The Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra has adapted significantly in the past two years due to the pandemic. And it continues to adjust based on changes with COVID-19.

In the original season schedule, the Feb. 5 performance was a joint performance with the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra and the Fayetteville Youth Orchestra. One hundred musicians would be playing side-by-side in a concert called "Better Together."

However, due to the most recent COVID-19 regulations, that 100-person symphony could not perform.

"Our goal is really to just keep moving forward. We do not want to go backwards from COVID," Anna Meyer, community engagement manager for the FSO, told Up & Coming Weekly. "We just want to keep the momentum going that we've built. And we're willing to revise our programming to fit the current societal implications of COVID."

While the Youth Symphony will not be performing with FSO this year, the professional orchestra wanted to highlight young people and their impact on music.

Wunderkinds (pronounced Vunder-kids) is a German word meaning child wonders — also known as child prodigies. In the classical music world, many well-known composers people still love today were considered Wunderkinds. Wolfgang Mozart wrote his first symphony at the age of 8, and Felix Mendelssohn started composing around the age of 12.

The FSO "Wunderkind" performance will feature a local prodigy, 15-year-old double bass player Gavin Hardy. Hardy is from Winston-Salem and won FSO's Harlan Duenow Young Artist Concerto Competition. He began playing double bass at the age of 12, and when he was in middle school, he was the first chair of the Forsyth County "All County" Orchestra for two years straight. Last year he was one of ten finalists from around the world at the International Society of Bassists Solo Competition. Hardy participated in the 15-to-18-year-old division.

This concert will be the first subscription concert in 2022 as "Too Hot to Handel" was rescheduled for March. However, Meyer says they are still excited for people to come and support them.

"We've seen some lower numbers than we've seen in previous years, but we've still seen a lot of community members. At our 'Messiah' concert in December, we had around 300 people there. We filled the church up to capacity. So, we are seeing people," Meyer said. "We believe that people want to be out in a safe way and support local arts in the community."

The performance will occur at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church on Feb. 5 at 7:30 p.m. The total concert run-time is an hour and 15 minutes with no intermission.

Tickets may be purchased online, over the phone at 910-433-4690, or in person. Tickets range from $5 to $25, and anyone five and younger can attend for free. For the originally scheduled "Better Together" performance, ticket holders will have their tickets automatically transferred to "Wunderkinds."