The Fountain Arts Center Orchestra Performs at the Houghton University Greatbach School of Music

The Fountain Arts Center orchestra was conceived in an unusual place.  In 2018, Wendy Skinner, president of the arts center, was attending a meeting at the Wellsville Bible Church in Wellsville, NY.  In a break-out session, she sat in a group that included several Venezuelan musicians.  As the group discussed pressing social and spiritual issues within their county, Wendy and her friends Nate and Fleurette realized that these musicians could be a solution they had been searching for to address some needs in Allegany County.

They soon became involved in the aspects of helping their new Venezuelan friends acclimate to life in America.  As the visa application processes began for them, Raquel and Daniel and David began to sing and perform, and share their story of coming to America. 

They had all been introduced to music in the jungle of Venezuela through a music program known as El Sisteme.  This enormously successful program offered them the opportunity to learn to sing and play instruments and perform.  Its impact on their lives became their key out of the jungle, and opened doors to university education.  It ultimately led to their performing throughout Venezuela and around the world with the Simon Bolivar Nationale Symphony.

Then came a time of political unrest in Venezuela, resulting in financial hardship, and loss of support for the El Sisteme program.  As concert halls and schools closed, many people began to leave the country for opportunities elsewhere. 

Now in America, and sponsored by friends and churches in Allegany County, they began the long process of applying for a visa.  While waiting for the approval of his application, David Peralta began to offer free music instruction.  Beginning with a few students on violin, he noticed the positive changes that learning music was making in the lives of his students.  He looked for opportunities for them to perform, with his earliest recitals taking place in his church, or the churches of his pupils. 

Each recital attracted more musicians and students.  Some were already learning elsewhere and wanted the chance to perform with other students.  Others had established a brass choir and were looking for a place to rehearse.  The Fountain Arts Center art gallery became that place where “Walk-in Wednesday” choir and musicians jammed, or string quartets, or brass choirs gathered to rehearse.  Soon, the 450 square-foot gallery became too small to host everyone.  The Fountain Arts Center took a leap of faith and acquired a three-month lease for a larger space a few doors down where everyone could rehearse for the upcoming Christmas Concert.  Hence, The Fountain Arts Center Orchestra was officially born.

This also was the start of a Children’s Choir, and an international collaboration via internet with elementary students in Brazil.  The Children’s Choir continued to grow, and performed at each recital; they were recently invited to perform with the county’s renowned Genesee Valley Chorus.

The increasing interest prompted discussions to add a school of music to the Fountain Arts Center’s programming.  This would be challenging, as it would require long-term commitments and funding.  However, it would establish performance opportunities for students of all ages and skill levels.  It would include children, teens, young adults, and seniors.  It would create a family of ensembles playing individually and as a whole orchestra.  It would also fill a gap created by cuts to music programs in the local school districts, as well as create a safe place for homeschooled and private school students to receive excellent music instruction.  It would create a place for a community of musicians to gather and perform.

Over the last few years, the journey forward has taken us from recitals at churches, to Cardboard Instrument workshops (in which aspiring music students learned to create instruments out of cardboard and to follow instructions from a conductor), to trash can percussion street performances, to more refined concerts at local colleges.  Each performance or class attracts more instrumentalists or singers, to the point that the Corrado Room has now become filled with musicians and instruments with no room left for an audience.

As the arts center continues to take leaps of faith to support this music programming, and the wonderful impact on the individuals and community, the group of ensembles and individual musicians now known as The Fountain Arts Center Orchestra, also continues to take on a life of its own.  There are currently discussions to create a more robust international school of music in an empty school building in Belmont, just a few blocks away from The Fountain Arts Center.  It will take many helping hands, serving in volunteer and contracted roles, to build out the “Fountain Arts Center 2.0.”  While talks with investors, developers, and design teams take place, it will be interesting to see how the divine plan takes shape to change the nature of a rural community. 

            As David Peralta said in one of his first recitals here, “If music could change my life in a rural community in Venezuela that looks a lot like this one, why can’t we do the same thing here, and change the lives of many people in Allegany County?”