Concert Truck, Symphony visits Clinton

CLINTON — On Friday afternoon, the Clinton City Market was awash in music, with a special performance from The Concert Truck hosting members of the North Carolina Symphony.

The group spent the day both in Salemburg and then later Clinton, and has been traveling all over, taking their show on the road to share culture, thanks to the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and other sponsors.

“We are traveling the state with The Concert Truck, which travels around the country,” said Jason Spencer. “We partnered this week to visit communities in Eastern North Carolina.”

They are primarily visiting Hometown Strong Counties, which are primarily rural. They have been up to Greene County, Wilson County, and up towards Edenton as well.

“We are going to these communities and providing an opportunity to see the NC Symphony outdoors,” said Spencer. “It’s a COVID-friendly environment.”

“We are happy to have the free concert from the NC Symphony in Clinton,” said Tiffany Savage, who works with the Sampson-Clinton Public Library. “It’s a way for us to collaborate with the Sampson Arts Council.”

Library Director Kelsey Edwards said that she was thrilled that they came to Sampson County.

“It’s exciting to have them come to Sampson County and offer this awesome free concert,” said Edwards. “We are happy that they allowed us to cross promote with them and have materials to offer to the public.”

Edwards and staff had a table set up to offer free books to the kids that come to the concert. They were excited to take home something new to read and a cup with treats.

“With this concert we hope to start more community based events, to get our community involved with our library,” said Savage. “We want to show all the great resources we have here in Sampson County.”

Nick Luby and Susan Zhang were co-directors for the event, which brought together a number of different pieces that ranged from solos to ensembles.

“It was great to see all these people out here,” said Zhang. “Because of the pandemic a lot of people haven’t had the chance to be out.”

Zhang said that it was nice to be able to get together with folks and have this opportunity to share music.

“It’s always really special,” she said.

“This week has been very special, to be able to collaborate with musicians in the Symphony,” said Luby. “Some of them were colleagues of my parents.”

Luby said that it is always nice to come back to his home state.

“Being here today in Clinton was really wonderful,” he said. “It seems like a great community and we love to share music with people. Today was a wonderful day.”

“We wanted to partner with them to reach some parts of the state that are harder for us to get the entire orchestra out to,” said Erin Norton.

“This allows us to setup a venue basically wherever we can drive a truck. It opens up a whole world of possibilities.”

So they connected up, found a week in their season that they had time to do this, and started putting together programs they thought would be accessible, easy to understand for anyone of any musical background or knowledge.

This series is designed to be fun for both families and adults, so everyone can have a moment to connect through music, in natural gathering places.

The concert featured Anne Laney, flute; Melanie Wilsden, oboe; Samurel Almaguer, clarinet; Aaron Apaza, basson; Rebekah Daley, horn; Nick Luby, piano and Susan Zhang, piano.

Musical selections included Poulenc, a selection from Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano; C. Shumann, a selection from Three Romances; Arnold, Divertimento for Wind Trio; Still, Summerland; Eleanor Alberga, 3-Day Mix; Valeria Coleman, selection from Rubispheres for Wind Trio and Beethoven, selection from Quintet in E-flat Major.