This Sunday, March 27, a quartet of musicians from the North Carolina Symphony will take the stage at Kings Barcade in downtown Raleigh to create an entirely new artistic experience for the Triangle community. Three local artists will be creating visual responses to the music performed and it’s all free and sponsored by WCPE 89.7fm, TheClassicalStation.org. It will be a casual afternoon of accessible performance art including a silent auction of the artwork created.
“What is most amazing is the way all of the pieces have come together,” Tara Lynn says, WCPE Community & Arts Liaison and host of WCPE’s ‘Allegro.’ “The artists, musicians and local businesses involved were all so excited to help us realize this extraordinary event.” Jerry’s Artarama, an art supply store with its headquarters in Raleigh, donated supplies for each of the artist’s unique needs.
Karen Strittmatter Galvin, Assistant Concertmaster of the North Carolina Symphony and a member of the quartet says, “I’m very excited about being a part of Conversational Pieces. Stepping out of the concert hall to perform in a more casual environment gives a new perspective to not just the musicians performing the music, but also the listeners watching how musicians go about their jobs. Even more exciting will be to see how the artists participate in the music-making! I hope this event is the catalyst for even more collaboration between Raleigh artists of all genres.”
The members of the quartet are: Karen Strittmatter Galvin, violin; Maria Evola, violin; Carrie Fischer, viola; and Lisa Shaughnessy, cello.
“Don’t believe the headlines about the decline of classical music,” WCPE’s Tara Lynn adds. “Young people like classical music but we need to present it in a relevant way.”
The artists featured at this event are:
Pete Sack is an artist who takes existing photographs, whether they are from old yearbooks or magazines, and creates a new narrative with paint. He extracts the image from the original content to give a new, personal meaning. A native of Seattle, he moved to NC to attend ECU’s art school and has lived in Raleigh for the past 10 years. Sack currently has a show hanging in the Mahler gallery. Opening on April 1, The Raleigh City Museum will showcase his work as well. The museum’s first one-man show will feature Sack’s paintings inspired by the Raleigh City Museum’s photo archives.
David Eichenberger is a Raleigh native who is well known for his paintings of “lovable monsters.” Some of his most noteworthy shows include the Dinosaur Show at DesignBox, and Generation Gap (2008). His artwork was chosen for Pacific Designs Indie Artists Collection. David was recently the artist-in-residency at Artspace and was featured in the Roanoke Island Festival Park’s Art Gallery this fall.
Georges Le Chevallier was born in France and grew up in Puerto Rico. He studied painting at the “Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando” in Madrid, received his BFA degree in Drawing and Painting from California State University in Long Beach and his MFA degree in Painting from Hunter College in New York City. Not only his paintings, photographic works and public art installations have been exhibited extensively nationally and internationally in distinguished galleries and museums, but Le Chevallier has also over 10 years of teaching experience at the university level, and has curated many successful art exhibitions.
*Portions of this article including the artist bios were taken from a press release issued by WCPE Community & Arts Liaison Tara, Wake Forest, N.C. (March 23, 2011).
