Interview with William Wolfram

by Bethany Tillerson (photo credit: © Lana Shkadova)

 

William Wolfram is an award-winning pianist, earning silver medals in both the William Kapell and Naumburg International Piano Competitions and performing around the world. He has performed with nearly every major orchestra in the United States. With his concert featuring the Carolina Ballet premiering on September 22^nd, William Wolfram spoke with The Classical Station’s Rob Kennedy.

After introducing the concept of the concert as “centered loosely around a pianist giving a recital and complications with a less-than-attentive audience,” Wolfram goes into more specifics about his role.

Wolfram: It’s all Chopin[…]and it’s a typical ballet usage of music. They’re very free with how they organize music. […] [Jerome Robbins] moves, chops things, starts where he wants, ends where he wants, based on the movement that he wants. The audience is not going to necessarily know anything unless they’re Chopin aficionados, but it’s basically a 30 minute recital.

Wolfram describes the ballet, choreographed by Zalman Rafael, as ‘a full ballet’, with soloists performing along with the corps de ballet despite its short 30-minute length.

Jerome Robbin’s The Concert with William Wolfram will play at the Memorial Auditorium at Duke Energy Center for Performing Arts, Raleigh, NC, from September 22^nd — 25^th, and will be a fitting beginning to the Carolina Ballet’s 25^th anniversary. Listen to The Classical Station’s full interview with William Wolfram on our September 4^th Preview! programming event.