N.C. Symphony Performs Dvorak's NEW WORLD SYMPHONY This Weekend

The North Carolina Symphony will perform Antonín Dvorak's New World Symphony tonight, Jan. 23, 2015 and Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015, at 8 p.m. in Meymandi Concert Hall in the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Raleigh. The concerts, led by Carlos Miguel Prieto, will also include Manuel de Falla's "Three-Cornered Hat," featuring mezzo-soprano Kate Farrar.

Widely celebrated as a rising star in the U.S. and his native Mexico, Carlos Miguel Prieto's charismatic conducting, characterized by dynamism and the expressivity of his interpretations, has led to major engagements and popular acclaim throughout North America and in Europe. Prieto is in great demand as a guest conductor with many of the top North American orchestra including Boston, Cleveland, Dallas, Toronto and Houston symphony orchestras and has a particularly close and successful relationship with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

North Carolina native Kate Farrar most recently performed Kate Pinkerton in Madam Butterfly and Emily in The Ballad of Baby Doe. A graduate of the master's program at the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute at the North Carolina School of the Arts, Ms. Farrar performed Giulietta (Les Contes D'Hoffman), Arminda (La Finta Giardiniera), Miss Wingrave (Owen Wingrave), Meg Page (The Merry Wives of Windsor) and the Mezzo Soloist in Verdi's Requiem. With Piedmont Opera, she has appeared as Frau Mary (Der Fliegende Holländer), Mercedes (Carmen) and Mary Warren (The Crucible). She performed selections from Tan Dun's Marco Polo and Heggie's Dead Man Walking, as well as a variety of Sondheim and Bernstein pieces with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.

Tickets to the concert range from $18 to $75. Student tickets are $10. To purchase tickets, visit the North Carolina Symphony website at www.ncsymphony.org or call the Symphony Box Office at 919.733.2750 or toll free 877.627.6724. Concert tickets at all performances are also available at the door one hour prior to concert start time. Meymandi Concert Hall is located in the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, 2 E. South St., in Raleigh.

In addition to stellar performances, North Carolina Symphony concertgoers can enjoy pre-concert talks, post-concert discussions, and "Meet the Artists," which feature interactive conversations with guest artists and select orchestra members, at many Symphony events. On Friday, Jan. 23, 2015, and Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015, Symphony Associate Conductor David Glover will give a talk in Swalin Lobby of Meymandi Concert Hall at 7 p.m. each night A Symphony musician will be available to answer questions in the lower lobby at intermission both nights.

Partners for the 2014/15 Raleigh Classical Series are Clancy & Theys Construction, Duke Realty, Smith Anderson, Marriott, and 18 Seaboard.