Offenbach's American Eagle Waltz and Leroy Anderson's A Trumpeter's Lullaby. Audience members will also have the chance to lend their voices to the Symphony's Fourth of July salute with James Stephenson's Sing Along, America!

The performances are part of the Symphony's summer "Concerts in Your Community," free concerts presented throughout the state in celebration of the orchestra's 80th anniversary.

Complete information on the performances, as well as the Symphony's Rex Healthcare Summerfest Series in Cary, taking place now through July 7, and the Symphony's 80th Anniversary Season is available at www.ncsymphony.org or by calling the Symphony Box Office at 919.733.2750 or toll free 877.627.6724.

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