The North Carolina Symphony, led by conductor Albert-George Schram, will perform concerts filled with some of the greatest music from the legendary team of Rodgers and Hammerstein on Wednesday, June 1, 2016, at 7:30 p.m., and Thursday, June 2, at 3 p.m. and again at 7:30 p.m., in Meymandi Concert Hall in downtown Raleigh. The concerts feature Oscar Andy Hammerstein III, grandson of the famous librettist, as host, with vocalists Sarah Pfisterer and Sean MacLaughlin performing songs from South Pacific, The Sound of Music, State Fair, The King and I, and more. One of the greatest writing teams in theatre history, the partnership of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II won thirty-four Tony® Awards, fifteen Oscars®, the Pulitzer Prize, and two Grammy® Awards.
A painter, writer, lecturer and family historian, Oscar Andy Hammerstein III has devoted much of his life to studying and preserving his family's heritage and contribution to American culture. He lectures frequently at universities, institutes and theatrical and civic organizations on his family's pivotal role in shaping the development of musical theater and popular entertainment in this country from the 1860s to the present. He co-wrote/curated the 1997 exhibit, “Direct from Broadway, a 200-Year History of New York City Theatre,” for the Paine-Weber Gallery space in New York City. In 2010, he published The Hammersteins: A Musical Theatre Family, described by Publisher’s Weekly as “insightful and affectionate,” with “stories of eccentricities and affairs, deathbed promises, and larger-than-life theatrics.”
Singer Sarah Pfisterer’s credits include more than a thousand performances in the role of Christine in The Phantom of the Opera, on Broadway and across the country. She played Magnolia in Show Boat, for which Oscar Hammerstein II wrote the book and co-wrote the lyrics, in a production directed on Broadway by the legendary Harold Prince. She has appeared in many more Broadway and Off-Broadway performances, and has worked with such great conductors as John McGlinn and Michael Tilson Thomas.
Sean MacLaughlin recently garnered much praise across the U.S. performing the role of Juan Perón in the successful revival of Evita. His Broadway credits include Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera, Elton John’s Lestat and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Woman in White and Bombay Dreams. Other select New York and regional credits include The Audience and Requiem for William at the Transport Group in New York City; Baby: In Concert and South Pacific: In Concert at Carnegie Hall; Grand Hotel and Follies at Signature Theatre in D.C.; The Sondheim Celebration: Merrily We Roll Along at the Kennedy Center; and the New York readings of Frank Wildhorn’s Excalibur and Webber’s Sunset Boulevard.
Equally adept at conducting classical and pops programs, Albert-George Schram has led a wide variety of repertoire for many orchestras in the U.S. and abroad. He is currently Resident Staff Conductor of the Columbus (OH) and Charlotte Symphony Orchestras. Mr. Schram has worked with many distinguished artists, including pianists Lang Lang and Olga Kern and violinist Elmar Oliveira, James Taylor, Art Garfunkel, Smokey Robinson, and Aretha Franklin, among many others.
Tickets to performances on June 1-2, 2016, range from $30 to $75. Student tickets are $15. Concert tickets at all performances are also available at the door one hour prior to concert start time.
These concerts are the opening event of the Symphony’s “Summer in the City” series, which will continue with a Beethoven concert on Friday, June 17, 2016 at noon: the Symphony will play Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, and will be joined by guest pianist Michael Brown for the composer’s First Piano Concerto; Two concerts in July will include selections by Mozart: Thursday, July 7 at 7:30 p.m., and Friday, July 8 at noon. All of the “Summer in the City” concerts will take place in Meymandi Concert Hall.
Meymandi Concert Hall is located in the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, 2 E. South St., in Raleigh.