The American Symphony Orchestra is a

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

-based American orchestra founded in 1962 by

Leopold Stokowski Leopold Anthony Stokowski (18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was a British conductor. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra and his appear ...

whose mission is to demystify orchestral music and make it accessible and affordable for all audiences.

Leon Botstein Leon Botstein (born December 14, 1946 in Zürich, Switzerland) is a Swiss-American conducting, conductor, educator, and scholar serving as the President of Bard College. Biography 1946–1975: Early life, education, and career Botstein was ...

is the orchestra's music director and principal conductor. They perform regularly at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th and 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built ...

and

Symphony Space Symphony Space, founded by Isaiah Sheffer and Allan Miller, is a multi-disciplinary performing arts organization at 2537 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Performances take place in the 760-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theatre (also called Pe ...

in New York City.

History

Stokowski was 80 years old when he founded the orchestra. He served as music director together with assistant

Amos Meller Amos Meller (1938 – January 23, 2007) is best remembered as an Israeli composerobit
retrieved 3rd June 2010 and England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. Following Maestro Stokowski's departure,

Kazuyoshi Akiyama is a Japanese conductor. Biography Born into a musical family, he studied piano at the Toho Gakuen School of Music, but was fascinated by the conducting activities of a fellow student, Seiji Ozawa. He decided to study conducting with Hideo S ...

was appointed music director from 1973 to 1978. Music directors during the early 1980s included as principal conductors,

Moshe Atzmon Moshe Atzmon ( he, משה עצמון, born 30 July 1931) is an Israeli conductor. He was born Móse Grószberger in Budapest, and at the age of thirteen he emigrated with his family to Tel Aviv, Israel. He started his musical career on the hor ...

and

Giuseppe Patanè Giuseppe Patanè (1 January 1932 – 29 May 1989) was an Italian opera conductor. He was born in Naples, the son of the conductor Franco Patanè (1908–1968), and studied in his native city. He made his debut there in 1951. He was principal con ...

. In 1985, John Mauceri assumed the post as music director. In 1991,

Catherine Comet Catherine Comet (born 1944) is a French-born, American conductor who from 1986 to 1997 was the music director of the Grand Rapids Symphony in Grand Rapids, Michigan, becoming the first woman to hold a post as music director of a professional orche ...

left her post at the end of her tenure with the orchestra and was succeeded by Bard College president

Present day

Under music director

, the ASO has pioneered the concept of presenting concerts curated around various themes drawn from the visual arts, literature, politics, and history, and unearthing rarely performed masterworks for well-deserved revival. These concerts are performed in the Vanguard Series at

. The ASO seeks to preserve the rare works it performs from disappearing from the repertoire. While some rare works are available with complete parts and a score in usable condition, others require extensive restoration and even creation to render them performable. ASO's efforts to create these parts mean that these works are now available for performance by other orchestras. The orchestra also performs in the concert series Classics Declassified at Peter Norton

, and is the resident orchestra of the

Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College is a performance hall located in the Hudson Valley hamlet of Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The center provides audiences with performances and programs in orchestral, chamber, a ...

. In 2010, the American Symphony became the resident orchestra of The

Collegiate Chorale MasterVoices (formerly the Collegiate Chorale) is a symphonic choir based in New York City, USA. It was founded in 1941 by Robert Shaw, who was later to found the professional Robert Shaw Chorale. MasterVoices continues to give several performance ...

, performing regularly in the Chorale's New York concert series. The orchestra has made several tours of Asia and Europe, and has performed in numerous benefits for organizations including the Jerusalem Foundation and PBS. ASO's award-winning music education program, Music Notes, integrates symphonic music into core humanities classes in high schools across the tri-state area.

Recordings

In addition to many albums released on the Telarc, New World, Bridge, Koch, and Vanguard labels, many live performances by the American Symphony are now available for digital download. In many cases, these are the only existing recordings of some of the rare works that have been rediscovered in ASO performances.

References

External links

American Symphony Orchestra's official site
* Musical groups established in 1962 1962 establishments in New York City Orchestras based in New York City {{US-orchestra-stub