Are you looking for “a moment to be calm, present, and mindful?” The North Carolina Symphony has joined forces with North Carolina State Parks and the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (NCDNCR) to create a series of videos that promote wellness entitled Musical Meditations.

The NC Symphony has been working on new ways to showcase their work while engaging their audience during a year when concert halls have been shuttered due to COVID-19. Along with Musical Meditations, they have created a program called Adopt-a-School, where a musician works directly with school band directors and music teachers to help in different ways, virtually, in the classroom. We got to sit in on one French horn lesson with Rachel Niketopoulos of the NC Symphony and a student from Sampson Middle School who wanted to give the instrument a try.

Another project created by the NC Symphony this year is One State One Score. Students from across North Carolina submitted footage of themselves playing “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. The NC Symphony is working to weave the videos together, creating one piece.

Tom Normanly, executive video producer for NCDNCR, helped in the creation of the Mindful Meditations. “I think that the state parks of North Carolina are more important now than they may have been in my lifetime,” he said.

Normanly says getting outside this year and being able to take a deep breath is good for your body and good for your mind. He hopes these videos will give everyone a small respite before they have to hop back on Zoom for their next call or class.

We will be updating this article with the latest Musical Meditation videos as they continue to be released this spring.

Music: Allegro from Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 1

Location:
Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve and Carolina Beach State Park

Music: Adagio from Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2

Location: Pettigrew State Park

Music: Excerpt from Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony

Location: Pilot Mountain State Park and Stone Mountain State Park

Music: Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8, Movement III

Location: Grandfather Mountain and Hanging Rock State Park

Music: Brahms’ Symphony No. 1, Movement IV

Location: Grandfather Mountain, Pilot Mountain, and Stone Mountain

Music: Excerpt from Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate

Location:
Singletary Lake State Park, Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve, and Carolina Beach State Park

Music: Jupiter from Holst’s “The Planets”

Location: A compilation of various North Carolina State Parks