Charlotte Symphony Orchestra

EducationHealth and Wellness
Written By Meg Whalen

Website: charlottesymphony.org
Facebook: @CLTSymphony
Instagram: @cltsymphony
Twitter: @CLTsymphony
Youtube:@Charlotte Symphony
LinkedIn: Charlotte Symphony

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KEY PERSONNEL

Executive Director: David Fisk
Email: dfisk@charlottesymphony.org 

Director of Youth Orchestra Programs: Aram Bryan
Email: abryan@charlottesymphony.org

ABOUT: Founded in 1932, and led by internationally renowned Music Director Christopher Warren-Green, the Charlotte Symphony is the city’s professional orchestra and the largest arts employer in the region.

Through the Education/Community Engagement department, the Charlotte Symphony performs everywhere from community parks and schools to jails, breweries, hospitals, and senior care centers. Nearly 200 area students participate in two youth orchestras. More than half of the Charlotte Symphony musicians are educators in the region, teaching privately and also in higher education institutions, band and orchestra classrooms across the district, and for students in the Symphony’s youth orchestras and in the residency program at Northwest School of the Arts. Inspired by the renowned El Sistema youth and community development program of Venezuela, the CSO also partners with Arts + to deliver Project Harmony, a free after-school orchestra program for students in targeted areas of need in Charlotte that is now about to start its 10th year.

Community and Education Programs

Project Harmony (Partnered with Arts+)
Project Harmony is a free after-school music program operated by the Charlotte Symphony and Arts + aimed at building pathways to success for low-income elementary school children. Project Harmony creates social transformation through music by engaging children in orchestra programs that foster skill development and personal empowerment. 

Music and the Holocaust
Musicians from the Charlotte Symphony present a 45-minute themed, narrated program, performing music of significance during this period in history. The repertoire features a mix of traditional and Klezmer music. Each concert includes narration and projected images that explore pre-World War II Jewish culture. Through the music of its era, audiences will learn about Jewish culture and the horrors of the Holocaust.

Healing Hands
For over 20 years the Charlotte Symphony's Healing Hands program has sent solo performers, small ensembles, and chamber orchestras into area hospitals, senior care centers, and community centers, to enrich the lives of patients and residents.

Bridging Musical Worlds
Bridging Musical Worlds is an annual concert celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that brings together music from the rich, diverse jazz and classical traditions. The concert is presented in partnership with A Sign of the Times of the Carolinas, the Charlotte Folk Society, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte College of Arts and Architecture. 

Orchestra On Campus
Orchestra On Campus is a collaboration between the Charlotte Symphony and higher education institutions in the Charlotte region with the aim to draw students into the orchestral experience. Expanding the Symphony's audience to include a younger and more diverse demographic, Orchestra on Campus also broadens the orchestra's reach to a wider geographic area.

Symphony 101
Composers and their works can be a valuable component of the music-going experience. Symphony 101 is a series of free learning opportunities presented in partnership with WDAV Classical Public Radio and led by Davidson College Symphony Orchestra Music Director Tara Keith.

Pro-Am
A component of the Charlotte Symphony's education and engagement efforts, the annual Pro-Am gives community musicians the opportunity to rehearse and perform alongside CSO musicians in a professional setting. Participants spend the afternoon rehearsing side-by-side with Charlotte Symphony musicians in preparation for a free community concert that evening at the Belk Theater. In between, participants and CSO musicians have the opportunity to engage further over a shared meal. Pro-Am is open to any musician 18 years and older who plays a traditional symphony instrument. Participants must be able to provide their own instruments.

Music For All 
Music For All welcomes members of our community on public assistance to attend Charlotte Symphony concerts* for $1 per ticket, best-available seating, beginning 1 hour prior to the performance. 

Charlotte Symphony Youth Orchestra
The Charlotte Symphony Youth Orchestra experience provides extraordinary music education in pursuit of musical excellence. The program aims to inspire in our students a strong sense of character, discipline, commitment, and community. The ensembles are inclusive, diverse, and accessible to all students, regardless of financial resources. High-quality ensemble training is led by Charlotte Symphony Resident Conductor Christopher James Lees, Youth Philharmonic Conductor Jessica Morel, and professional Charlotte Symphony musicians, who provide a nurturing environment through which young musicians create lasting bonds in music and friendship. The youth orchestras offer regular performance opportunities throughout the city, including the Belk and Knight theaters, plus access to the Charlotte Symphony's renowned Music Director, Christopher Warren-Green and international visiting artists, such as Joshua Bell. 

Prelude Ensemble Performance
These interactive small ensemble shows in local schools support North Carolina Standards for Music Education and blend great music along with discussion of the repertoire and their instruments.

Education Concerts
The Charlotte Symphony offers a spring concert and a fall concert to students from grades 6-12. Participating schools also receive an online educational guide to help them prepare students for the experience. 

Link Up: The Orchestra Rocks
Link Up is a partnership between the CSO and Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute to provide interactive and curriculum-based symphonic education concerts. Participating teachers are provided free curricular materials from Carnegie Hall to prepare students for a culminating concert experience in the Belk Theater. At the concert students sing, play recorder, and move along with the Charlotte Symphony.

Coaching
Coaching provides aspiring student musicians with invaluable feedback directly from professional Charlotte Symphony performing artists. Our musicians visit band and orchestra classes to work directly with students on a variety of musical topics

Northwest Residency Program
The Instrumental Music Initiative is an immersive music education program in which students at Northwest School of the Arts work intensively with professional Charlotte Symphony musicians through individual, sectional, and ensemble settings. The initiative encourages the musicians of tomorrow through our partnership with the Charlotte region's only middle and high school public arts magnet school. The program has two core components: coaching and recital seminar.

Students InTune
This free membership program gives area full-time students unique access to the best available seats for all CSO CLASSICAL or POPS Series performances.

Meg Whalen
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