CityView Magazine

24 October 2023 FEATURE A s Randolyn Emerson was auditioning for the Raleigh Symphony Orchestra, the conductor forgot to post a sign alerting visitors to his office that he should not be disturbed. In walks her future husband, Paul, wanting to ask the conductor a question just as Randolyn put her bow on the strings of her violin. "On the hardest piece on the audition list," says Randolyn. "I could've killed him! at jerk." Paul was shocked and embarrassed. His pale cheeks turned pink. "'I hope I didn't affect her audition,' I thought. I felt this tall," said Paul, demonstrating an inch between his finger and thumb. But the conductor told Randolyn that she was in and that she should sit in the front of the second violins. "We'll get you in the first violins eventually," the conductor told Randolyn. As Randolyn sat in her seat fuming, she looked toward the viola section at Paul, the man who had interrupted her audition. Paul was reaching for his viola and looked over his glasses just as the stage lights illuminated his blue eyes. "Well, at least the jerk has nice eyes," Randolyn thought. "at's how the whole thing began," Paul said with a grin. Paul and Randolyn Emerson have been married for 33 years. For the love of music Instilled at an early age with an appreciation for the arts, Paul and Randolyn Emerson found common ground in a union nurtured by years together with the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra. BY JASON CANADY | PHOTOGRAPHY BY CINDY BURNHAM Paul and Randolyn Emerson met when he was working in the office at the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra and she was auditioning.

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