MUSICAL GATEWAYS

Young people remain a key element of our artistic mission and we are very proud of our achievements in this area. Our education program has expanded to working with eight Lee County Schools, and several dozen more are interested. Despite budgetary constraints we plan to expand the program from our current eight partners to include up to 24 schools this season. Our only constraint to expanding this program is budgetary. The Symphony has maintained a close relationship with the Cypress Lake Center for the Arts Middle and High school, and the Gateway Magnet School since our founding. Students from the C.L.C.A. Middle School Orchestra and the High School Chorus have performed with the symphony in past seasons and will join us again in this and future seasons. Each year the symphony provides free and subsidized tickets for students and their family. We have also provided performance opportunities for college students attending Edison Community College and Florida Gulf Coast University.

We are continuing our highly successful Artist Residency Program. During these week-long residences, we bring professional artists and their accompanist to Fort Myers to participate in outreach activities and perform education work in our partner schools, and perform with the orchestra in concert. These resident artists also perform recitals for the general public and perform in local retirement communities.