Jon Lewis

What’s cooler than classical music? Ask some little kids and you’re likely to hear “broccoli,” “cleaning my room” or “seeing the dentist.” Cory Cullinan, aka Dr. Noize, and his old college classmate, Kyle Pickett, director of the North State Symphony, are out to see if they can change some of those attitudes. Cullinan will be the special guest at the symphony’s annual youth concert. Together, Cullinan and Pickett think they can get the littlest of ears as excited about Beethoven and Stravinsky as they are about any top-40 performer… For Friday’s youth concert, Cullinan will introduce Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” – “that’s some of the craziest stuff ever”- as well as pieces from Mozart’s “Night Music” and even the grandmaster of them all, Beethoven’s Fifth.