Musical Destinations—A String Player’s Guide to Charlotte, North Carolina

By Pat Moran | From the March/April 2025 issue of Strings

The key to understanding Charlotte is to think of it as a crossroads. In the 1750s, colonists settled at the intersection of two Native American trading routes—the Nation’s Path, which stretched from Georgia to the Chesapeake Bay, and a smaller path leading east to the Catawba River. Today, those routes are Tryon and Trade streets in the center of Charlotte.

The city, named after George III’s Queen Charlotte, remains a trading center where influences and ideas are exchanged as readily as goods and services. Since the early 20th century, that cultural exchange has included string music.

In the 1920s, country string bands came to the Queen City to play live radio broadcasts and to cut some of the genre’s earliest records for RCA Victor. Charlotte remained the nation’s premiere country music city until Nashville eclipsed it in the mid-1930s. By then, classical string players had arrived to play for the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, one of the oldest continuously operating symphony orchestras in the south.

The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra

Founded in 1932, the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra gave its first concert with an ensemble of 57 musicians. Today, led by music director Kwamé Ryan, the CSO employs 65 professional full-time musicians and fosters four youth orchestras. The orchestra’s primary home is the 2,100-seat Belk Theater, the largest venue in the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center. The CSO also serves as resident orchestra for Opera Carolina and Charlotte Ballet, and it performs Summer Pops concerts at the Symphony Park amphitheater at SouthPark.

Cellist Sarah Markle moved to Charlotte from New York City a decade ago to join the CSO. Markle says the Belk Theater is her favorite venue to play. “It has the best acoustics [and] that grand feeling that you associate with a symphony experience,” Markle says, adding that she loves Belk’s pit orchestra when she plays for traveling Broadway shows, her favorite being Phantom of the Opera.

Fellow CSO cellist and New York transplant Jeremy Lamb has played both the Belk and Blumenthal’s Knight Theater, the symphony’s secondary venue. Both have their strengths, with the 1,192-seat Knight providing a more casual, intimate experience, he notes. “If you’re an audiophile, you would prefer the Knight’s acoustics,” Lamb says. “The Belk is more grand and beautiful. A full orchestra can fill that space, whereas the symphony exceeds the decibel capacity of the Knight when we’re really blaring.”

Both Markle and Lamb live in Uptown Charlotte and cite the bustling city center as their favorite neighborhood to play and hear music.

Symphonic Sounds in the Carolinas 

Like Markle and Lamb, classically trained jazz violinist Emanuel Wynter moved to Charlotte from NYC, but his preferred musical neighborhood is NoDa (North Davidson), a former mill town turned hip and artsy enclave north of Uptown.

Wynter composes and plays his own music, which he describes as a mix of rock and soul. In late 2023, Wynter recorded his sophomore album, From Orbit, at the Evening Muse, an intimate 120-seat club that has anchored NoDa since 2001.

A stone’s throw from the Muse is Neighborhood Theatre, a former movie house turned 956-seat rock, folk, pop, and country venue. Wynter has played there as a member of other bands, including Jazz Is Led, which plays jazz fusion renditions of Led Zeppelin songs.

NoDa is a little like a college campus, Wynter says. “You’ll see staff from Evening Muse and the Neighborhood dropping in to talk to each other,” he notes. “There’s a nice sense of community.”

Wynter likes to see shows at two eclectic rock, pop, and alternative country venues, Snug Harbor and Petra’s, both in Plaza Midwood, a gentrifying arts district less than three miles from NoDa. “[The two neighborhoods] have had a stranglehold on the title ‘best neighborhood for music’ for a long time,” says fiddler and drummer Ian Pasquini, who is also Snug Harbor’s production manager. “There’s a small community of fiddle players here, and everybody works together,” he says. Pasquini has filled in for fellow fiddler Geoff White in renegade country music band Appalucia. Appalucia was co-founded by Wylie Buck Boswell, who owns and operates the Milestone, a revered west Charlotte rock club that first opened its doors in 1969.

