Daniel Pappas with the All American Jazz Collective speaks during a concert held in March 2025 at FTCC as part of the Guest Artist Series. [Photo by Natasha Brown]
FTCC Foundation has received a Project Support Grant in the amount of $14,920 from the Arts Council of Fayetteville-Cumberland County and the North Carolina Arts Council for the Guest Artist Series with the Fine Arts Department at Fayetteville Technical Community College.
The series will bring in musical guest artists for a series of six engagements during the 2025-26 academic year. Each artist will perform a free concert that will be 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 2025-26 series are:
- In October, thoroughly multinational but uniquely North Carolinian Orquesta GarDel will thrill audiences with a high-energy Latin dance music experience. The 12-member lineup replicates the format of a classic Nuyorican salsa dura ensemble – a full deck of horn players, percussionists and Coro singers. The Orquesta GarDel and the FTCC Ensemble will give an engaging concert featuring Latin, jazz and classic popular tunes.
- Bella Venti is a wind quintet comprised of band directors and musicians based out of Southeastern North Carolina. Bella Venti will come in November to work with the FTCC Concert Band on a program of entirely Latin music. They will perform a set of Wind Quintet literature and 2-3 band pieces with the FTCC Concert Band. Music faculty member Jasen Thompson will assist in artistic direction.
- Arione Strings is a charismatic ensemble of classically trained string musicians with 30-plus years of extensive touring & performing experience. This concert in November will feature the FTCC and Cape Fear High School choirs in a program titled “Wild Forces Within Us”, which will explore themes surrounding the wildly magical human experience.
- George Freeman is a diverse keyboardist with musical influences from gospel, R&B, neo-soul, jazz, fusion and funk. His musical style is smooth and upbeat, with soulful harmonies, and contemporary rhythms with edgy chord progressions. Freeman will visit FTCC in March to work with students in the FTCC pop/jazz ensemble. He will give a talk with our music majors and share a concert of smooth jazz and R&B classics alongside the FTCC pop/jazz ensemble.
- A Vision Unfolding is a contemporary choral work by Kyle Pederson which compels the audience to consider a vision of the sort of community we can build in our best moments. Pederson invites us to “seek to build bridges of care and connection” and to “stand in solidarity with those whose voices are too often dismissed.” This performance in April will feature the FTCC and Terry Sanford High School choirs, accompanied by musicians from the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra.
- In April, the FTCC Concert Band and the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra Brass Quintet will perform marches and fanfares that celebrate the rich American band tradition.
FTCC Music Instructor Alec Powers is organizing the FTCC Guest Artist Series.
“I truly believe that the arts and arts education are essential to healthy communities,” Powers said. “Engaging in artistic endeavors has been proven to activate the brain in ways that benefit cognitive function of small children all the way to the elderly. Artistic activities also promote emotional regulation and help to strengthen communication skills and foster collaboration. The arts help us to encounter new perspectives and facilitate difficult conversations in ways that allow us to lower our defenses and truly open our hearts and minds to one another. Not only are these skills essential for the individual, but they are exactly what our communities need. I can’t think of a better way to invest in our community than by programming concerts that provide these sorts of educational and inspirational experiences. 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.
About the Arts Council of Fayetteville-Cumberland County
The Arts Council of Fayetteville-Cumberland County is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization based in Fayetteville, NC, that connects our communities, embraces diversity, promotes individual creativity, advances economic development, and fosters lifelong learning through the arts. As a primary steward of public and private funding for arts, cultural, and historical activities in the Cape Fear Region, all affiliated programs of the Arts Council exemplify our 5 core values: Excellence, Accountability, Transparency, Collaboration, and Innovation.
In the year 2025-2026 year, the Arts Council distributed more than $1 million in grant funds and special allocations to Cumberland County artists, non-profit organizations, institutions of higher education, and municipal offices producing arts and cultural activities.
Grants, programs, and services of the Arts Council are funded in part by contributions from community partners, and through grants from the City of Fayetteville, Cumberland County, and the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural & Cultural Resources.
