Springfield Symphony Orchestra

Springfield Symphony Orchestra
Orchestra
Logo of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra.svg
Founded1944; 77 years ago (1944)
LocationSpringfield, Massachusetts, US
Concert hallSpringfield Symphony Hall
Music directorKevin Rhodes
Websitewww.springfieldsymphony.org

The Springfield Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Springfield, Massachusetts. It performs at Symphony Hall, a part of the Springfield Municipal Group.[1]

The Springfield Symphony (SSO) got its start when the conductor of the amateur Pioneer Valley Symphony of Greenfield, Alexander Leslie, decided he was ready to lead a professional organization. After gaining the support of the area cultural and business communities, Leslie began to assemble an orchestra based in Springfield, which had no professional orchestra.

The SSO performed its first concert at the Municipal Auditorium in 1944.[2] Its first performance was given great reviews and even recorded by the Office of War Information for rebroadcast overseas.

The SSO has throughout its history support musical education programs in the Greater Springfield area.

Players of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra warm up prior to a performance, 2018

Today, the SSO is the largest symphony in Massachusetts outside of Boston, and was described by D. Antoinette Handy, a former music director of the National Endowment for the Arts, as "one of the nation's premiere regional orchestras".[3] It consists of 80 musicians from New England and Canada and usually holds as many as 150 performances as either the full orchestra or in ensemble formats. Its concerts are often broadcast over WFCR, the area NPR station. The current music director is Kevin Rhodes.[4]

It is the parent organization of two youth orchestras: the Springfield Youth Sinfonia (formally Young Person's Philharmonia) and the Springfield Youth Orchestra (formally Young Person's Symphony). They offer young musicians a chance to play in a full orchestra, an option not offered in many schools.

References

  1. ^ Goonan, Peter (October 4, 2013). "Spirit of Springfield announces 100-year anniversary celebration of City Hall, Symphony Hall, Campanile". MassLive.com. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
  2. ^ Cruickshank, Ginger (2000). Springfield, Volume II. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4396-2738-9.
  3. ^ Handy, D. Antoinette (1995). Black Conductors. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press. p. 225.
  4. ^ Auerbach, Mark G. (September 4, 2014). "Kevin Rhodes: Springfield Symphony's Maestro". The Westfield News. Retrieved June 22, 2018.

External links


This page was last updated at 2021-02-05 04:31 UTC. Update now. View original page.

All our content comes from Wikipedia and under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.


Top

If mathematical, chemical, physical and other formulas are not displayed correctly on this page, please useFirefox or Safari