BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Most sound checks at Merriweather Post Pavilion involve pop, rock and country music.

However, the Downtown Columbia Arts and Culture Commission, which owns the venue, is expanding the lineup with an orchestra.

"While we still house the biggest names in pop music, it will now also be home for a world-class 21st-century orchestra," Ian Kennedy, of the Downtown Columbia Arts and Culture Commission, said.

The Soulful Symphony will take the stage at Merriweather.

Its genre is American music, rather than classical European.

"We want to do hip-hop, country, bluegrass, gospel, jazz," Darin Atwater, of The Soulful Symphony, said. "All of that for symphonic engagement and for the universality of music."

Darin Atwater calls it "First Note," because his orchestra has played a number of venues.

This will be Merriweather's first resident symphony orchestra.

Merriweather spent decades trying to bring in an orchestra and has finally succeeded.

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