About

about us

Offering a Full Range of Concerts & Community Education Engagement

The only professional symphony orchestra in Northeast Arkansas for over four decades, the Delta Symphony Orchestra is an integral part of the Delta Region culture, committed to entertaining, educating, and enriching lives by providing orchestral music of artistic excellence. The Delta Symphony draws musicians from Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, Mississippi, Tennessee, and beyond.

Home to the DSO Annual Young Artist Competition, The Delta Symphony Orchestra is an integral part of the Delta Region culture. The Delta Symphony draws musicians from Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, Mississippi, Tennessee, and beyond. Home to the DSO Annual Young Artist Competition for over three decades, each year talented young artists up to age 26 travel from across the nation to Jonesboro to audition for awards and cash prizes and the Grand Prize to appear in concert with the DSO. Offering a full range of concerts and community education engagement, the DSO believes that communities with strong arts organizations prove to be more economically successful. The Delta Symphony Orchestra is proud to be a part of the great success story of Northeast Arkansas.

Our DSO office hours are currently:
Monday-Friday, by appointment.
870.761.8254

Mission and History

Our Mission

The Delta Symphony Orchestra is committed to entertaining, educating, and enriching lives in the Delta Region by providing orchestral music of artistic, symphonic excellence. The DSO is a 501(c)(3) registered nonprofit organization.

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About Our Orchestra

The Delta Symphony Orchestra is composed of talents from not only Jonesboro, but many communities throughout the Delta Region. DSO musicians are leaders, academics, public servants, military, artists, medical personnel, and more. The experience of joining a mass collective of talents for the sole purpose of making music is a rewarding endeavor. Plus, they serve to educate and provide inspiration, encourage educational growth, and change lives for the better. These champions touch many lives and help serve a greater purpose to keep the arts alive and thriving from one generation to the next. Members listed below alternately play with the Delta Symphony Orchestra.

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Meet The Orchestra

First Violin

  • Dan Gilbert, co-concertmaster

  • Barbara Reeves, Co-concertMaster

  • Abigail Webber

  • Anne Rieh Reeman

  • Susan Atkins

  • James Sparks

  • Tanja McKay​

  • Eric Skaug

Second Violin

  • Pam Wilensky

  • Idil Kucukdogan

  • Allison Bray

  • Melanie Franklin

  • Andrew Sweet

  • Robert Johnson

  • Casey Overturf

  • Anastasia Tarkington

  • Anamaria Tarkington

Viola

  • Julian Panata

  • Margaret Lawless

  • Marcia Burns

  • Julie Morrison

  • Brandon Grant

  • Paul Markowski

  • Honey Sue Cashion

Cello

  • Rong Cao

  • John Eric Brown

  • Ina O’Ryan

  • Ella Bondar

  • Shelby Steward

  • Mary Kathryn Overcash

Bass

  • Kaleb Richie

  • Andrew Knote

  • Grace Williams

  • Spencer Rawlins

  • John Hays

Keyboard

  • Dennis Hay

Harp

  • Alaina Graiser

Clarinet

  • Terry Hogard

  • Eric Cameron

  • Kathleen Rougeau

Oboe

  • Kristin Leitterman

  • Serena Bratten

Bass Clarinet

  • David Hall

Contra Bassoon

  • Lane Hall

Bassoon

  • Dale Clark

  • Ryan Sowell

Piccolo

  • Julie Plunket

Flute

  • heather Coleman

  • josh Taylor

  • Caitlyn Lyerly

Horn

  • Jason Grisham

  • Greg Osborne

  • Ashley Veach

  • Jeremy Wortham

  • Julie Buxbaum

Trumpet

  • Tyler Helms

  • Nairam Simoes

  • Grady Fields

Trombone

  • Bruce Faske

  • Jeff Haltom

  • Buster Harris

  • Steve Alsup

  • michael Medrick

Tuba

  • Blake Larue

  • Jess Crum

Timpani/Percussion

  • Craig Collison

  • Beverly Creach

  • Brenda Harbison

  • John Long

  • Billy Madison

  • Brian Graiser

 

Featured Members

Delta Symphony Orchestra Featured Members

Periodically we feature our members on our youtube channel. Check out these videos of our recent

Music Director & Conductor

Dr. Neale King Bartee

Founder of the Delta Symphony Orchestra, Dr. Bartee is also an emeritus professor of music at Arkansas State University. He has served as music and artistic director of the Delta Symphony, based in Jonesboro, since 1975 and has worked with several internationally known guest artists such as Georgy Sandor, Ralph Votapek, and Eugene Fodor.

Dr. Bartee teaches conducting using Laban Movement Analysis. His dissertation on expressive movement in conducting is being used in several American colleges for research in teaching the art. Several dissertations and books have been published that use the Laban approach to teaching conducting. Applications of the method are being used throughout the world.

Dr. Bartee and his wife, Elaine, were named to the Arkansas Music Educators Hall of Fame in 2004. Both have served as officers in the Arkansas Music Educators Association. In 2010, Neale and Elaine were given the Governor’s Award for Arts in Education by the Arkansas Arts Council.

Conducted Performances

  • Ten fully staged opera performances at the Fowler Center

  • American music in Sibiu and Rimnicu Valcea, Romania

  • Guest conductor in Indiana, Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, Arizona, and New Mexico

  • American Trombone Choir at International Trombone Festivals in Helsinki, Finland, St. Petersburg, Russia, Birmingham, England, Paris, France, Belgium, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Valencia, Spain.