About

Welcome to the Orchestra Program at Myers Park High School! Your participation in this program is invaluable, and we hope you will find the study of orchestral performance to be rewarding and fun. We enthusiastically embrace the opportunity to guide you through the challenges and joy of learning about music. Discipline, hard work, and dedication are essential in achieving excellence. You will get out of this program what you put into it!

The Orchestra program at Myers Park High School is made up of the most dedicated, hard-working, and fun-loving students on campus. The MPHS Orchestras are committed to performing at the highest level at our school, in our community, and around our nation, while maintaining a spirit of camaraderie and joy in making music together. We hope to see you on stage or in the audience at our next performance!

Meet the Director!

Cole Freeman is the Orchestra Director at Myers Park and David W. Butler High Schools in Charlotte, NC where he teaches intermediate and advanced orchestra classes, chamber music, and AP music theory. Previously, he was the Orchestra Director at South Mecklenburg High and Quail Hollow Middle Schools. Mr. Freeman has also maintained a significant private lesson studio during his years as an educator.

As a musician, Mr. Freeman has played in multiple professional orchestras across North Carolina since the age of 16, performing alongside artists such as Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Andrea Bocelli, and Molly Ringwald. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Freeman has his own string quartet, the Linden Quartet, which he performs with regularly, along with many other chamber ensembles in the Charlotte region.

Mr. Freeman graduated with a Bachelor of Music Education (Summa Cum Laude) from UNC Greensboro in 2018. He studied violin under Dr. Fabian Lopez, Calin Lupanu, and Steve Kamradt and studied string pedagogy under Dr. Rebecca MacLeod.

Outside of music, Mr. Freeman holds a black belt and multiple national championships in Judo. He enjoys running long distances with friends and has completed many marathons. He qualified for the Boston Marathon in 2019. Despite having such varied interests, he most of all enjoys spending time at home with his true loves, his wife Tori and his young son Gray.

Orchestra Class Objectives

Develop technical proficiency on their respective instrument
Demonstrate the ability to read, write, and interpret musical notation and symbols
Explore and interpret music from diverse genres and style periods
Understand global, interdisciplinary, and 21st-century connections to music
Apply practice skills to efficiently and effectively build technique
Learn to work effectively, both as an individual and as a team member
Become poised performers who exhibit appropriate concert etiquette
Create meaningful musical experiences and most importantly…
HAVE FUN!

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