By Pam Creech
Contributing Writer
Soon joining the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra for a special one-night performance will be a musician with a career spanning more than 50 years: Noel Paul Stookey of the legendary 1960s folk band Peter, Paul and Mary. Stookey will share the stage with the orchestra and the Girls’ Choir of Wilmington Nov. 22 at 8 p.m. in the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Kenan Auditorium.
Stookey is connected to the Wilmington Symphony by a mutual friend of Steven Errante, the symphony’s conductor.
“He has a multi-generational appeal,” Errante said. “For me, it’s been surreal. I grew up in the 60s and grew up listening to Peter, Paul and Mary.”
Stookey and the symphony will perform a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” along with the Peter, Paul and Mary original, “Puff the Magic Dragon.” They will also perform Stookey’s “Wedding Song.”
“This is the first time Noel will be doing that song with a full orchestra,” said Reid Wallace, the symphony’s executive director. “We’re honored to have him appear with our symphony.”
The Girls’ Choir of Wilmington will perform on stage during the first half of the concert, before Stookey appears.
“During the first half of the program, the orchestra is going to do some Americana,” Wallace said. The Girls’ Choir will be featured in “Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo,” a symphonic suite composed by Aaron Copland. The girls will also sing two Robert Frost poems, “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “A Girl’s Garden.”
Tickets for An Evening of Song with Noel Paul Stookey are $40 for adults, $20 for children and $6 for UNCW students. To purchase tickets, visit www.wilmington
symphony.org/tickets.html
