It’s unseasonably cold this evening, even for February, and a biting wind blusters across the UNC campus. Students, runners, cyclists and motorists make their way along Cameron Avenue headed home, or to dinner, or shopping, or to the library. A pretty typical Thursday at Carolina.
But today many also head to Carolina Performing Arts’ (CPA) Memorial Hall where famed violin virtuoso Gil Shaham and New York Chamber Orchestra The Knights take the stage to perform a classical symphony experience thought to be available only in venues like Carnegie Hall or Lincoln Center. But it’s here, on UNC’s campus, and while it might not be considered the opportunity of a lifetime, it could come close…especially for the students in the audience.
About Memorial Hall
Located at the heart of UNC’s historic campus, Memorial Hall is an inviting and inspiring gathering place, offering world class performances of music, dance and theater, innovative forms of cultural and artistic expression, and lectures by some of today’s most influential people.
Memorial Hall 2016
In 1883, when Gerrard Hall lacked the space to accommodate adequate seating for commencement, plans were drawn for a larger building that would serve as a memorial to David Lowry Swain (former N.C. governor and past president of UNC), to other notable North Carolinians, and to the students, faculty and staff who lost their lives in the line of duty.
Funds were raised by the sale of marble tablets commemorating those individuals and the hall was dedicated in 1885. In 1929, the building was determined to be structurally unsound and it was condemned and razed.
In 1931, the current building, retaining the name Memorial Hall, opened its doors with the original marble tablets covering the new walls. For more than 70 years, the building served the campus and community well. But as the University grew and the needs of patrons and performers evolved, a major overhaul of the old cultural gem became necessary.
Memorial Hall’s doors closed April 20, 2002, and a three-year $18 million transformation began, funded through a partnership between the State of North Carolina and hundreds of generous donors.
The stage area of Memorial Hall demolished, Credit: Catharine Carter
Replacing the stage house on the back of the hall with a state-of-the-art facility, Credit: Catharine Carter
Additions on the east and west ends resulted in a larger lobby, grand new staircases and additional restrooms. The stage house on the back of the building was replaced with a state-of-the-art facility. Today’s Memorial Hall has central heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (the first air-conditioning ever in the building), new lighting and sound systems, and improved handicapped accessibility.
Refurbished chandeliers, ornate fixtures and a Carolina blue ceiling have transformed the auditorium.
On Sept. 8, 2005, a ribbon-cutting ceremony kicked off the Grand Opening Gala weekend that included the N.C. Symphony, Tony Bennett, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Leonard Slatkin and Carolina Performs: A Student Performing Arts Celebration.
Today, Memorial Hall helps anchor UNC’s Arts Common, part of the campus master plan, encompassing an area extending southward from Franklin Street to Historic Playmakers Theatre.
Serving as the new heart of the campus, the Arts Common provides a home for new ideas and a space where campus and community intersect, encouraging traditional connections and inspiring new collaborations.
5:00 p.m.
Sound check. The Knights and Gil Shaham are on stage. Light-hearted banter carries across the empty seats of the auditorium as musicians run riffs and trills and scales that foretell what the evening’s performance holds in store. Shortly their jeans and sweatshirts will be replaced by evening gowns and tuxedos and seats will fill with newly minted arts patrons and veteran arts champions.
Cellist Caitlin Sullivan
Cellist Michael Unterman
Oboist Nick Masterson
Bassist Charles Clements
6:00 p.m.
As performance-goers fill the lobby, student front-of-house workers and CPA staff arrange programs and tchotchkes on a table; power up the video boards that acknowledge support for tonight’s performance from the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust and display a rundown of upcoming events; open the coat-check room; make way for the gelato cart and ready the wine bar.
CPA has a loyal following, a close-knit bunch who know their seat neighbors and the names of each other's kids and grandkids. As they congregate in the lobby before the hall doors open, the energy and enthusiasm swell in anticipation. There’s camaraderie here, a familiarity that is warm and welcoming. There is also a deep appreciation for the art and a generous spirit to support and sustain it.
Front-of-house manager and UNC junior Andrea Orengo checks her list for any last-minute details before the lobby doors to Memorial Hall open.
Enthusiastic show-goers gather and visit in the lobby prior to the performance.
Memorial Hall fills before the performance.
UNC sophomore Nishanth Shah, a mathematical decision sciences major who loves and plays classical violin, is here with his posse. Nishanth has been playing the violin since he was 8 years old and has attended and performed in concerts all across the country including at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. He is also a member of the UNC Symphony Orchestra and an usher at Memorial Hall.
