North Carolina Symphony Launches Rex Healthcare Summerfest Series, 5/26

 Later this month, North Carolina Symphony fans can! The orchestra, led by Resident Conductor and Summerfest Artistic Director William Henry Curry, launches the 2012 edition of its Rex Healthcare Summerfest Series with "Summerfest Opening Night" at Cary's Booth Amphitheatre.

The performance takes place on Saturday, May 26 at 7:30 p.M. Gates open at 5:00 p.m. Children 12 and under are free on the lawn.

The evening features a classical music lineup. Mussorgsky's electrifying Night on Bald Mountain, most famous as an episode in Disney's Fantasia, paves the way for music Edvard Grieg composed for a performance of Ibsen's play Peer Gynt. Included in that selection is another all-time classic, In the Hall of the Mountain King, a thrilling work to experience live.

Maestro Curry caps a wonderful evening of music with Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 9 in C Major, widely celebrated as his finest work for orchestra, though one whose discovery was not quick to come. Following Schubert's death at only 31 years old, his music was known to only a small following of music lovers. Among them, composer Robert Schumann, who visited Schubert's brother Ferdinand on New Year's Day 1839 to look through music that had been gathering dust for over ten years.

Here Schumann uncovered the crown jewel of Schubert's career, a work the composer never heard performed. Full of beautiful and moving themes, showcasing what Schumann described as "that glow of romanticism that everywhere accompanies [the music of] Franz Schubert," the "Great" Symphony has become a popular selection for symphony orchestras across the world.

The concert is also the opportunity to Play with the Pros, as citizen musicians will join the Symphony for select works.

For tickets, visit the North Carolina Symphony website at www.ncsymphony.org or call North Carolina Symphony Audience Services at919.733.2750 or toll free 877.627.6724.