Sound of Charlotte Blog
Building Bridges Through Music
February 5, 2026
The Charlotte Symphony and the Latin American Coalition
At the Charlotte Symphony, we believe music has the power to bring people together -- to listen, to learn, and to be inspired. That belief is at the heart of our growing partnership with the Latin American Coalition.
The collaboration took root in 2024, when the Coalition welcomed our inaugural CSO Roadshow performance at their annual Música Con Amigos Festival. We were honored to be invited into their space, to meet their families, and to share live orchestral music that resonated deeply with their community. The excitement and energy of that day led to our return in 2025 and sparked ongoing conversations about expanding access to music education for young children in the community.
CSO Roadshow at Música Con Amigos Festival
From those conversations, the Bridge Program was born. Now underway in East Charlotte, the program gives young students violin and viola lessons, opening doors to creative expression while building confidence, discipline, and joy.
"La Coalición's partnership with the CSO has evolved beyond any expectation. A great example is our new Bridge Program, which provides violin lessons at our site in East Charlotte -- providing access to young people who otherwise would not be exposed to the beauty and powerful life-changing impact of music. It is truly a bridge... to hope, belonging, and self-realization. Gracias!"
~ José Hernandez-Paris, CEO, Latin American Coalition
Partnerships like this allow the Symphony's mission to extend beyond the concert hall. They remind us that when we listen closely, collaborate thoughtfully, and invest in the next generation, music can truly become a bridge -- connecting people, opening doors, and creating new opportunities.
Meet Violist Pin-Hao Liao
November 5, 2025
This season, we welcome Pin-Hao Liao to the Charlotte Symphony as Assistant Principal Viola. Originally from Taiwan, Pin-Hao studied at The Juilliard School and has performed with orchestras including the New York Philharmonic and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Get to know more about her musical journey and what she's most looking forward to in her new home.
What brought you to America from Taiwan?
I came to the United States to study music at Juilliard and explore new opportunities to grow as a violist and musician.
Why did you pick the viola?
I fell in love with its warm, human-like sound.
What are you looking forward to most about living and performing in Charlotte?
I'm excited to get to know the city, play with amazing colleagues, and share music with the Charlotte community.
Do you have a favorite composer?
I love Tchaikovsky! His music always touches me and brings me to tears.
What do you do for fun outside of work?
I like exploring new coffee shops, cooking, and spending time outdoors.
Is there anything else you'd like to share directly with our audiences?
I'm so happy to be part of the Charlotte Symphony, and I can't wait to perform for you all!
Meet Violist Pedro Mendez
October 1, 2025
This season, we're pleased to introduce Pedro Mendez, the newest member of the Charlotte Symphony's viola section! Originally from Venezuela, where he participated in the renowned El Sistema program, Pedro now joins us for his first full-time symphony position. Get to know him as he shares his journey, what drew him to the viola, and what he's most looking forward to in his new home.
Your musical journey began in El Sistema. How did that experience shape you as a musician and as a person?
Growing up in El Sistema gave me not only a strong musical foundation but also a sense of community and purpose. From a very young age, I learned that music is not just about individual achievement, but about teamwork, discipline, and the power to transform lives. It also gave me the drive to always push myself to do better, even when things weren't easy. I have always carried with me El Sistema's motto, "to play and to fight," which has pushed me forward every day of my life. Today, I feel so grateful to be making a living through something I once fought so hard for as a child. I believe those values continue to inspire the way I play and share music every day.
You started on violin but later chose the viola. What inspired that transition, and how did it change your perspective as a performer?
The warmth and depth of the viola's sound always captivated me, even back when I would borrow a friend's instrument just for fun and play violin pieces on it because I didn't know any viola repertoire yet. I feel that the viola represents who I am: its warm sound, its calmness, its balance between high and low voices -- like having the depth of a cello and the brilliance of a violin in one instrument. The viola truly changed my life and the way I see the world.
What excites you most about joining the Charlotte Symphony and making Charlotte your home?
