Symphony NH debuts in renovated Keefe Auditorium

Nashua, New Hampshire - For its opening night concert on Saturday, October 6, Symphony NH has added dimension not only to its interpretation of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, but to the entire event.  The performance, entitled “Fifth Dimensions” will highlight important changes in the organization, honor members of the community, introduce audiences to the improved acoustics in the concert hall, and delight everyone present with a program that also features the Symphony Chorus and young violin sensation Caroline Goulding. Music Director & Principal Conductor Jonathan McPhee will conduct.

The Symphony has released the following details about the event:

• After more than a year of community-wide effort including a successful fundraiser by the Greater Nashua Arts Initiative that made the renovations possible, Keefe Auditorium is ready to host its first performance by a Symphony orchestra following acoustical improvements made there over the summer.  “Not only will this enliven and deepen the sonic experience for our patrons,” notes SNH Executive Director Eric Valliere, “but it will also be a visual revelation:  new lighting, a fresh paint job, and dark curtains replaced by creamy white acoustic panels make the hall brighter and more welcoming, too.” 
• The concert marks the state debut of young violinist Caroline Goulding, who (thanks to support from Artist Sponsors The Nashua Bank and Charles Schwab of Nashua) will perform Mendelssohn’s beloved Violin Concerto in E minor.  Although only in her early 20s, Ms. Goulding has already performed with many of North America’s leading orchestras, including Cleveland, Toronto, and the National Symphony.  Praise from critics has been abundant as well. In a review of Caroline’s 2011 debut with the National Symphony Orchestra, Anne Midgette of the Washington Post proclaimed, “Goulding is a skilled violinist well on her way to an important career.”  Gramophone has called her a “precociously gifted virtuoso,” and The Cleveland Plain Dealer has praised Caroline for being “vibrant and intensely musical.”  A past recipient of the Stradivari Society, Caroline currently plays the General Kyd Stradivarius (c 1720), courtesy of Jonathan Moulds.
• The concert is sponsored by BAE Systems, whose support makes it possible for Symphony NH to offer free tickets to veterans.  Each year since 2006, over 100 active duty personnel from Hanscom AFB attend this concert, and this year is ontrack to keep pace with that history.  “This is a great partnership,” remarks Valliere, “because BAE Systems’s focus on the military community means more people have access to this wonderful music.”
• Now under the direction of Holly MacEwen Krafka, the newly-named Symphony NH Chorus will have its debut on this program performing Brahms’ Nänie – a sublime ode to the transience of earthly beauty.  This 12-minute work is vintage Brahms:  lush harmonies, rich orchestrations, and lyrical melodies for the voices. 
• Although its musical motifs are among the most familiar in all of the classical repertory – and perhaps in part because of that fact  –  Beethoven’s  earth-shattering Symphony No. 5 in C minor is less-frequently performed than one might think.  Maestro McPhee brings his trademark blend of clarity and passion to this monumental work, and it’s an opportunity to hear it live that only comes along once  in a great while.

The program begins at 8:00 pm at Keefe Auditorium, 117 Elm Street, in Nashua.  Tickets, priced from $12 to $48 (with discounts for students, seniors, and groups of ten or more), are available at the door, or by calling (603) 595.9156, or online at SymphonyNH.org.

Violinist Caroline Goulding has performed as a soloist with some of North America’s premier orchestras including The Cleveland Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, National Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Houston Symphony, Detroit Symphony, New Mexico Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Sarasota Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, Columbus ProMusica, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Cleveland Pops and the Cincinnati Pops.  Aside from her orchestral engagements, Caroline has appeared in recital at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, the Kennedy Center, Beijing’s Forbidden City Concert Hall and  the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, among others.

The 2011-2012 season included debuts with the London Chamber Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Colorado Symphony and the Eastern Connecticut Symphony as well as recital debuts at the Kansas City Harriman-Jewell Series, University of Florida, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC and Fundacion Sinfonia in the Dominican Republic.  Caroline also had return engagements with the Dallas Symphony and the Boise Philharmonic. In the 2012-2013 season, Caroline makes debuts in Germany, Japan and China, as well as with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, California Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, Camerata Chicago and the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra.

Recognition from the classical music world’s most distinguished artists, critics and institutions has been significant in Caroline’s young career. In 2011 she was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and in 2009 she won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and was the recipient of the Helen Armstrong Violin Fellowship. That same year, Caroline received a Grammy nomination for her debut recording on the Telarc label. The self-titled album spent several weeks on Billboard’s Classical Chart and garnered attention from other venerable musicians, including violinist Jaime Laredo who called Caroline “one of the most gifted and musically interesting violinists I have heard in a long time; her playing is heartfelt and dazzling.”  Composer John Corigliano, whose Red Violin Caprices Caroline recorded, said, “She gives a totally individual interpretation to my music. I think she will shortly become a very famous young woman and only hope that she gives my other violin works a glance.”Maestro Erich Kunzel was also an ardent supporter of Caroline’s in her early teens and she was chosen to appear on his last Telarc recording From the Top at the Pops, released in 2009.

Praise from critics has been abundant as well. In a review of Caroline’s 2011 debut with the National Symphony Orchestra, Anne Midgette of the Washington Post proclaimed, “Goulding is a skilled violinist well on her way to an important career.”  Gramophone has called her a “precociously gifted virtuoso,” and The Cleveland Plain Dealer has praised Caroline for being “vibrant and intensely musical.” Along with her orchestral and recital appearances, Caroline has appeared on NBC’s Today, MARTHA, PBS’s From the Top: Live from Carnegie Hall with world-renowned banjo player Bela Fleck, and will make her debut this December on Germany’s hit primetime television show “Stars von Morgen” (Stars of Tomorrow) hosted by Rolando Villazón on ZDF/ARTE.  On the radio, Caroline has been a guest on NPR’s Performance Today, From the Top, SiriusXM Satellite Radio, WNYC New York and on CosmoGirl Online. In December 2009, Caroline was named Musical America’s Artist of the Month.

Caroline currently studies with Donald Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory, and is a participating artist at the Marlboro Music Festival.  She has previously attended the Aspen Music Festival and School – where she won the Aspen Music Festival’s Concerto Competition at age 13, Interlochen Arts Camp, and The Ceilidh Trail School of Celtic Music on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.  Past teachers include Paul Kantor, Joel Smirnoff and Julia Kurtyka.

A past recipient of the Stradivari Society, Caroline currently plays the General Kyd Stradivarius (c 1720), courtesy of Jonathan Moulds.