Fayetteville Technical Community College is excited to welcome members of the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra to campus Friday, May 6, for a free string quartet concert.
The performance begins at 7 p.m. at the Tony Rand Student Center on Hull Road.
In addition to the concert, the string quartet members will meet with FTCC music students earlier in the day for a masterclass, sharing their knowledge, experience and advice with the class.
The experience and the concert were made possible through a mini-grant from the Arts Council of Fayetteville-Cumberland County secured by FTCC Fine Arts instructor Alec Powers.
Alec Powers speaks at the FTCC 2022 Spring Music Concert. [Photo by Natasha Brown]
The event is part of a push from Powers and his colleagues to get more live music on campus.
“I’ve been wanting to start a performing arts series,” Powers said. “At my graduate and undergraduate programs, there were guest performer series or just concerts happening on campus for majors and for the community.”
Powers, in an effort to find funding and guidance on bringing local musicians to campus, reached out to the Arts Council.
The staff suggested he apply for one of the organization’s mini-grant to fund a single event, establishing proof of concept and providing Powers with experience applying for and managing a grant.
Powers sees the event, including the afternoon masterclass, as a benefit-rich experience, allowing students to workshop some of their music and get information about earning a living as a professional musician.
“It’s beneficial for the students to Interact with musicians in the field, making those connections and networking,” Powers said. “And they’ll write music and then have real musicians play them, which will help them learn how to communicate about their music. This will move the learning outside of the classroom.”
Powers plans to apply for future grants in hopes of expanding the availability of live music on campus.
“In my head, I see over the course of time, a wide variety of performances coming to campus,” Powers said. “This is beyond just being about music majors. I want our community of students and the wider community to feel like there are musical events happening on campus.”