I'm truly excited to join such a vibrant orchestra and to make music with colleagues who are so committed to excellence. Charlotte feels like a welcoming city full of culture, warmth, and beautiful green spaces everywhere you go. This is also my very first full-time position in a symphony orchestra, which makes it even more meaningful. It's the result of many years of love, sacrifice, and dedication to my instrument. We all know how competitive and challenging it is to win a position like this, so I'm deeply grateful to God for bringing me here, to a wonderful city, an inspiring orchestra, and the chance to work with such great musicians and a visionary conductor.
When you're not making music, how do you like to spend your time?
I love spending time with my wife, who is also a violinist. We enjoy exploring new places together -- especially restaurants, and of course Venezuelan food whenever we can find it! I also love watching soccer and cheering for my beloved FC Barcelona, as well as playing some tennis in my free time.
Finally, is there anything you'd like to share directly with our audiences?
I feel deeply grateful to God for bringing me here, and I'm honored to join the Charlotte Symphony family. I can't wait to meet our audiences, share unforgettable musical experiences together, and grow as part of this beautiful community. Thank you for welcoming me -- I'm truly excited for this new chapter of my life and for everything that lies ahead.
The Making of Become Ocean
February 11, 2025
Imagine stepping into a space where music surrounds you. Where light shimmers and shifts like the surface of the water. Where sound flows in waves, washing over you from every direction. This is Become Ocean, a groundbreaking immersive concert experience presented by the Charlotte Symphony in partnership with Blumenthal Arts, coming to Blume Studios on February 28 and March 1.
John Luther Adams's Pulitzer Prize-winning composition Become Ocean is a musical exploration of the ocean's vast, mysterious power, and the ecological challenges of rising sea levels. Bringing this powerful concept to life in a way that fully immerses the audience requires a careful blend of artistic vision and technical expertise. Two Creative Directors from Visuell Immersive joined us to discuss how they're working with the Charlotte Symphony's creative team to shape this one-of-a-kind experience.
Creating an Oceanic World
Unlike a traditional concert hall, Blume Studios provides a flexible space where sound and visuals can fully surround the audience."We approached this with simplicity in mind -- not to overwhelm, but to create something elemental," explains Ian Robinson, one of the artistic minds behind Become Ocean. "Water, light, movement, and sound -- all blending into a singular, meditative experience that allows space for each audience member to bring their own 'in ocean' emotions to the surface."
From the moment audiences arrive, they will feel immersed in this world. "In the lobby, the waves greet you -- lapping at the edges, soft but vast, setting the stage for what's to come. But inside the performance space, you're pulled under, into the deep, where everything moves with weight and grace."
At Blume Studios, Ian Robinson (far right) and Aaron McCoy (seated, right) discuss Become Ocean with creative teams from the Charlotte Symphony and Blumenthal Arts.
Merging Music and Motion
To bring this vision to life, the production team is designing projections and lighting that move with the same fluidity as the music. These elements won't serve as just a backdrop, but as an extension of the music itself."The project aims to create a transformative environment that embodies the verb 'become' in Become Ocean by transporting the audience into a contemplative, beautiful, and emotionally connected oceanic space," says Aaron McCoy, Creative Director from Visuell Immersive.
At times, the space will be bathed in deep blues and shifting silvers, mimicking light refracting through water. Elsewhere, projections will ripple across the walls, expanding and contracting with the ebb and flow of the orchestra.
"The way light moves in water is unpredictable -- sometimes a shimmer, sometimes a rush," Robinson says. "Our projections mimic that fluidity, creating an environment that doesn't dictate but suggests, allowing the audience's imagination to take over."
"This isn't just a concert; it's a journey."
Floating Between Sound and Light
Rather than simply illustrating an oceanic landscape, the production invites audiences to experience the sensation of drifting within it."This isn't just a concert; it's a journey," Robinson explains. "We wanted the audience to feel like they are adrift, floating between sound and light, between the surface and the depths, with no clear beginning or end -- just the pulse of the ocean carrying them."
McCoy adds, "By the end, the light dissolves into an infinite fade, a slow retreat into silence. The ocean remains -- vast, unknowable, and ever-moving."
Experience Become Ocean
Join us for this immersive performance of Become Ocean at Blume Studios on February 28 and March 1.
