Attendees find their seats for the start of the 11th annual Symphony in the Flint Hills on June 11, 2016.

About a mile off a dusty, white road near Bazaar, over a hill and tucked into a deep draw in the prairie, a lone violin note cut through the wind, clouds and waving grass and stole the breath of about 7,000 people.

The 11th annual Symphony in the Flint Hills in South Clements Pasture, a show featuring the Kansas City Symphony, behind conductor Aram Demirjian, played to a sell-out crowd.

But the day was about more than music.

Christy Davis, executive director for the Cottonwood Falls nonprofit Symphony in the Flint Hills, Inc., said the goal of the symphony was to bring people to the Flint Hills so they could experience the subtle beauty of some of the last remaining virgin tallgrass prairie in the world.

The all-day celebration of the Flint Hills featured educational talks, music demonstrations, covered-wagon rides and a musical instrument petting zoo.

“It’s the view, the people, the music, the artists,” Davis said. “We want to give people who would otherwise not be out here in the Flint Hills a reason to stop and pay attention to the details of the landscape.

“Just passing in a car, the prairie can look like a green blur, but if you get out and you really interact with the land, you see the beauty in the details.”

The Symphony in the Flint Hills was inspired by a 1994 birthday party for Jane Koger in the middle of a pasture. She got the Kansas City Symphony to play and invited pretty much everyone she knew.

Pauline Adam, of Emporia, attended Koger’s birthday in the ’90s, and Saturday was her first trip to the official, more organized event.

“I kind of stayed away all these years because it’s so organized and not as free, but I was pleasantly surprised,” Adam said. “The people who come out here are really great.”

One of hundreds of volunteers who helped set up the event, Adams said the reason she came back was the unique experience offered by a symphony in a field.

“It’s the whole thing. It’s nature, it’s beauty — there’s beauty in the Flint Hills, but you really have to sit here and inhale it. It makes you feel big, it makes you feel small, both at the same time. You can’t get that anywhere else.”

Beth Harshfield, Symphony in the Flint Hills board member, said the best part about the annual celebration is the focus on the cultural landscape, beyond the ecological landscape.

“It’s not only the landscape that needs preserved,” Harshfield said. “It’s the way of life that also needs maintained. Without ranchers, the tallgrass prairie would disappear and this ecosystem would be gone forever. That’s the future we’re trying to preserve. It sounds counter-intuitive, but this area needs to be worked to be what it is. It can’t just be left alone.”

Jack Pendry, of Lawrence, attended the symphony for the first time.

“If I had to sum it up, I’d say it’s beautiful, friendly people,” he said. “A very Kansas take on a symphony.”

— The Flint Hills Media Project is a hands-on experience through Wichita State University’s Elliott School of Communication. Check out all the students’ work at www.flinthillsmediaproject.com in the coming weeks.