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Joey Burdette
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The Winston-Salem Symphony Presents Classics Series Concert
Still Points & Turning Worlds
Music Director Candidate Paul Hass to Conduct with Guest Pianist Awadagin Pratt
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (September 22, 2022) – The Winston-Salem Symphony presents its next Classics Series concert cycle for the 2022–23 season entitled “Still Points & Turning Worlds.” The concerts will feature guest conductor Paul Haas, one of six candidates for the Symphony’s Music Director position. He will take the podium on Saturday, October 8 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, October 9 at 3 p.m. for a series highlighting the music of Beethoven, Prokofiev, and acclaimed contemporary composer Jessie Montgomery.
Audience-favorite Awadagin Pratt returns to Winston-Salem to perform Montgomery’s Rounds, for piano and strings. In recent years, Montgomery has become one of the most prominent living composers, changing the face of American classical music and leveling the field for women and composers of color. Montgomery was influenced by imagery and themes from T.S. Eliot’s evocative poem Four Quartets, which includes the line “At the still point of the turning world” and provides the concert’s title. Rounds is one of Montgomery’s most recent works and was created in collaboration with Pratt and premiered in March 2022 by Pratt and the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra.
Like Eliot’s poem about time standing still, the concert features music influenced by the winds of war, which have seemingly brought the world to a stop, over and again. The concert opens with Beethoven’s depiction of Coriolanus as he prepares to lay siege to Rome and concludes with Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony, an inspiring work written at the end of World War II that depicts the terror of war and the resilience of the human spirit.
“We are delighted to welcome our second Music Director candidate to Winston-Salem,” said E. Merritt Vale, Winston-Salem Symphony President & CEO. “We hope you’ll join us in the concert hall for some truly thrilling music and come to the various events throughout the week to meet Paul Haas, who is an innovative artist and exciting conductor. We’re counting on audience input as we choose our next Music Director and would love to know what you think of his presence both on and off the stage!”
“Still Points & Turning Worlds” concerts will take place on Saturday, October 8 at 7:30 p.m. and October 9 at 3 p.m. at the Stevens Center of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, 405 West Fourth Street in downtown Winston-Salem. Tickets begin at $25 and are available by calling the Symphony Box Office at 336-464-0145 or online at wssymphony.org.
The public is invited to several opportunities to interact with Paul Haas throughout the week leading up to the concert. There will be an open coffee and meet and greet on Thursday, October 6, from 10:30–11:30 a.m. at the Forsyth County Central Library Auditorium, 660 West Fifth Street. Symphony by the Glass returns to The Caviste, 1100 Reynolda Road, on Thursday, October 6, from 5:30–6:30 p.m. and provides an opportunity to hear from Haas while listening to Symphony musicians and enjoying wines paired with the music of Beethoven, Montgomery, and Prokofiev.
Another chance to meet the Music Director candidates is at the Symphony’s Music Lovers’ Luncheons. These fun and informative preconcert events feature the Music Director candidate and the guest artist and take place the Friday before each 2022–23 Classics Series concert from 12–1:30 p.m. Attendees have a chance to learn about the weekend’s programming while enjoying a gourmet lunch. The October 7 Music Lovers’ Luncheon will include a discussion between Paul Haas and pianist Awadagin Pratt. Music Lovers’ Luncheons are an opportunity to gain insights into the music presented and learn more about the performers’ careers and backgrounds. Music Lovers’ Luncheons are $35 per person, and advanced registration is required. Visit wssymphony.org/luncheon for more information and to make a reservation. The October 7 luncheon will take place at Footnote Coffee & Cocktails, located at 434 West Fourth Street, downtown beside Bookmarks.
After the Saturday concert, patrons are invited to walk across the street from the Stevens Center for a drink at The Ginger Fox. Paul Haas and other orchestra musicians will be on hand to mix and mingle.
Conductor and composer Paul Haas has served as Music Director of the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas since 2010 and the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra since 2017. Haas was at the start of a promising conducting career in 2006 when he devised and produced a concert project called REWIND, which was a reaction against the staid nature of the standard classical music performance and featured performers surrounding the audience, sculptures hanging from the ceiling, and theatrical lighting design. The project had great success and prompted Haas to found Sympho, an organization devoted to creating and performing symphonic experiences in unusual venues. This creative programming also resulted in his emergence as a composer. Over the last decade, 15 commissions have come from various iconic venues to design and compose for musical installations. Haas explains why unusual venues figure so prominently in his output: “My work always celebrates space and our place within it. So many of us are disconnected from our surroundings, and it can be profoundly healing to become aware of — and even celebrate — where we are and how we fit in.” For a full biography, visit paulhaas.com.
Born in Pittsburgh, Awadagin Pratt began studying piano at six. At 16, he entered the University of Illinois, where he studied piano, violin, and conducting. He subsequently enrolled at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where he became the first student to receive diplomas in three performance areas—piano, violin, and conducting. In recognition of this achievement and for his work in classical music, Pratt received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Johns Hopkins and an honorary doctorate from Illinois Wesleyan University after delivering the commencement address in 2012. In 1992, Pratt won the Naumburg International Piano Competition and was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant two years later. Since then, he has played numerous recitals, including performances at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. He has performed with a variety of orchestras around the United States. He has toured Japan four times and performed in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Israel, Columbia, and South Africa. He also serves on the faculty of the Eastern Music Festival. In November 2009, Pratt was one of four artists selected to perform at the White House for the First Lady and President Obama. He has performed two other times at the White House, both at the invitation of President and Mrs. Clinton. For a full biography, visit awadagin.com
This concert and the Winston-Salem Symphony are supported by Season Presenting Sponsors Bell, Davis & Pitt, P.A.; 2022 Classics Series Guest Artist Sponsors Salemtowne; Symphony Unbound/Etherbound Presenting Sponsors Chris and Mike Morykwas; 75th Anniversary Season Sponsor Betty Myers Howell; as well as the Arts Council of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County and the North Carolina Arts Council.
About the Winston-Salem Symphony
Proud to be one of the Southeast’s most highly regarded regional orchestras, the Winston-Salem Symphony will celebrate its 75th Anniversary across 2022. The Symphony inspires listeners of all ages throughout North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad with various concerts, education programs, and community engagement initiatives each year.
The Symphony is supported by Season Presenting Sponsors Bell, Davis & Pitt, P.A.; 2022 Classics Series Guest Artist Sponsors Salemtowne; Symphony Unbound/Etherbound Presenting Sponsors Chris and Mike Morykwas; 75th Anniversary Season Sponsor Betty Myers Howell; the Arts Council of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County, the North Carolina Arts Council, and other dedicated sponsors. Subscriptions and single tickets can be purchased online at wssymphony.org or by calling the Symphony Box Office at 336-464-0145.
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