Volcanic ash strands symphony conductor in Wales

North Carolina Symphony Music Director Grant Llewellyn will miss some concerts this week because the plume of volcanic ash that has grounded flights across Europe has stranded him at his home in Cardiff, Wales, officials said Tuesday.

Posted 7:33 p.m. Apr 20, 2010 — Updated 7:41 p.m. Apr 20, 2010

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina Symphony Music Director Grant Llewellyn will miss some concerts this week because the plume of volcanic ash that has grounded flights across Europe has stranded him at his home in Cardiff, Wales, officials said Tuesday.

Resident Conductor William Henry Curry will take the podium in Llewellyn’s place for the performance of “German Masters” at Vance-Granville Community College Civic Center in Henderson on Tuesday night and will conduct the symphony’s education concerts in Raleigh on Wednesday and in Kill Devil Hills on Friday.

Llewellyn is expected to arrive in North Carolina on Friday, in time for engagements in Southern Pines and New Bern and the weekend events for the reopening of the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh.

“It’s just one more indication of how interconnected and interdependent our world is today,” North Carolina Symphony President and Chief Executive David Chambless Worters said in a statement. “With a music director with such a busy conducting calendar, it’s not hard to imagine how a travel disruption of this magnitude affects Grant’s ability to be where he needs to be when he needs to be there.”

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