... Read more
Mario Bauzá, “The Original Mambo King”
February 4, 2025
If you know the mambo, rumba, or cha-cha, you have the Afro-Cuban jazz musician, bandleader, and composer Mario Bauzá to thank. Born in Havana, Cuba in 1911, Bauzá was among the first musicians to spread Afro-Cuban music in the United States through the New York City jazz scene during the Harlem Renaissance. By collaborating with orchestra musicians like Dizzy Gillespie, Chano Pozo, and Machito to create Afro-Cuban jazz combinations, "The Original Mambo King" cemented West African influences in jazz music, popularizing the new fusion and transforming the future of an American genre.
A clarinet prodigy raised by Spanish godparents in Cuba, Bauzá was trained in classical music from a young age and was only 9 years old when he held a chair as bass clarinetist in the Havana Philharmonic Orchestra in 1922. He later joined dance bands, and as a teenager, he traveled with Antonio María Romeu's charanga ensemble to New York City in 1927, where Harlem's community made a life-changing impact on the impressionable musician. "I fell in love with jazz then," Bauzá later recalled to DownBeat magazine.
Determined to return to New York, he picked up saxophone to play full time in jazz clubs but found dwindling employment. When the opportunity opened for a trumpet player to record with the Orquesta Don Azpiazú in 1930, the story goes that an inspired Bauzá told singer Antonio Machín, "If you buy me a trumpet I'll play for you." With just three weeks of practice, Bauzá went into the studio and recorded "La Mulata Rumbera." He was hired as the lead trumpeter for Chick Webb's Orchestra in 1933, which brought him closer to the thriving music community where he would find inspiration and create fusion.
After joining the Cab Calloway Orchestra in 1938, Bauzá convinced Calloway to hire a talented fellow trumpeter he met during his time in Chick Webb's Orchestra -- Dizzy Gillespie. As the connection developed between Bauzá and Gillespie, a new musical fusion followed, intertwining Gillespie's bebop with Afro-Cuban polyrhythms and Pan-American styles. Gillespie later reflected, "with Mario Bauzá in the [Cab Calloway] band, I really became interested in bringing Latin and especially Afro-Cuban influences into my music...No one was playing that type of music where the bass player, instead of saying, 'boom, boom, boom, boom,' broke up the rhythm, 'boom-be, boom-be, boom-be, boom-be.' No one was doing that. I became very fascinated with the possibilities for expanding and enriching jazz rhythmically and phonically through the use of Afro-Cuban rhythmic and melodic devices."
Machito, Mario Bauzá, and René Hernández, pioneers of mambo in New York, The Wolfsonian-FIU, Vicki Gold Levi Promised Gift
Seeking more musical avenues as co-founder of the diverse orchestra Machito and the Afro-Cubans in 1939, Bauzá sprinkled the rhythms of Havana with jazz arrangement techniques and influences from band members of Italian, Filipino, Latin, Black, and Jewish heritage alongside the vocalist and maraca player Frank "Machito" Grillo. The conga drum, bongos, timbales, and the West African rhythm structures they voiced became inseparable from Latin jazz.
Blending Afro-Cuban rhythms and jazz harmony in his own composition was inevitable. Bauzá's "Tangá," recorded in 1943, is noted by its organizing clave rhythm, brass jazz harmonies, and improvised solos as the first true Afro-Cuban jazz or Latin jazz song -- from which emerged the genre and its many musicians, including Arturo Sandoval, Chucho Valdés, Celia Cruz, and Tito Puentes. Becoming known as "The Original Mambo King," Bauzá believed the new Afro-Cuban fusion he created with Machito and the Afro-Cubans was "a marriage. Each [music] preserving its identity but walking together."
Explore the world of Afro-Cuban music with the Charlotte Symphony at Havana Nights on February 21st and 22nd, featuring soprano Camille Zamora and the Mambo Kings.... Read more
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- Building Bridges Through Music
- Meet Violist Pin-Hao Liao
- Introducing Our New Sonic Logo
- Meet Violist Pedro Mendez
- Why Gil Shaham Calls Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto “Iconic”
- Threads of the 2025–26 Season
- One Season. Thousands of Young Musicians Inspired.
- Spring Gala: A Homecoming
- The Making of Become Ocean
- Mario Bauzá, “The Original Mambo King”
