Charlotte Symphony and Roof Above Will Present EMERGENCY SHELTER INTAKE FORM at Knight Theater
The work features a community chorus composed of individuals affected by housing instability.
The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (CSO), in partnership with Roof Above, will present Gabriel Kahane's emergency shelter intake form as the centerpiece of its season finale concert, Copland & Kahane, on May 15 & 16 at Knight Theater.
Conducted by Music Director Kwamé Ryan, the performances mark the culmination of both the Charlotte Symphony's season-long exploration of the meaning of “home” and Kahane's tenure as the 2025–26 Spotlight Artist.
Commissioned by the Oregon Symphony in response to the growing housing crisis facing cities across the United States, emergency shelter intake form examines homelessness, displacement, and economic precarity through an oratorio-style work for voices and orchestra. Drawing on language from the shelter intake process, personal reflection, and poetry, the piece builds toward a final movement featuring a chorus of individuals directly affected by homelessness or housing instability.
In collaboration with Roof Above, the Charlotte Symphony has assembled a local chorus whose participation grounds the performance in lived experience. This partnership builds on an ongoing relationship between the two organizations, with CSO musicians regularly performing for neighbors, guests, and tenants at Roof Above's ten housing, shelter, and service locations.
“Gabriel Kahane's emergency shelter intake form is an extraordinarily powerful work that asks us to confront the realities of housing insecurity with empathy and humanity,” said Music Director Kwamé Ryan. “Those ideas become deeply personal through the voices of those in our community who have experienced these challenges firsthand.”
The performances will feature soloists Gabriel Kahane, Alicia Hall Moran, Holland Andrews, and Holcombe Waller alongside the Charlotte Symphony and community chorus. The program also includes Jennifer Higdon's “SkyLine” from City Scape, written as a tribute to Atlanta's urban landscape, and Aaron Copland's Suite from Appalachian Spring, which follows a young couple as they establish a homestead in rural Pennsylvania. Together the two works offer contrasting musical portraits of home.
The Saturday performance will be broadcast live on WDAV 89.9 and streamed at wdav.org. Radio host Fred Child — formally of American Public Media's Performance Today — will host the broadcast live from the Knight Theater.
Pre-Concert Talk
Fred Child will moderate a pre-concert talk with Music Director Kwamé Ryan, Gabriel Kahane, Roof Above CEO Liz Clasen-Kelly, and Roof Above volunteer and former shelter guest Harrison Ervin. The discussion will take place at 6:30 p.m. in the Wells Fargo Pre-Function Space at Knight Theater. Pre-concert talks are free and open to all ticket holders.
Tickets
Tickets start at $30 and are on sale now at charlottesymphony.org.
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