{mosimage}The Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra’s Conductor Fouad Fakhouri, better known as the Maestro, will orchestrate the FSO’s first Texas Hold’ Em Poker & Casino Night fund-raiser on Friday, June 27 from 6 – 10 pm. A prize raffle will take place from 10 – 10:30 pm.
     “The symphony has been looking for a signature fund-raising event for a couple of years,” said Linda Frenette, executive director of the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra. “The Maestro is a poker fiend and has a love for this kind of event.” 
    Frenette added that Fakhouri proposed the idea to the board and offered to go beyond his conductor duties to help plan the entire event.   
     “I invite the public to come out and try to beat me at poker and help the orchestra with the fund-raiser,” said Fakhouri. “We are grateful that a flat screen TV and other items have been donated for this event.” 
    Casino Night will be held at the Eutaw Conference Center located at 2724 Bragg Boulevard. Patrons can try their luck at various game tables such as Blackjack, Craps, Let it Ride, Roulette, Money Wheel and others. Funny money can be traded in at the end of the night for raffle tickets for the big prize raffle.
    “The money raised will be used to fund some of the concerts that we will provide to the community during the year,” said Frenette. “We want to continue to establish relationships in the community between Fouad and music lovers throughout Fayetteville.”         
    The FSO serves the community in various ways: performing free concerts, providing speakers for meetings, acting as a resource for local school music teachers, donating music stands to Cumberland County Schools and providing free concert tickets to support other nonprofit organizations in the community. 
    “Hopefully, we have started a brand new tradition for the Fayetteville Symphony,” said Frenette. “We hope this event will be extremely, extremely successful.” 
    Admission tickets are $75 and include funny money and a beverage ticket. A seat at the Texas Hold’ Em table is an additional $50. For more information and to purchase tickets call 433-4690.