George introduces Doc Watson at Eno River in 1978. Ralph Rinzler is in the background.

It was a heavy blow to receive the first e-mail from my old friend David Holt, informing me that Doc Watson had been hospitalized after falling at home. I’m well aware that at age 89, a bad fall can be catastrophic. I first saw Doc perform on the National Mall in Washington at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival; I hope it’s not too trite to say the experience changed my life.

Who knows how many guitar players Doc inspired? While I played a little, I knew I could never achieve anything close to his level of skill. Doc was as much a virtuoso as any great musician you can name. All I wanted to do from that point onward was to create similar opportunities for people to discover such amazing artists who seemed so utterly modest and matter-of-fact about their genius.

I had the fortune to come back to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1973 as a paid summer intern after my junior year at Duke University. So enthralled was I that I took a leave of absence from school to work for the festival through the fall. The following year, the university gave me funding to organize the first North Carolina Folklife Festival on the Duke campus. I wasn’t able to present Doc then, but we featured a number of his talented relatives from Deep Gap.

In 1976 I was invited to direct the festival on a grander scale at Durham’s West Point on the Eno Park as part of the bicentennial celebration. Afterward the Department of Cultural Resources hired me (with help from NCMA Director Larry Wheeler, who was deputy secretary of DCR at the time) to document and promote North Carolina’s folk arts and culture full time. It was a dream come true, but I didn’t feel I’d fully succeeded until I finally had the chance to present the great Doc Watson at the second North Carolina Folklife Festival in 1978. It was especially meaningful to me that my mentor Ralph Rinzler, the director of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the man who brought Doc into the wider world, came down from Washington to introduce him.

Since then I’ve had the honor of presenting Doc in various festival and concert settings, and he appeared at the NCMA three or four times. He was 87 on his last visit, but you wouldn’t have known it. He was strong in voice and playing as impressively as ever. But after that the years began to exact their toll, and the man I thought to be possibly immortal grew frail. We were set to present what we knew (though we couldn’t say it) would be Doc’s public finale on June 30.

The event was never meant to be just another Doc Watson concert, but rather a Doc Watson celebration, a chance for all of us to express our appreciation for the wonderful music and example he provided over five decades. We planned to surround Doc with his closest friends and picking partners and take a day to reflect on his remarkable life and career and contribution to our national culture.

When I spoke with David Holt within a few hours of Doc’s passing we knew we needed to carry on with our plans, now more than ever. We hope you will join us Saturday for this day of stories and song and celebration of a North Carolina treasure.

—George Holt is the NCMA’s director of performing arts and film programs.

The music of the eminent Dutch poet and composer Constantijn Huygens, whose son Christiaan was a renowned mathematician and astronomer and discovered the rings of Saturn, will be featured. Other composers whose works will be performed include master Jan Sweelinck, known as the Orpheus of Amsterdam; Johannes Schenk, who created the first Dutch opera; and Jacob van Eyck, a virtuoso of the recorder and the carillon, famous throughout the Netherlands in the late 17^th century.

These works provide the soundtrack to Rembrandt’s Amsterdam and the stunning collection presented in Rembrandt in America. The music will be brought to life by vocalist Glenn Siebert from UNC School of the Arts, cellist Brent Wissick from UNC-Chapel Hill, and Jennifer Streeter on recorder—wonderful musicians all.

The concert is part of Sights & Sounds on Sundays—the chamber music series that is produced in collaboration with the Raleigh Chamber Music Guild. It’s the perfect showcase for North Carolina’s extraordinary classical music talent that flourishes from one end of the state to the other.

Image: Rembrandt van Rijn, Joris de Caulerij, 1632, oil on canvas transferred to panel, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Legion of Honor, Roscoe and Margaret Oakes Collection (66.31)

Lucas Meachem, baritone

We are very excited about Casual Classics: Opera and Broadway in the Museum Park. This will be the first time the OCNC is performing outdoors and it’s a wonderful opportunity to sample opera. (You’ll be surprised how much of the music is familiar…okay, it may be because you heard it in Bugs Bunny cartoons or during a car commercial, but that simply means opera is not an intimidating proposition at all!) The program will be a mix of opera and Broadway favorites which gives OCNC a chance to try out a new rep (and whether you’re familiar with opera or not, who doesn’t enjoy a good show-tune?).  It’ll be a perfect night for a family picnic, a night out with the girls, or a romantic date with good music at a reasonable price. (Come on, wouldn’t you like an alternative to multiplex theaters?) So there you have it, several great reasons for everyone to enjoy a unique Saturday night experience.

This is certainly an interesting experiment, bringing world class musicians and a 50-piece orchestra into an outdoor theater. If you’re a regular at the Museum’s summer series, you’ll enjoy this change of pace and if you’re a regular at the OCNC, we thought you would like to hear us outside for a change.  But this is the classic “you got peanut butter in my chocolate–hey, wait-a-sec…” scenario where everybody wins!  I have a feeling it is going to be a marvelous evening and the start of a great relationship. 

And in the spirit of trying something new, we will even have a guest conductor…from the audience! A lucky winner from an auction this past February will conduct the orchestra in front of all you forgiving fans. Certainly we can cheer for Joan and help her through this amazing experience. (I wish I were as brave!) 

If you just can’t wait for an amazing opera experience, there’s an opportunity to meet the singers and chat with them in an intimate setting. They’ll be at our Taste of Opera dinner at the Umstead this Thursday. The NCMA or OCNC Box Office staff can tell you more about it just call soon (919-792-3850). 

There are people who point to a moment when they heard a piece of music as a child and it stayed with them for years, to be recalled later as a favorite memory.  Here’s your chance to create that experience for your children and grandchildren…or create special some memories all your own. I look forward to sharing this fabulous evening with you.     

Frank Grebowski is the General Director of The Opera Company of North Carolina. Casual Classics: Opera and Broadway in the Museum Park is on Saturday, May 30 at 8 p.m. Buy your tickets online.