Nishanth gets to see CPA performances when he’s working, but he chooses to come here when he’s not, with his friends, on a $10 student ticket, and that’s what CPA is all about—creating opportunities for students to experience world-class artists in a magnificent atmosphere, very often for the first time. The CPA website says: “Encounters with the performing arts are life-changing events and impact students’ intellectual and personal development in profound ways.”
Nishanth agrees. “Memorial Hall is beautiful and has its own flavor that I think rivals even the greatest concert locations around the country,” he said. “I think the combination that it is on campus and features many world premieres of new works gives it an energy and spark that you don’t see in many other places.”
Nishanth's student ticket allows him to see the performance for just $10 (or less).
Nishanth was a high-schooler from Apex, North Carolina, when he first experienced CPA. He came to see one of his favorite violinists, Hilary Hahn, with renowned pianist Valentina Lisitsa. Little did he know that he would encounter the inimitable Emil Kang, UNC’s executive director for the arts, or that his experience would motivate and energize him to ultimately attend UNC. And right away, as a freshman, he took a seminar class taught by none other than Kang and UNC Chancellor Emeritus James Moeser, who championed the growth of the arts on campus and promoted their unique contributions to the academic core of the University.
7:00 p.m.
Andrea Orengo is a junior environmental science major and geography minor from Matthews, North Carolina, who is also earning a master’s degree in strategic communications from the UNC School of Media and Journalism. Tonight, she's on duty in Memorial Hall. She is in her third year working with CPA, where she began part-time as an usher and rose to manager. For Andrea, it’s more than just a job.
“When I started, I wanted something to do on weekends, but I never would have predicted how important CPA would become to my college experience,” she said. “CPA has helped me break out of my shell, learn great skills and work with an amazing group of students. And I get to see some incredible artists that I know I couldn’t afford to see elsewhere.”
And it’s a great girls’ night out. “The first time I went to a performance was in my second semester first year,” Andrea said. “A few of my friends and I went to see an acrobatic dance performance for my birthday. I absolutely loved it!
We ate at the food truck, got gelato while listening to the band in the lobby and then saw a great performance. We had an amazing time for under $20!”
$10 CPA Discounted Student Tickets
Thanks to CPA and its Student Ticket Angel Fund, every UNC student has the opportunity to see performers that have graced the stages of storied venues like Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera House or the Kennedy Center.
From the classical greats like cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Gil Shaham and the acclaimed Bolshoi Ballet to the Count Basie Orchestra, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, there is something for everyone.
Today, CPA is a leading university presenter with an international reputation for presenting bold programming by today’s most inspiring artists.
CPA is also an innovator in the classroom. Launched in 2012-13 with a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, CPA’s Arts@TheCore initiative is integrating the arts into teaching and research that takes place at the University every day.
CPA artists and performers offer windows to explore today’s most pressing issues in fields ranging from medicine and social work to physics and religious studies. In 2015-15, 60 courses integrated performances into their syllabi. The success of Arts@TheCore has made it a model for academic integration for a number of peer institutions.
7:30 p.m.
Curtain time.
The Knights open with Les élémens by French Baroque composer Jean-Féry Rebel, then Shaham joins them for Prokofiev’s Russian- and Spanish-influenced Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major. Dueling violins bring the house down. Beethoven rules after intermission, and for the 1,400 audience members, it is pure joy. There are even family ties here, as the conductor and first violinist for The Knights are brothers who share a rare and beautiful passion for their art…together.
The last note fades and the house lights go up signaling the end of the performance, but there’s still more to come.
THE MASTER CLASS
9:30 a.m.
Sunshine pours through the stately windows of Gerrard Hall, one of the University’s most historic buildings. Originally a chapel, its warm auditorium space with a unique three-sided balcony has hosted numerous speakers, events, lectures and readings—a couple of iconic movie scenes have even been filmed here (think Robin Williams in Patch Adams). Now an intimate performance space, it's perfect for artists-in-residence and visiting performers to engage with students and faculty.
Today, Shaham—CPA’s 2015 artist-in-residence—conducts a master class to mentor the next generation of classical violinists and enrich the academic experience of both students and faculty. He and The Knights will depart for their next engagement immediately following, but right now, he sits in a chair to the left of the baby grand piano centered in the space, Stradivarius in his lap, listening intently to the first of three students perform.
