Times Record
Fort Smith, Arkansas
August 8, 2017
Kim Murdock, Special to The Times Record
The symphony was a small community orchestra once, according to its
website, fortsmithsymphony.org. Today, it is considered a “large, fully
professional regional orchestra,” per the website. The local symphony
also “consistently receives regional, national and international
recognition for its artistic achievement and award-winning educational
programs,” the website notes.
The transformation is credited to
John Jeter, music director and conductor for the Fort Smith Symphony for
just more than 20 years, as well as “the tremendous help and support of
wonderful musicians, professional staff, board of directors and the
community.”
***
Homegrown Greatness — The Music of Florence Price, 7:30 p.m., May 12.
The symphony will perform the “romantic, lyrical, soulful and beautiful”
music of Arkansan Florence Price, according to the symphony’s website.
Price was “the first African-American female composer to have a symphony
performed by a major American orchestra,” and “she is considered the
most prominent, historically significant concert composer of her race
and gender in American music history,” the website reports. Following
the concert, “The Fort Smith Symphony will be the first orchestra to
ever record her complete cycle of four symphonies.”
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