Carlos Miguel Prieto Makes His Mark as Music Director of North Carolina Symphony

In Saturday’s (9/21) News and Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina), Richard Stradling writes, “Carlos Miguel Prieto makes his Raleigh debut as music director of the N.C. Symphony Orchestra this weekend. Those looking for his imprint on the state’s 91-year-old orchestra need look no further than the opening night program. The headlining piece is Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, a classical standard. There’s also a trumpet concerto by another mainstay, Austrian composer Joseph Haydn. But in between is a piece that’s never been performed in North Carolina. Concierto Venezolano by Cuban-American composer Paquito D’Rivera was written for Venezuelan trumpeter Pacho Flores, who will perform it in Raleigh, and was introduced to the world in 2019 by The Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, which Prieto leads in Mexico City. Prieto says he tries to find a place for something new in his programs, whether from his native Mexico or from Scandinavia or Haiti. He loves the classics but also wants to introduce musicians and audiences to ‘good things from around the world … And I very much like an orchestra to be connected with its community.”