Fort Smith Symphony celebrates 100 with classical, country, film and original music
The Fort Smith Symphony may have been small when it was founded in 1923, but it was clearly mighty. It is, after all, about to celebrate its 100th ...
The Fort Smith Symphony may have been small when it was founded in 1923, but it was clearly mighty. It is, after all, about to celebrate its 100th season. In the annals of Arkansas history, the Fort Smith Symphony predates all of its cousins, including the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas (1954); the South Arkansas Symphony in El Dorado (1956); the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra (1966); and the baby of the family, the Texarkana Symphony (2006). Music director John Jeter credits the orchestra's early success to its founder, Katherine Price Bailey, a musician and music teacher living in Fort Smith; her husband, William Worth Bailey, a violinist and the orchestra's concertmaster; the people of Fort Chaffee, a busy military base during World War II; and connections with the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville in the 1950s.