Why the Charlotte Symphony will celebrate America’s 250th with a British orchestra
To celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra decided to commission a piece of music — with a British orchestra.
The Charlotte Symphony teamed up with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra for the work by American composer Levi Taylor that will have its world premiere in Charlotte next January.
The Tuesday morning announcement coincided with the release of the CSO’s upcoming 2026-27 season, its 95th, which also will feature acclaimed violinist Joshua Bell at its annual gala.
Taylor is still working on the co-commission. In an interview, he said he was inspired by civil rights leader John Lewis’ call to make “good trouble” for civil disobedience and feminist author bell hooks’ writings on love as a radical practice of resistance.
“America’s 250th is coming up, and I want to write a piece that’s in response to celebrating, not of destroying, but celebrating who we are as Americans,” Taylor said. “And if civil disobedience isn’t American, I don’t know what is.”
That piece is in line with the CSO season’s theme of resilience.
Other performances under the theme include: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which the CSO described as a testament to joy despite the composer’s struggles with deafness, Feb. 26-27, 2027; Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony, composed in the middle of World War II, Feb. 5-6, 2027; and the U.S. premiere of Grammy-winning composer Calliope Tsoupaki’s “Aurora,” which explores refugees’ journey across the Mediterranean Sea, also Feb. 26-27, 2027.
“Many of these works speak to resilience — humanity’s enduring will to challenge, overcome and transcend,” Charlotte Symphony music director Kwamé Ryan said in a statement.
This is Ryan’s third season leading the orchestra. He recently became the first CSO maestro to win a Grammy. That award was for best opera recording, when he served as conductor for Jake Heggie’s “Intelligence” for Houston Grand Opera.
CSO Spotlight Artist Levi Taylor
Charlotte audiences will be seeing a lot of Taylor in the new season.
He’s also the CSO Spotlight Artist for the year, a program Ryan launched last year to provide a deeper exploration of a singular artistic voice each season. The CSO said Taylor explores resilience in his work through the lens of social justice and lived experience.
Taylor’s “One Foot After Another,” which opens the classical season Oct. 9-10 in a program that Ryan is conducting, also covers the theme of resilience. It was written after his father died from COVID, and as a contemplation of racial disparities in society.
As the spotlight artist, Taylor will be out in the community and also expects to be working with the CSO’s youth orchestras.
Ryan said he’s looking forward to working with Taylor, and added, “It’s especially meaningful for me to champion new voices, including that of CSO Spotlight Artist Levi Taylor, whose music reaches beyond the conventional boundaries of ‘classical’ music.”
Taylor first encountered Charlotte audiences in 2024 at the symphony’s annual gala, where Sphinx Virtuosi, the nonprofit chamber from Detroit that’s dedicated to social justice, had performed one of his works.
“The energy was just amazing that night,” Taylor recalled, impressed with how engaged the audience was. One woman celebrating her birthday that night even asked for a selfie with him because he was the composer. At a reception that night, Taylor recalled telling orchestra President and CEO David Fisk how he’d love to write something for the CSO one day.
Taylor’s eclectic resume also includes TV and film work. For instance, his music can be heard on Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week” and the Peacock series “Vampire Academy.”
Levi Taylor and the Charlotte Symphony co-commission
Taylor began working on the semiquincentennial composition in the fall while he was in central Italy as part of an artists’ residency, working out of a 15th century castle in the country’s Umbria region.
Taylor hopes to have the composition finished by the spring, and said it likely will be around 10 minutes or so in length.
He hasn’t settled on a name for it. “Good Trouble” feels a little too on the nose, said Taylor, speaking with The Charlotte Observer in a Zoom interview at a Los Angeles recording studio where the theme for “Modern Family” was recorded.
So how does one translate the notion of “good trouble” in the midst of the civil rights movement into music?
Rhythmically, Taylor said, it can come across as intentional chaos, with dissonant, non-traditional sound textures. Instead of a melodic section, maybe there will be violin scratches. Or rather than using percussion, orchestra members stomp their feet.
“Like, what are the moments that break up our idea of what we think should happen, right? I’m exploring different ideas,” he said.
Taylor also spoke of how the composition will explore his own lived-in experiences. He talked about the challenges of being adopted at age 3 months and being a young Black man growing up in a segregated neighborhood outside Detroit. He remembered seeing the “Go home (N-word)” spray-painted on a home in the white part of the street when a Black family wanted to buy it.
So finding community, finding love, despite the challenges around him, “it’s very personal to me,” Taylor said.
The Charlotte Symphony and the orchestra from England
As for how the CSO hooked up with the orchestra across the pond, you can thank Fisk, the symphony president, for that.
He went to Manchester University in the U.K. for his undergraduate degree, where he played a lot of chamber music, including with a violinist named Catherine Arlidge. She’d go on to perform with the Birmingham orchestra, and eventually became its director of artistic planning.
About two years ago, Arlidge reached out to Fisk with a question about how the CSO was going to handle the country’s 250th anniversary.
She told him that “from the U.K. perspective ... (we want) to make sure that we do this in a way that’s not political or controversial in any way, but simply resonate with the times that we’re in.”
The Birmingham symphony was considering doing a survey of American music. But Fisk eventually suggested they collaborate on something that would speak to both their communities, like a “hands across the Atlantic.”
Violinist Joshua Bell heading Charlotte Symphony gala
For the annual gala, Bell will appear Nov. 7 with the orchestra for a program that Ryan will conduct. The evening’s performance will include Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and Schumann’s Symphony No. 4.
Bell is a Grammy-winning classical superstar violinist. He began playing the instrument when he was 4, made his Carnegie Hall debut at age 17 with the St. Louis Symphony and signed his first recording deal the following year. Since then, he has performed with major orchestras across the world.
He also has played at Charlotte Symphony concerts over the years, including a 2018 performance with his $4 million 1713 Stradivarius violin.
Other highlights of the CSO season
In addition to the gala and Taylor’s works, there are a number of other highlights in the upcoming season for classical, pops and the movie series. They include:
- The music of Tina Turner, Oct. 16–17.
- Violinist Bella Hristova joins the CSO for Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, Nov. 20-21.
- Holiday Pops, Dec. 18-20.
- Valentina Peleggi leads the orchestra in Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 and Saint-Saëns’s Cello Concerto No. 1 featuring Principal Cello Jon Lewis, Feb. 5–6, 2027.
- “Top Gun: Maverick,” March 5–6, 2027.
- Pianist Michelle Cann returns for Gershwin’s Concerto in F with Daniela Candillari conducting, March 12–13, 2027.
- Cuban-born conductor Cosette Justo Valdès arrives for Gabriela Ortiz’s “Altar de Bronce,” featuring trumpeter Pacho Flores, April 16–17, 2027.
For complete details of the new season, go to charlottesymphony.org after 10 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 24.
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This story was originally published February 24, 2026 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Why the Charlotte Symphony will celebrate America’s 250th with a British orchestra."
