“Grant Llewellyn, the longtime music director of the North Carolina Symphony, is stepping back,” writes David Menconi in Thursday’s (11/29) Raleigh News & Observer. “The 2019-20 season will be his last as the symphony’s fulltime music director, the Symphony announced Thursday. Llewellyn, 57, will assume the title of music director laureate for four years beginning in the 2020-21 season. In that capacity, he’ll continue to perform at a number of North Carolina Symphony engagements every year through at least the 2023-24 season. He plans to continue as music director of Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne in France…. A committee of musicians, trustees and staff will lead the search for a replacement…. Llewellyn, a native of Wales, came to the symphony in 2004…. The symphony has commercially released four albums under Llewellyn’s tenure, including one with saxophonist Branford Marsalis. A fifth, of Richard Strauss’ ‘Don Quixote’ with cellist Zuill Bailey and violist Roberto Diaz, is due to be recorded in 2019. Other highlights from Llewellyn’s tenure include taking the symphony to 2017’s ‘SHIFT: A Festival of American Orchestras’ at the Kennedy Center; … nearly 50 U.S. and world premieres; and commissions by a wide range of composers, Greenville-born Pulitzer-winner Caroline Shaw among them.”
Posted December 3, 2018
