In Sunday’s (7/3) News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina), David Menconi writes, “When he first came to the N.C. Symphony as Summerfest artistic director 15 years ago, [William] Curry had a plan he didn’t bother filling management in on. ‘When I came on board, it was nothing but pops, Broadway and Hollywood,’ Curry said. … ‘I just started working in more of that in tiny, incremental segments. At first the audience was not accustomed to listening, they were noisy. But after a while, we found that classical did as well as Broadway at the box office. That pleased me.’ In his own modest way, Curry has become the face of Summerfest and one of the symphony’s most recognizable figures. … Scott Freck, the symphony’s general manager and vice president for artistic operations, calls Curry ‘a great ambassador for the symphony, and orchestral music at large.’ … Along with overseeing Summerfest, [Curry] is music director for the Durham Symphony Orchestra. And he’s a composer, too, most notably of the Martin Luther King-themed ‘Eulogy for a Dream.’ The Indianapolis Symphony premiered ‘Eulogy’ in 2002, with narration by the late William Warfield (of ‘Porgy and Bess’ fame).”
Posted July 6, 2011
