COMMUNITY EDUCATION

The Gulf Coast Symphony is a unique organization. We remain the only non-professional community orchestra in Southwest Florida, drawing members and audience from as far away as Naples and Punta Gorda. We perform at the very highest artistic levels while providing both education and entertainment to thousands in our community. We are the only musical organization in Lee County that offers family concerts, and provides them as a FREE service. We have been providing free concerts for ten years now, even though it costs the symphony thousands of dollars to produce these programs, all which must be paid for by fund raising and sponsorships. We are also the only musical organization that sponsors a comprehensive educational artist residency program that reach the schools, music students, families, the general public and retirement communities.

We remain focused on being a COMMUNITY organization. Examples include the central role we played in Lee County’s September 11th commemoration event when we were joined by 100 chorus members from the Fort Myers Chorale and the Cypress Lake High School Chorus to perform a free patriotic concert at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall. For the past four years, the orchestra has performed a benefit concert, which raised over $180,000, as part of a fundraiser for the Ft. Myers soup kitchen