In cooperation with the Cecil County Arts Council, the Northern Chesapeake Symphony Orchestra was formed in January 2019 to provide the gift of music to the residents of Cecil, Harford, and Kent counties. Over the last five years, they have played at medical centers, high schools, churches and wineries and now, the Star Centre in Havre de Grace.

At the Orchestra’s helm is Dr. Nelson Fritts, Jr., an arts educator and former long-time coordinator for Fine Arts in Cecil County. Cecil County Life recently spoke with Dr. Fritts about his love of classical music, the thrill of inspiring young musicians and a spectacular dinner party that he can only imagine hosting.

Cecil County Life: Let’s begin by asking perhaps the most important question: When and where can Cecil County audiences make plans to see the Northern Chesapeake Symphony Orchestra in concert as we approach the holiday season?

Fritts: We are preparing for a December 6 holiday concert at Elkton High School and a performance of The Messiah on December 21 at the Star Centre in Havre de Grace, where we have been asked to be the resident orchestra there. It’s a vast preparation that began in June and it’s a continuous process. I am doing something every day to prepare for it, whether it is communication with choir or orchestra members, or logistical issues at the Star Centre or the tuning of the harpsichord.

This is a young symphony with a great deal of vitality and excitement. They want the bar to be raised higher and higher and these programs show that. At each of our rehearsals, we have gone through half of The Messiah and in the next several weeks, we’ll take on the other half. By the time we start full rehearsals on November 2 with the orchestra and the chorus, the orchestra will have already gone through it. 

The Northern Chesapeake Symphony Orchestra was formed in January of 2019. Talk about the components, the people and the mission that brought this orchestra to existence. Where did you see the need?

It was a vision. It started when I was hired by Cecil County Public Schools as their coordinator of fine arts in 1996. I came into a situation where there were so many parameters – music, art, theater and dance. I did a needs analysis of the teachers and took their recommendations and at the same time I worked on filling voids. There were no strings. There was no orchestra program. One of the first things I saw that was needed was to start a strings program, which took a year to get off the ground. 

We decided that we would create a pilot, and we chose the active music community of Rising Sun, who had consistently strong music programs. After a few years, the possibility existed to expand the program to North East and Perryville. I began to enter grant writing, and that is what changed the culture of the arts in Cecil County, and it was able to fund not only the continuation of our strings program but the implementation of dance and theater into our elementary schools.

An orchestra is a diversity of talents, made up of musicians from various experiences who come together as one to create a unified sound. What is the age range of the current members of the Orchestra and how many members are there?

We have 25 members, and they range in age from the eighth grade to a woman who is 77 years old.

When audiences take their seats for a performance of the Northern Chesapeake Symphony Orchestra – be it in Cecil, Kent or Harford counties -- they see a great dichotomy of musicians on that stage. How do these various musical journeys lend themselves to the making of great music, and how do you as the director get them all on the same page, musically?

It has been said in so many different types of artistic venues: relationships, relationships, relationships. I strive to create a family in my ensembles. When you have a 77-year-old sitting next to high school students, they begin to learn and appreciate it so much and they understand how people work. In each of these sections, I have adults sitting next to high school and middle school students. Musicians are very compassionate and understanding about their fellow musicians. Adults will be mentors. Students will become admirers, and it creates a family. 

There is a dynamic among people – particularly when you are trying to bring them together to form a family -- where everyone works together to make it happen and rise to the challenge. It’s about trying to take the diversity of this age group and making music, and then it happens.

You have spent so much of your life inspiring young musicians. Who inspired you?

I grew up in West Virginia, and my first band director there was Raymond Frazier. He started me during the summer before I was about to enter the seventh grade. He was very inspiring, and he saw in me from the very beginning this passion for music, and he fostered it in so many ways. He knew I was so excited about directing, so when I got to high school, he appointed me as student director. Then he provided me with other opportunities as a soloist. 

Did he ever get to see you develop your career?

Yes, he did. In fact, when I performed my college recital before graduation, he was in the audience. When I took my first teaching job, I told him about it. When I received my doctorate, I told him and when I retired from my role as an arts coordinator for Cecil County public schools, I let him know. I wanted him to feel the gratification of my work and his inspiration. 

During your role as the director of the Northern Chesapeake Symphony Orchestra, you have no doubt performed the catalog of some of the world’s most famous composers. Among those, which have been the most challenging?

It’s interesting that while Mozart and Hayden are the models of classical composition, their music came naturally to our musicians, and they were able to grasp those styles. As we get into the Romantic period of Tchaikovsky and Bizet, it becomes more challenging for them to step out of their safety zone. 

Trying to get the orchestra to look at different styles from different countries can be a bit of a challenge, but once they get it – once they lock into it – then it becomes a foundation for a new realm of music and range in their lives. I feel it is important for an orchestra to be exposed to multiple perspectives.

It has been proven time and time again that a child who is introduced to the arts performs better academically, creates more lasting relationships and becomes better engaged in their lives and the goals they set for them. Talk about the impact of being a member of the Northern Chesapeake Symphony Orchestra has on a young person.

The introduction of the young child to the arts is the critical mission of any school program or community organization, whether it’s a dance company, a museum or a music program. They MUST work to ensure that its community is being educated from the start. Our Symphony has opened the door to this kind of education, which is why I am excited to be at the Star Centre, which holds over 1,000 people, because it will give kids the opportunity throughout Maryland to see the Symphony a few times a year.  

As the director of the Northern Chesapeake Symphony Orchestra, what have been the moments that have stood above the others, in terms of being able to experience the moment as a crystallization of the Orchestra’s chief mission?

One, undoubtedly every concert. In each of the 18 programs that we’ve performed, when I have stood on the stage, they have been the highest moments – to bring the music to its most perfected level and performing it before an audience. 

Two, to see the students that we have had as they matriculate from our group to college and the impact that the Orchestra has had on them has been just remarkable.

What is your favorite spot in Cecil County?

Fair Hill. If you travel on Route 273 from Rising Sun to Newark when you get past the fairgrounds, there are the rolling hills. They are beautiful, especially in the fall, because the turning trees are so much a part of it.

You host a dinner party and can invite anyone you wish – living or not, famous or not. Who would you wish to have around that table?

I want to see Leonard Bernstein at the head of the table. As a kid, I remember watching his Young People’s Concerts on our black-and-white television, and if you look at where the roots of my passion for music began, I truly think it was watching these concerts. Without exception, throughout my entire life, I have seen him as my mentor. As a conductor, he has been one of the world’s best conductors, hands down. 

I would also like to invite Brahms, Mozart, Beethoven, Johann and Richard Strauss, Debussy, Stravinsky and Copland. I would also invite Paul McCartney, who has been a true troubadour of music for the last half century, as well as the composer John Williams. 

What item can always be found in your refrigerator?

The best beer from the best microbrewery that’s out there. The best cheese. The best bread. The best cuts of meat. I am of German background, so my heritage reflects that type of food.