The Raleigh Civic Symphony of N.C . State performed its program entitled “Giants,” Sunday in Stewart Theatre .
The program included renditions of the most well known musicians of the 19 th century: Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky.
Randall Rehfuss , the concert coordinator, explained the work put in prior to Sunday’s performance in order to make it a reality.
“[Randolph Foy ] chose the theme and which pieces he wanted to be played. I pulled those pieces from the music department’s library of scores, ensembles,” Rehfuss said. “Once I pull the music, dependent on the piece, we have to pay rights or royalties and certain fees to the Arts Association to produce copyrighted music.”
Choosing the pieces had a lot to do with the University’s finances, according to Randolph Foy , the Raleigh Civic Symphony’s conductor.
“This program is one of the most conservative programs that I’ve had since I’ve been working here, so about 15 years, which is partly because of our budget crisis. It’s about $400 to $500 per piece, and that was only for six weeks so to rent it for the whole semester, it’d be double that,” Foy said.
The Raleigh Civic Symphony encompasses about 75 players of students and community musicians alike. Students can take it as a one-hour course credit.
By providing detailed program notes, the audience was also given the opportunity to not just listen, but to learn from great classical pieces.
Foy said, “I have freedom in the programming, in taking the audience places in repertoire that’ll make them think, as well as enjoy and wonder.”
The title itself, “Giants,” was referenced in the program notes as to when Brahms compared a symphony to “a giant marching behind you.”
According to Foy , having the Raleigh Civic Symphony and the Chamber Orchestra at State can benefit a student of any major who enjoys playing music.
“There are a few students that are going to med school next year that are playing in this concert. They’re really fine players that could have been music majors but they chose to come here and major in biomedical engineering…but I just know that music is going to continue to be an important part of [their lives],” Foy said.
Even so, the fact that there is no official music major at State is worrisome to Foy .
“We’ve been working on it for a long time but the recent economic downturn has just made it difficult. We’ve just had word that General Administration University won’t be adding new majors in anything for a couple of years,” Foy said.
The University does provide an arts application for music major and a music minor.
“There are plenty of music students and over a hundred students in arts applications. In some ways, that is our music major but it’s not the typical performance major that most schools have,” Foy added.
The Raleigh Civic Symphony prides itself on its efforts in “innovative programming.”
Some examples of this in the past would be the China Dreams concert that was sponsored by the Confucius Institute, the African American Heritage Concert, and more recently, the “High Classical” program performed by the Raleigh Civic Symphony and the Chamber Orchestra jointly.
Hannah Namkung , a sophomore in first year college, played violin at the “Giants” event.
During intermission, Namkung said, “Even though that music is sort of challenging for me, I still enjoy playing it with the orchestra. These are very talented people; I’m like in awe when I hear [everyone] play.”
“I like playing the viola. I’m a grad student so it’s nice to have a place to play,” Morgan Elfelt, a graduate student in natural resources, said.
As the final performance of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no. 2 in C minor, commonly known as “Little Russian,” came to a close, the Raleigh Civic Symphony was given a standing ovation.