Fiddler and fiddle maker Glen Alexander also values Charlotte’s close-knit musical community. His pick for the city’s best music neighborhood is East Charlotte, home of Smokey Joe’s Cafe, a rustic watering hole that hosts a weekly Monday night jam session featuring the Charlotte Bluegrass Allstars. The Queen City is a hotbed for string players, says Alexander, who plays fiddle with his fiancée, flautist Sharon Fogarty, in a duet that performs at corporate events and weddings.

Repairs and Playing Opportunities

Since 2005, Alexander has owned and operated the Violin Shoppe in the East Charlotte neighborhood of Elizabeth. Wynter calls Alexander’s establishment the “go to” emporium for string players. Lamb, however, recommends Bamford Fine Violins, a family-owned shop in Davidson, 22 miles north of Charlotte. He also praises the work of CSO violinist Carlos Terazona, who runs a shop out of his home called Queen City Violins. For cello repairs, Markle turns to violin maker Kurt Widenhouse, who bases his business out of his home workshop in Belmont, 15 miles west of Charlotte. 

Lamb runs his own business, the fancifully named Lamb’s Magical Bow Rehairs. “It’s like something out of Harry Potter,” he says. “When I moved here, I thought I was going to hang up the bow rehairing.” It seems the Queen City still has a need for Lamb’s skill.

Outside the CSO, Markle plays with Lamb in the Lamb Jam Quartet. The four-piece ensemble plays original music with Markle’s husband, Taddes Korris, and CSO violinist Victor Wang at various venues, including the Queen City Grounds coffee shop in the city’s historic 4th Ward, where Markle lives.

Lamb has another side gig with Phoenix Down RPG, which plays classical music–infused covers of video game soundtracks. The trio, composed of Teil Taliesin, Dylan Lloyd, and Lamb, plays gigs at venues including Camp North End, a former factory district reimagined and reinvigorated into a shopping, arts, and entertainment hub.  

String players also find playing and listening opportunities at local and regional festivals. Phoenix Down RPG has played Charlotte Shout, a 14-day art and music festival running April 4–20. Fiddlers have their eyes on Merlefest. Based at Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, 85 miles northwest of Charlotte, the festival runs April 24–27 this year and is headlined by the Avett Brothers and Bonnie Raitt. In addition, many string players, teachers and students look forward to violinist, fiddler, composer, and educator Mark O’Connor’s Summer String Camp, which will be held July 14–18 at Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte.

Despite all the outside opportunities to perform, many Charlotte ensembles and projects owe their existence to the Queen City’s DIY spirit, says Pasquini. “It’s not like A&R scouts are floating around Charlotte looking for you,” he says. “Here you get to be creative and find people receptive to you being yourself. You meet them, you click, you play a gig or write something together, it goes as far as it goes, and then you move on. It’s a cool way to do a diverse set of things.”

Food & Drink in Charlotte

Lang Van
An unpretentious Vietnamese eatery, Lang Van serves traditional dishes spiced with herbs grown in the restaurant’s own garden. “It’s a perfect meal every time you go,” Ian Pasquini says.

Hawkers
Emanual Wynter recommends this Southend neighborhood spot for its small plates of authentic Asian street food, including steamed dumplings and basil fried rice. “It’s cool going with your friends and sharing things,” he says.

Cabo Fish Taco
“The one thing that’s never disappointed me is Cabo,” says Glen Alexander. The NoDa staple serves Baja California–style fish tacos, burritos, and quesadillas along with a selection of salads, entrees, and generous margaritas. 

Suffolk Punch
A brewery/taproom in a former mill complex, Suffolk Punch is also a sleek coffee bar and eatery. Jeremy Lamb recommends the brussels sprouts with sweet soy glaze. “They get that crispy thing done perfectly,” he says.

Sanctuary
As a vegan, Sarah Markle is enthusiastic about the options available in Charlotte. This inviting bistro in Southeast Charlotte is her favorite. “It’s great for a date night,” Markle says, recommending Sanctuary’s vegan take on southern staple chicken and waffles—a waffle laden with crisp oyster mushrooms.

—PM