Arkansas Symphony Orchestra is about to open its new state-of-the-art facility

Classical music is a hit in Arkansas, where the symphony orchestra will have a new $12 million home. The Stella Boyle Smith Music Center is the symphony’s first permanent home in its 58-year history.

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Across the country, professional orchestras are struggling to stay relevant. In Arkansas, though, a new community-focused model has helped keep classical music alive. Daniel Breen from Little Rock Public Radio conducts this piece.

DANIEL BREEN, BYLINE: When Christina Littlejohn began her job as CEO of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, she faced a daunting challenge.

CHRISTINA LITTLEJOHN: We were going to run out of cash.

BREEN: She had a short window to turn things around. The symphony had about a month's worth of cash left, and the holidays were fast approaching.

LITTLEJOHN: I had just moved here, and I was like, what have I done?

BREEN: Now, 15 years later, Littlejohn is presiding over the opening of a new $12 million headquarters in downtown Little Rock. Just steps away from the Arkansas River and Bill Clinton's presidential library, the Stella Boyle Smith Music Center is the symphony's first permanent home in its 58-year history. Accents of wood invoke color tones of musical instruments, and floor-to-ceiling windows invite passersby to look inside.

LITTLEJOHN: People can watch us making music, and they can watch their students make music. And I think you can actually hear us, too, outside. But definitely part of the design. The whole design was centered around, how can we really be Arkansas Symphony Orchestra?

BREEN: That spirit of welcoming extends to the building's front door, where visitors are greeted by a grand piano.

GEOFFREY ROBSON: This is not a do not touch piano. It's a please play me piano.

BREEN: The symphony's music director Geoffrey Robson says it's a far cry from their previous space they shared with the Catholic Diocese of Little Rock, where supply closets doubled as practice rooms and ensembles had no choice but to perform outside.

ROBSON: In this day and age, a symphony orchestra has to be a community partner and be part of the area where we live in order to cultivate the growth of our art form.

BREEN: The way they grew in Arkansas, Robson says, was through an intense focus on their community. They began livestreaming concerts and lessons, playing the classics one night...

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

BREEN: ...And pop music the next.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

BREEN: The symphony's 60-plus musicians livestreamed from their homes in the height of COVID in a nightly video series that went viral.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

BREEN: Virtual lessons reached tens of thousands of kids across Arkansas.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: Right now, I have my violin tuned...

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: ...Normally - E, A, D, G.

BREEN: Including in some rural, difficult to reach places.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARKANSAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA'S PERFORMANCE OF PRICE'S "CONCERTO IN ONE MOVEMENT: ANDANTINO-ALLEGRETTO")

BREEN: And they featured music by black composers like Little Rock natives William Grant Still and Florence Price, whose "Piano Concerto In One Movement" marked the symphony's first commercial release in more than two decades.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARKANSAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA'S PERFORMANCE OF PRICE'S "CONCERTO IN ONE MOVEMENT: ANDANTINO-ALLEGRETTO")

BREEN: Simon Woods, president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras, says he'd like to see more of what's happening in Arkansas in other American symphonies.

SIMON WOODS: It's like this building that they have bought to fruition there, which is just a remarkable thing, is a kind of a concrete, literally, realization of all the changes that are going on in our field.

BREEN: It was only through their community investment, Littlejohn says, that they could raise the money for the building in a capital campaign.

LITTLEJOHN: This building, in order to design it was musicians, board and staff. Just about everything we do includes all of the voices at the table.

BREEN: As a thank you to the community that's got them there, the symphony officially opens their new space with a three-day free celebration this weekend.

For NPR News, I'm Daniel Breen and Little Rock.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARKANSAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA'S PERFORMANCE OF PRICE'S "CONCERTO IN ONE MOVEMENT: ANDANTINO-ALLEGRETTO")

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