Guest Artist Concert Series

FTCC Foundation has received a Project Support Grant in the amount of $10,476 from the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County and the North Carolina Arts Council to develop a Guest Artist Series with the Fine Arts Department at Fayetteville Technical Community College. This will be the largest-scale event series that the Fine Arts Department at FTCC will have coordinated with grant funding.

The series will bring in musical guest artists for a series of five different engagements in the 2024-2025 academic year. Each artist will perform in a concert that will be free and open to the public and will give a lecture or masterclass or participate in rehearsals with FTCC students. Additional concerts, exhibitions, lectures, and theatrical performances will be offered throughout the year through the FTCC Fine Arts Department.

The guest artists selected for the 2024-2025 academic year are:

• The Blackbox Ensemble, a contemporary new music ensemble based in New York City, will give a masterclass on free improvisation and perform in concert on September 30, 2024.
• Dr. Stephen Love will visit FTCC a number of times over the Fall ’24 semester, giving lectures and masterclasses, and directing rehearsals with FTCC ensembles. His visits will culminate with a performance by FTCC student ensembles, highlighting Dr. Love as guest artist on December 4, 2024.
• The Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra Wind Quintet will visit FTCC in February 2025, giving a concert featuring the music of composer Ahmed Al Abaca. The FTCC Band will make an appearance, performing music by composers Ahmed Al Abaca and Brittany J. Green.
• Composer, educator and performer Dr. Daniel Pappas and the All-American Jazz Collective will visit FTCC in March 2025. Dr. Pappas will give a masterclass and demonstration on the use of generative AI in music composition, and the All-American Jazz Collective will perform in concert with the FTCC Ensemble.
• To conclude the season, the FTCC, Jack Britt HS and Gray’s Creek HS choral programs will collaborate in a concert entitled “The Road”. This concert will feature a small string orchestra from the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra, and include a performance of Ola Gjeilo’s new work “The Road”, in addition to other appropriately themed choral works.

FTCC Music Instructor Alec Powers is organizing the FTCC Guest Artist Series.

“Cultural arts programming and arts education are so extremely important within our society,” Powers said[CP1] . “Engagement with music has so many benefits, to include emotional regulation, increased coordination and cognitive function, and cultivation of a sense of belonging and purpose. It is vital that we continue to offer musical programming and musical education opportunities in our community not only for our students, but for the community at large[CP2] . Music and the arts help to connect us to the gift of human experience, and to one another. I am proud to partner with FTCC and the Arts Council to help provide opportunities of this nature to students at FTCC and the surrounding community.”

The guest artists will work closely with FTCC students, and their visits will culminate with performances for the general public. For each engagement, Powers plans to incorporate a series of interactive elements with the guest artists to encourage active participation from the students in the creative process. Ideas for these engagements include collaborative commissions from composers, mini-residencies from performers, workshops that deal with issues in the music industry, collaborative performances between student ensembles and guest artists, and more. Powers believes that these sorts of active learning opportunities are the most powerful and impactful for music students, and foster a greater degree of musical collaboration with our guest artists over a more traditional approach.

In addition to performances that are open to the public, Powers is open to incorporating collaborative engagements with local colleges, universities and high schools into the Guest Artist Series to better promote the arts in Fayetteville and Cumberland County.

“We believe that a collaborative approach not only leads to a more rewarding musical experience, but benefits everyone involved by enhancing all of our efforts in musical education,” said Powers.

“Fayetteville Technical Community College and FTCC Foundation have enjoyed a strong collaborative relationship with the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County,” said Sandy Ammons, Executive Director for FTCC Foundation. “We appreciate their continued support of our efforts to enrich the lives of our students and the community through arts education and entertainment.”

For more information about the FTCC Guest Artist Concert Series, contact the FTCC Foundation at foundation@faytechcc.edu or 910-678-8441, or the Music Department at music@faytechcc.edu or 910-678-9773.

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This project is supported by a grant from the Arts Council of Fayetteville|Cumberland County in part by contributions from community partners, and through grants from the City of Fayetteville, Cumberland County, and the N.C Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural & Cultural Resources.

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