Accessible Art: The Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra works to expand and share fine arts offerings in the city and beyond

By Kate Griffin, posted Jun 29, 2023 on BizFayetteville.com

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY FAYETTEVILLE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
The Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra partnered with the Givens Performing Arts Center to celebrate the music of famed
composer John Williams in a special concert series in 2018.

Involving 60 accomplished musicians performing all over the city, the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra and their performances make for a world-class experience available right here in Fayetteville. This professional regional orchestra uses outreach programs, skilled musicians and an infectious passion for their art to spread the love of music and the opportunity for music education to everyone.

The fine arts scene is alive and well in Fayetteville, and the Orchestra seeks to expand the scene to all corners of the city’s population, and potentially beyond. The Orchestra engages in and offers a multiplicity of programs, partnerships and performances for the sole benefit of the community.

Members of the Orchestra, all professionals in their fields, come from all over to join the nonprofit group. The Orchestra seeks out people with plenty of experience and music education in their backgrounds. Around a quarter of the Orchestra’s members are local and the musicians are contract workers who joined via an audition process. There is also a substitute list that musicians can audition for.

The Orchestra offers subscription concerts which entail ticketed events featuring classical music and community concert events.

“We do a community concert series where we offer free admission experiences for the community because we recognize that ticket costs can be a barrier to people from going out and seeing the orchestra, and we really want our program to be accessible to all,” said Anna Meyer, executive director of the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra.

These community concerts involve events like the Fourth of July concert in Festival Park, Handel’s Messiah near the holidays and Symphony Movie Night at Dirtbag Ales Brewery and Taproom.

“We do a Symphony on Tap series where we take small ensembles from the orchestra and bring them out to different breweries and we perform in small groups for free,” said Meyer. “We’ll tend to play more popular music, some jazz music, something that’s a little different than you’d see in the concert hall.”

While the Orchestra offers the traditional approach of in person concerts, the Orchestra also extends an alternative way of bringing the symphony to the audience.

“We try really hard to create a comfortable environment. We are not a stuffy orchestra or organization, we encourage people to come as they’re comfortable,” said Meyer. “We like to have fun, we like to make friends, we like to be in community with others, we’re not that kind of place where you have to dress up and sit still.”

Meyer shared that it’s important that the Orchestra offers a dynamic variety of music for concert attendees to enjoy.

“We try not only to offer a variety of pricing for events, but also a variety of musical genres, because we get that not everybody wants to listen to classical programs,” said Meyer. “So we try to offer a wide variety of things so everyone can find something they’re interested in.”

The Orchestra doesn’t forget about the younger age demographic. There is a Fayetteville Symphony Youth Orchestra for middle and high schoolers who have experience with an instrument, and are seeking to learn more.

“The program is led by professional musicians from the Fayetteville Symphony, so the students are getting really high quality instruction and getting the opportunity to perform across the community,” said Meyer. “One of my favorite things about that program is that we give the students the opportunity to perform side by side with the professional Fayetteville Symphony, so they do a concert together on stage where we pair a student with a professional musician so they get that one-on-one mentorship and the opportunity to play with a professional orchestra. It is a cool program!” The Orchestra also offers internship programs for college students, both for the administrative office and to gain experience in the professional music world.

The Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra is a nonprofit organization under 501(c3), relying on grants, donations and ticket sales to continue their education programs and free concerts. The Orchestra performs at a variety of halls, utilizing a lot of Fayetteville’s hallmark establishments such as Fayetteville State, Methodist University, Cape Fear Botanical Gardens and Cape Fear Regional Theatre in addition to local churches like St. John’s Episcopal, First Presbyterian Church and Haymount United Methodist. The Orchestra works closely with the Arts Council of Fayetteville Cumberland County, Cumberland Community Foundation, United Way of Cumberland County and Cumberland Choral Arts to provide only the best musical experiences to the community.

“We’d love to have more engage ment from the business community. We love to see people out at our concerts and events,” said Meyer. “We do have group rates and if a business group wanted to come out and come see a show all together that’d be great. We have a lot of opportunities, and we hope people will want to engage with us.”

Some future events the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra is excited to present include Spooktacular, a Halloween-themed concert on October 28.

“We’ll encourage people to dress up, we’ll play spooky tunes that people will recognize, so that’ll be really fun,” said Meyer. Cumberland Choral Arts will work alongside the Symphony with Holiday Pops, a large-scale holiday-themed concert on Dec. 9. Looking further ahead in 2024, on April 20 the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra will play with famous bluegrass band, the Krueger Brothers. On May 11, the principal trombone of the New York Philharmonics Joseph Alessi will play with the symphony at a concert titled Bad to the Bone.

“We’re super excited for the season. We’ve got some great keystone concerts and great guest artists,” said Meyer. “Something we really pride ourselves on is trying to be out in the community and meet people where they’re at, instead of expecting them to come to us.”

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