For now, Shaham is thrilled not to be center stage, a position he relishes because he gets to engage young performers. This is one of his favorite things. As an artist-in-residence, Shaham said, he'd really enjoyed his experience at UNC because he'd had much more opportunity to interact with students and was much impressed by their caliber. The fact that not all of them were music majors was even more impressive—they played for pleasure and because they were passionate about the music.
Elizabeth Eason, a junior from Durham, North Carolina, majoring in music and minoring in entrepreneurship and French, is the last to perform. She plays Bach’s Sonata No. 3 in C Major, a score Shaham knows well. Having spent fall semester in France studying violin at Schola Cantorum with Patrice Fontanarosa and also taking lessons with Jean Moullière at École Normale, Elizabeth is no stranger to master musicians. But this is a rare opportunity. “I have so many friends at places like Julliard and other prestigious conservatories that don’t have this kind of access to someone like Gil Shaham,” she said. “When I told them I was going to work with him in a classroom setting one-on-one, they couldn’t believe it.”
“Believe it,” she told them. “We have that at UNC, and I’m so glad I’m here.”
Elizabeth Eason plays a section of her score for Shaham.
Nishanth Shah, Dr. Jesse White and Gil Shaham after the master class
Shaham never wants to be the last one on the bus because he doesn’t like to keep his fellow musicians waiting. But if he could have, he would have stayed another hour…or two. Because music isn't his job, it's his passion…one that he is more than willing to share with aspiring violinists, with the future of his craft.
Support What You Treasure
Gil Shaham’s master class, among others, was made possible with support from the Dr. Jesse L. White Jr. Fund for Student and Academic Engagement. Dr. Jesse L. White Jr., who attended both Shaham’s performance and his master class, is a retired professor of the practice who taught in the UNC School of Government where he helped create a new economic development curriculum and also established UNC’s Office of Economic and Business Development.
He has always been a lover and patron of the arts, even as a child growing up in Jackson, Mississippi, where his mother “encouraged” him to go to Jackson Symphony Orchestra performances. He also played trumpet in college at Ole Miss and even shared the stage with the late great Johnny Cash when his band was performing on campus and needed a couple of horn blowers.
He became enthralled with Carolina Performing Arts almost immediately upon his arrival in Chapel Hill in 2003. He began supporting CPA because he believes strongly that the arts have a unique power to move anyone emotionally and spiritually.
White supports the CPA’s Student Ticket Angel Fund that provides $10 discounted tickets to students (they are free to Carolina Covenant and Achieve Scholars) and established the Dr. Jesse L. White Jr. Fund for Student and Academic Engagement because he wanted to help match students with great performers.
His generosity provides opportunities like Shaham’s master class, classroom visits, workshops and other opportunities for students to engage with CPA’s classical music and jazz artists.
Creative Interruptions or POP-UPs
CPA also sponsors Creative Interruptions—short, spontaneous campus events meant to bring the arts outside traditional performance venues and into unexpected places across campus.
The program builds on CPA’s success in recent seasons organizing “pop-up” arts experiences on the University’s main quadrangle during class change. These surprise performances aim to increase students’ access to the arts through free experiences that make art a part of daily life. The program interrupts students’ daily routines with a music, dance or theatrical performance that prompts them to pause and engage with what is happening around them.
Timing and location of these “pop-up” performances is carefully considered so the performances reach as many students as possible, especially those who have minimal interaction with the arts. The interruptions feature world-class artists from CPA’s series as well as student artists.
Memphis jookin’ phenomenon Lil Buck delivers an impromptu performance in Davis Library. He performed at Memorial Hall April 15-16. His appearances were supported by Paula Davis Noell and Palmer Page (April 15), and Wyndham Robertson (April 16).
Lil Buck dancing in front of Wilson Library
Students give jookin’ a try!
“A great performance is like the ultimate soul food for me,” he said. “There’s just no price tag I can put on that, but it doesn’t take a fortune to make a big difference. I think the arts are crucial to everybody; they make a human being complete.”
White said he sees the transformative power of these student-artist connections in every master class he has attended. “To see these professionals working with our students at a level where angels tread…is just phenomenal,” he said. “Artists get something out of it, the kids get something out of it, and I know I get something out of it.
“It feeds my soul.”
Story By
Hope Baptiste
Video & photos
DDC International
Design & Development
Nathan Furiate
Production
Morgan Ellis
Scott Ragland
Claire Cusick
Lisa Perry
