“Banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck will perform his Second Banjo Concerto, named ‘Juno’ for his first son, with the Winston-Salem Symphony next weekend,” writes Lynn Felder in Saturday’s (1/4) Winston-Salem Journal (N.C.). “Juno is now 6½, and Fleck and his wife, Abigail Washburn, also a musician, have another child, Theo, 1½…. Fleck … grew up on New York’s Upper West Side hearing the city’s symphony orchestras and listening to his stepfather play chamber music around the house…. He was given a French horn but [played] banjo ‘on the sly at home…. I could play a Paganini thing that would just about kill me,’ he said…. ‘But there are things that you can play on the banjo that just sound magic.’ … Eventually, he met Edgar Meyer, a virtuoso classical bassist…. With Meyer, Fleck recorded transcriptions of Bach, ‘Perpetual Motion,’ with violinist Joshua Bell, mandolin player Chris Thile and others…. In addition to Fleck’s concerto, the symphony will perform Aaron Copland’s ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’ and Four Dance Episodes from ‘Rodeo’; and local composer Kenneth Frazelle’s ‘Shivaree.’ ” Fleck says, “I’ve been playing ‘Juno’ a lot recently. I like it. The orchestra likes it, and nobody gets hurt.”
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