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AFA (American Festival for the Arts) Conservatory Orchestra & AFA Faculty Concert

Presented by American Festival for the Arts at Wortham Theater Center - Cullen Theater

July 7, 2009

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American Festival for the Arts presents the AFA (American Festival for the Arts) Conservatory Orchestra & AFA Faculty Concert.  This two-part performance, featuring both the Conservatory Orchestra and AFA's outstanding faculty members, is sure to be a memorable evening.

The AFA faculty chamber orchestra, led by guest conductor Laura Jackson (Reno Symphony) will perform music from two American composers: Charles Ives' intriguing "Unanswered Question" and Samuel Barber's "Capricorn Concerto". After the intermission, Ms. Jackson and the Conservatory Orchestra will take to the stage, opening with the familiar "Fanfare for the Common Man" by Aaron Copland and continuing with Tchaikovsky's "Slavonic March" and the "L'Arlesienne Suite No. 1" by Georges Bizet. Generously underwritten by Council Member Peter Brown & Mrs. Anne S. Brown.

American Festival for the Arts (AFA) was founded in 1993 by Houston composer J. Todd Frazier to provide accessible, high-quality music education and performance opportunities for youth and to broaden the audience for both new American works and the standard classical music repertory.

To achieve its mission, AFA presents an annual Summer Music Conservatory and Concert Series. This unique and acclaimed community-based music education program, featuring faculty members drawn from the nations’ finest educators, performers, composers and conductors, has become recognized as an important annual event in the cultural life of Southeast Texas and as a model for similar programs around the nation. A rigorous curriculum that includes large and small ensemble performance, music theory/enrichment classes and private lessons forms the core of AFA’s orchestra, jazz, choir, piano and composition departments.

The Conservatory is an inspiring, life changing experience for its students. In 2008, AFA’s thirteenth Summer Music Conservatory enrolled 332 students from 109 elementary, middle and senior high schools. AFA presented twenty-one free concerts to thousands of area music lovers featuring more American works and world premieres than any other area presenter. More than three out of every five students received tuition assistance from the AFA Scholarship Enrichment Fund.