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An occasional column about people in the local arts community.

GREENSBORO — A symphony orchestra concert changed Fouad Fakhouri’s perspective on music.

He was only 11, growing up amid tumult in civil war-torn Beirut. The fourth generation in a line of musicians and composers, he was studying piano as expected.

And disliking the solitary nature of lessons and practice.

“All my friends were playing sports, and I wanted to be outside playing with my friends,” Fakhouri says.

Then an orchestra came from Vienna to perform.

It opened his eyes and ears as he watched musicians enjoy making beautiful music together.

“This wash of sound that an orchestra generates was really appealing, and the focus of all of them working to achieve one goal,” he says. “That’s when I really started enjoying orchestral music.”

A quarter-century later, Fakhouri, who turns 37 next week, has made orchestral conducting and composing his career.

He brings that expertise to his new post as this season’s principal guest conductor of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra.

He will divide his time between Greensboro and the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra, where he starts his sixth season as music director. He also will guest-conduct abroad.

“I think he is going to be a great fit for us,” Greensboro Symphony CEO Lisa Crawford says.

Greensboro Symphony Music Director Dmitry Sitkovetsky leads its classical Masterworks concerts.

But Masterworks audiences can see Fakhouri share conducting duties Oct. 29 and 31 when Sitkovetsky solos with the orchestra on violin.

In addition, Fakhouri will lead its concerts for elementary and middle school students, as well as its holiday concerts.

He also will conduct the Greensboro Symphony Youth Orchestra and lead it on its spring European tour.

He replaces former resident conductor Bruce Kiesling, who has moved to California to lead an orchestra there.

Fakhouri’s experiences as a youngster help to shape his approach to working with — and performing for — students in elementary through high school.

“I need to take special care to provide these kids with a product that is top-rate, that touches them the same way it touched me when I was young,” he says.

His young musical education, however, took place against a backdrop of turmoil.

He was three when the Lebanese civil war started. When the U.S. Embassy was bombed in 1983, it blew out the windows of his home.

Although his family provided a nurturing environment, “I look back and have a certain sadness,” he says. “The circumstances I found myself in were not very normal.”

“That’s why I believe in things like a youth orchestra. Growing up, we didn’t have a lot of these options.”

At 15, he moved to Jordan when his father became director of its National Music Conservatory .

Fakhouri came to the United States to earn undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees in music composition, as well as a master’s degree in conducting.

Now he uses his piano to compose. “Composition is my instrument,” he says. “You can put sounds together and make them your own. It’s like a child playing with Play-Doh. You create your own sculptures, your own designs.”

He received his first music director’s post in Fayetteville.

He drew on his connections with the National Music Conservatory in Jordan, and its patron Queen Noor, to raise that orchestra’s stature.

In 2006, he arranged for Queen Noor to be the honored guest for its 50th anniversary concert.

He also started an orchestra at Methodist University.

Chalk up his Greensboro appointment to timing and talent.

Crawford had heard glowing reviews of his work when she served on an arts council grants panel in Fayetteville.

Then Fakhouri came to Greensboro to talk with Crawford and Sitkovetsky about a possible joint Greensboro-Fayetteville orchestra concert.

“I realized that we speak the same musical language and have a similar set of musical and human values,” Sitkovetsky said.

When Kiesling confirmed in June that he would leave for California, Sitkovetsky and Crawford turned to Fakhouri to fill Kiesling’s spot, with the new title of principal guest conductor.

In recent weeks, Fakhouri has driven from his Raleigh home to audition more than 200 student musicians for the youth orchestra and five other ensembles.

He came away impressed with them — and with the city’s arts scene.

At the downtown Greensboro Cultural Center where auditions were held, “I stayed until 10:30 at night, and the place was still full of people,” he said.

New executive director at Music for a Great Space

The Music for a Great Space concert series has a new executive director.

Sonia Archer-Capuzzo, a musician and educator, takes over from Nicolle Sherwood, who resigned to spend more time with her family.

“She is detail-oriented, technologically savvy, intelligent, and we think she makes a good impression with both musicians and nonmusicians,” board president Tim Lindeman says.

Archer-Capuzzo holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in clarinet performance. She has taught clarinet and music classes at UNCG, Guilford College and Randolph Community College.

“I would like to get the name out there, so more people know that Music for a Great Space is there and what we offer, and expand our audience,” she says.

Its season opens Sept. 18 when organist John Alexander performs at Christ United Methodist Church. For tickets, visit www.musicforagreatspace.org.

Greensboro writer on Emmy-winning team

CBS soap opera “The Bold and the Beautiful,” written in part by Greensboro’s own Rex M. Best, won the award for Outstanding Drama Series at the 36th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards.

Over his 21 years as a soap opera writer, Best has written more than 1,100 scripts. For the first 15 years, he wrote for “The Young and the Restless” before switching to its sister show, “B&B” for short, in 2003.

While at “Y&R,” he and the rest of the writing team won three Emmy awards, along with a Writers Guild of America award.

He writes at his Fisher Park townhouse, then e-mails his scripts to the rest of the writing team, as well as to the production team in Los Angeles.

“The challenge is to keep it fresh and fun, and try to surprise the audience when we can,” Best says.

Contact Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane at 373-5204 or dawn.kane@news-record.com