Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston is a musician-led
American orchestra
An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments:
* String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...
based in
Newton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located roughly west of Downtown Boston, and comprises a patchwork of thirteen villages. The city borders Boston to the northeast and southeast (via the neighborhoods of ...
. It is one of only four co-operative orchestras in the
US. It had a long-time association with composer and conductor
Gunther Schuller
Gunther Alexander Schuller (November 22, 1925June 21, 2015) was an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, educator, publisher, and jazz musician.
Biography and works
Early years
Schuller was born in Queens, New York City ...
, with
Isaiah Jackson as ''Conductor emeritus'' and, since 2000,
Gisele Ben-Dor as ''Conductor emerita''. Recently, Kevin Rhodes has been the orchestra's principal conductor.
Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1978 by a group of young freelance musicians who gathered around conductor and
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
chaplain Larry Hill.
The orchestra received the 1994
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...
(ASCAP) award for adventurous programming of contemporary music.
Other cooperative orchestras include the
London Philharmonic Orchestra
The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is a British orchestra based in London. One of five permanent symphony orchestras in London, the LPO was founded by the conductors Thomas Beecham, Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a riv ...
Symphoria th
Halifax Music Co-Op Spain's
l’Orquestra Simfònica del VallèsThe Heart of England Co-operative Concert Orchestra and the
Santa Fe Symphony.
See also
*
Artist-run initiative
An artist-run space or artist-run centre (Canada) is a gallery or other facility operated or directed by artists, frequently circumventing the structures of public art centers, museums, or commercial galleries and allowing for a more experimental ...
*
Artist cooperative
An artist cooperative (also co-operative or co-op) is an autonomous visual arts organization, enterprise, or association jointly owned and democratically controlled by its members. Artist cooperatives are legal entities organized as non-capital st ...
*
Worker cooperative
A worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and Workers' self-management, self-managed by its workers. This control may mean a Company, firm where every worker-owner participates in decision-making in a democratic fashion, or it may refer to one ...
*
Conductorless orchestra
The conductorless orchestra, sometimes referred to as a self-conducted orchestra or unconducted orchestra, is an Musical ensemble, instrumental ensemble that functions as an orchestra but is not led or directed by a conducting, conductor. Most cond ...
(a related category but note that Pro Arte itself does have a conductor)
References
External links
Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston website
Musical groups established in 1978
Orchestras based in Massachusetts
Newton, Massachusetts
Chamber orchestras
Gunther Schuller
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