As the fifth-oldest orchestra in the United States, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
(CSO
) has a legacy of fine music making as reflected in its performances in historic Music Hall, recordings, and international tours. It represents the evolution of 200 years of music making in the city of Cincinnati, in southwestern Ohio.
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CINCINNATI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA TICKETS
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History
After the formation of several orchestras between 1825 and 1872, the Cincinnati Orchestra Association was founded by the wife of the future U.S. President
William Howard Taft in 1893. The CSO gave its first concerts in 1895 at Pike's Opera house, and a year later moved to
Music Hall. The first conductor was
Frank Van der Stucken, a Texas-born musician of
Dutch ancestry, who served until 1907. In the early years, the orchestra welcomed such notable international figures as
Richard Strauss and
Edward McDowell. The orchestra also performed the U.S. premiere of the
Symphony No. 5
of
Gustav Mahler.
For three years the orchestra disbanded due to labor disputes and financial problems, and upon its reorganization in 1909, a young organist from England,
Leopold Stokowski, was named to lead the group. After Stokowski's three years the orchestra enjoyed an evolution which gained them national prominence under conductors such as
Ernst Kunwald through 1918, the virtuoso Belgian violinist
Eugène Ysaÿe (1918-1922),
Fritz Reiner (1922-1933), and
Eugene Goossens (1933-1947). This period saw the orchestra move from Music Hall to Emery Auditorium in 1909, then back to Music Hall in 1936, the U.S. premiere of Mahler's
Symphony No. 3
(1912), its first recordings (1917), first national tours, and the world premiere of
Aaron Copland's
Fanfare for the Common Man
.
After Goossens came
Thor Johnson in 1947, who led the orchestra in some of the first commercial stereo recordings for
Remington Records, followed by
Max Rudolf in 1958, whose mark of musicianship still reflects the orchestra. Then came
Thomas Schippers who died abruptly in 1977. Under Schippers, the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra was formed in 1977, with
Erich Kunzel as its conductor. After Schippers' death,
Walter Susskind served as artistic advisor of the orchestra for three years before his own death in 1980.
That same year, the Austrian conductor
Michael Gielen became conductor in 1980 for a six year term to be succeeded by Spanish conductor
Jesús López Cobos. López-Cobos led the orchestra on a very successful European tour in 1995, their first since 1969, and their first national television appearance on
PBS. He retired in 2001 after the longest tenure of any CSO conductor, and was named emeritus music director in September of that year.
In addition to its many concerts given each year, the Cincinnati Symphony is the house orchestra for the
Cincinnati May Festival, the oldest continuing choral festival in the Western Hemisphere.
The Orchestra today
Since 2001, the orchestra's music director has been the Estonian-born
Paavo Järvi, son of
Neeme Järvi. In April 2007, the orchestra announced that Järvi had extended his Cincinnati contract through 2011. Upon completion of this new contract, Järvi and the CSO will enter into an 'evergreen' state which will continue the relationship by mutual agreement.
[1] [2]
In January 2007, the orchestra reported financial difficulties, projecting a monetary deficit of about US$2 million for the current fiscal year.
[3]
In addition, the CSO serves as the official orchestra of the annual May Festival and
Cincinnati Opera, and as the
Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.
References
- A conversation with Jarvi about CSO's future
- Cincinnati Symphony Renews Paavo Järvi's Contract - And Adds Evergreen Clause
- Symphony needs money