Gerhardt Zimmermann and William Henry Curry share conducting duties along with well-known guest soloists such as guitarist Pepe Romero and violinist Midori. They program plenty of the best-loved pieces but also schedule modern and commissioned works. Look for a new sound from them when they take over the Meymandi Hall built especially for the Raleigh concerts. Two separate organizations but both conducted by Alan Neilson. Each has a season of six to nine adult and children's classical, as well as holiday and outdoor pops, concerts.
Programs are generally mainstream but have begun to include more commissions and new works.
This series presents six concerts a year with the best international performers. Emanuel Ax, the Tokyo String Quartet and the Lincoln Center Chamber Players were here last season. It is very popular, with nonseason tickets hard to come by. In its 58th season that just ended, the RCMG was host to a range of performers, from the Juilliard String Quartet to the a cappella sextet Lionheart. A professional string quartet based at Duke for 35 years, it plays a number of its own concerts each year as well as several in collaboration with other organizations.