Hendersonville, as a small community, can be proud that it has its very own symphony orchestra. As a symphony orchestra, we not only perform a six-concert season, we also make a significant contribution to the community by providing performance opportunities, scholarships and musical enrichment and education programs for the young people of the area.

The Orchestra is governed by a Board of Directors. The twenty-five volunteer board members are elected for three-year terms and may succeed themselves once. At least four members must be performing musicians. We are a working Board, performing a variety of functions, from administrative to "hands-on" activities required to prepare for a concert. We have a part-time paid staff of six who provide expert musical direction and take care of many details essential to the orchestra.

We are a 100% professional orchestra-all musicians are paid. A typical concert will employ 60 to 70 musicians. About half of the orchestra musicians reside in Henderson County and the remainder in nearby communities. Auditions are held semiannually by the Music Director. Ticket sales provide only about 30% of our income. Donations, both individual and corporate, provide about 40%, and the remainder comes from other sources, including program advertising, grants, earnings from our endowments and fundraising affairs.

We are a member of the American Symphony Orchestra League and its state affiliate, the Association of Symphony Orchestras of North Carolina. These service organizations provide leadership, education, training, membership support and advocacy to their members while communicating to the American public the value and importance of orchestras and the music they perform.

Early History of the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra

(As gleaned from the Symphony Scrapbook by Frank Byrd)

The Hendersonville Symphony was conceived in conversations between Chan Harbour, a retiree to Hendersonville from West Lake, Ohio, and Lawson Braswell, publisher and owner of the Times-News. A number of other interested citizens were involved in early planning meetings, including Kenneth Youngblood, Joe Falvo, Jim Stokes, Debbie McIntyre, William Hartman and J. Eversman.The first reported rehearsal of the orchestra took place in April 1971, in the basement of the First Baptist Church. The group apparently began meeting weekly after that. Marty Irving was concertmaster but conducting during the early rehearsals was rotated among Joe Falvo, Robert Barkley, Marty Irving and Jim Stokes.

According to Chan Harbour, the symphony began with a group of 12 musicians. The Times-News, in its first mention of the orchestra on May 19 of 1971, said that the orchestra by then had 31 musicians, 10 of whom had symphony experience.

The orchestra's first concert entitled "Prelude to Christmas" was presented Monday evening, Dec 6th 1971 to a near capacity crowd at the Hendersonville High School Auditorium. Jim Stokes conducted. Jane Frazier Rolandi, voice professor at Converse College, was the featured guest artist.

The program for that concert lists 58 musicians. The youngest was violinist Myra Orr, reported by the Times-News to be 9 years old. The string section comprised 24 violins, one viola, two cellos and a double bass. The orchestra also included three saxophones but no oboes!

Regardless of its composition, the orchestra's performance "exceeded expectations" according to the Times-News and was acknowledged at concert's end by a standing ovation.

The Hendersonville Symphony performed its second concert on April 20th 1972 featuring operatic baritone John Richards McRae, producer/director of the Brevard Music CenterOpera Workshop. By this time the orchestra had grown to 66 musicians.

Meanwhile, with the assistance of attorney Kenneth Youngblood, articles of incorporation were received from the State dated Jan 19th 1972.

The organizational meeting of the Board of Directors of the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra, Inc., was held on May 8th 1972. Chan Harbour was elected as "president-manager"; Joe Falvo, vice-president; Jim Stokes, musical director; Robert Swanson, treasurer and Louise Sparrenberger, secretary. Other members of the original board were Dan Gibson, Marty Irving, John McLeod, James T. Mackintosh, Mr. & Mrs. Edward R. Reim, Otto Rausch, Jacob Williams and Dr. Lester F. Zerfoss.

Music education and young people were of primary interest to Chan Harbour and other symphony leaders from the beginning.

The forerunner of today's public schools string education program came during the summer of 1973 with the fouding of the "Academy of Strings", a 25 week course for talented students designed to prepare qualified musicians for the orchestra.

The first "Young People's Orchestra" was presented in November 1973.

Chan Harbour died on May 31st 1974, at the age of 70, the victim of a heart attack. Widely eulogized as "Mr. Symphony", he made an amazing impact on the community for a man who only lived here 6 years!

Jim Stokes stepped in as acting president and continued to conduct the orchestra through December 1974.

Ray Reed became president and conductor in 1975, aided by assistant conductor Richard McCutchan. Together with Jack Freeman, McCutchan is remembered as a prime mover behind the String Education Program in the county schools, which was founded in 1978.

Reed continued to conduct the orchestra until Peter Rickett was hired as music director and conductor for the 1976-1977 season.