By Alain Puma, publications intern
FSU President Nancy Niemi said that one of the long-term goals she has as president is to incorporate more music into the FSU experience. A new partnership with the MetroWest Symphony Orchestra is helping to do just that.
“Having the Orchestra here is one way to start to show students and community members that music can be a wonderful part of the University experience,” she said.
Framingham State University is the new home to the MetroWest Symphony Orchestra, which held its first performance at FSU on November 17th at the Dwight Performing Arts Center.
Niemi said the partnership began after the Orchestra manager reached out to her via email to see if she would be interested. Niemi said her love of music and the opportunity to collaborate with a member of the community helped make the prospect of a partnership more attractive.
“I was very interested because we don’t have an orchestra or a music program. I love music and felt that the University could benefit from such a community partnership,” she said.
The Orchestra’s Musical Director Max Hobart said he was “very pleased” with how the performance went and praised Framingham State for all their help in bringing it to fruition.
He said he felt the venue helped enhance the performance and that he was looking forward to continuing the partnership with FSU.
“It went very smoothly. We also liked it because the quality of their [FSU’s] auditorium is so much better than we had at the high school auditoriums. The acoustics were perfect. I’m very hopeful that this can continue. It’s a nice collaboration,” he said.
Hobart added that he would have liked to see more people in the audience, especially students.
“I wish we had more attendance with regard to students. More student participation would have been good. I hope to see that in the future,” he said. “I think it’s beneficial for the students to take in classical music. Students and staff can even come sit in and listen to us on any Tuesday night while we rehearse. It may make them realize how much they’ve missed classical music.”
Niemi highlighted the fact that people are participating in fewer community-based activities since the COVID pandemic and emphasized the community-building benefits that music has. She said that the University is working on helping the Orchestra incorporate themselves into the FSU community.
“There probably will be some paid opportunities [with the Orchestra] that we could eventually develop,” she said. “It’s a different kind of relationship that isn’t like a student club or co-curricular activities. It’s a relationship that takes time to grow.”
