Columbus Symphony Orchestra
Encyclopedia
The Columbus Symphony is an American symphony orchestra
based in Columbus, Ohio
. The oldest performing arts organization in the city, its home is the Ohio Theatre. The orchestra's current President and Chief Creative Officer is Roland Valliere. Starting in 2010, Jean-Marie Zeitouni is the orchestra's music director.
The Columbus Symphony offers 14 classical concert programs, mostly in pairs of two performances, and 9 pops programs. In the summer the orchestra performs a series of outdoor pops programs, "Picnic with the Pops", on the lawn of Chemical Abstracts Service
. The Columbus Symphony also serves as the orchestra for Opera Columbus and Ballet Met.
. The first music director of the orchestra was the flutist and conductor Claude Monteux. In its first year, the Columbus Little Symphony presented a series of 5 concerts with 28 musicians. Its first full season of concerts took place at Central High School (now COSI Columbus) in 1952. In 1955, the Columbus Little Symphony officially became the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. From its founding until 1961, the Symphony was unique in that it was governed exclusively by women, veterans of the Women's Association of the Columbus Philharmonic.
The longest-serving music director was Evan Whallon, who led the orchestra for 26 seasons, from 1956 to 1982. From 1956 to 1970 the orchestra performed concerts at the Franklin County Veterans Memorial Auditorium. The Ohio Theatre has been the orchestra's home since 1970. The former movie theater was saved from demolition and renovated largely to provide a new hall for the orchestra.
In the absence of a professional opera company in Columbus, the Columbus Symphony began presenting opera in the 1970s. At this time it was also able to hire its first full-time musicians, thus increasing the caliber of its performances. By 1980, the Columbus Symphony was presenting three fully staged operatic productions each year. By 1981, as the Symphony celebrated its 30th anniversary, it had grown from three concerts in its first season to a nine-concert symphonic series, three pops concerts, a chamber orchestra and ensemble series, more than 200 educational programs and three major outdoor pops concerts. 1983 began the inaugural season of the Columbus Symphony’s Picnic with the Pops summer concert series, now a central Ohio tradition.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s the symphony expanded in size and activity becoming an orchestra of up to 53 full time musicians and offering a full slate of classical and pops concerts with noted guest artists. In addition it began performing with Opera Columbus and Ballet Met and expanded its educational activities, both in the Columbus City Schools and with a Youth Orchestra program. In 2001 it celebrated its 50th anniversary with a debut concert at Carnegie Hall
under music director Alessandro Siciliani
. Gunther Herbig, the former conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
, was the orchestra's music adviser during the search for a music director following the tenure of Siciliani.
After a two-year search, Junichi Hirokami
was named the orchestra's sixth music director on June 1, 2006. In 2008, the orchestra experienced a severe financial crisis, resulting in an extended labor dispute centering around a proposal by the orchestra's board to reduce the number of full time musicians from 53 to 31. The summer pops season was canceled and the orchestra's musicians staged a series of independent concerts during the orchestra's suspension of activities., conducted by Siciliani and Hirokami. The orchestra's troubles received national attention with articles appearing in The Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Cincinnati Enquirer, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other publications. During the orchestra's 2008 financial crisis, Hirokami strongly supported the musicians, which caused strained relations between Hirokami and the orchestra's board and management. On November 13, 2008, in a letter to the orchestra's musicians, Hirokami announced that the board of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra had dismissed him from his post, effective immediately. Herbig returned as the orchestra's de facto principal guest conductor, though without that formal title, and musical adviser.
On September 22, 2008 it was announced that a new contract had been ratified by the board and the musicians of the CSO allowing a truncated 2008-2009 concert season to proceed following five months of silence. The new contract preserved the orchestra's 53 full time positions but reduced salaries by about 27 percent. Further cuts in management expense reduced the annual budget by a total of $2.7 million (USD) for a new annual budget of $9.5 million (USD). The concessions were made, according to news reports, in the interest of preserving the orchestra. Following the dispute a new board chairman, Martin Inglis, was elected. Subsequently, executive director Tony Beadle left the organization. A new executive director, Roland Valliere, began his tenure with the orchestra on August 3, 2009. During the 2009–2010 season, the Columbus Symphony resumed performing a full season of classical and pops concerts, its first since the dispute.
In October 2010, the orchestra announced the appointment of Jean-Marie Zeitouni as its seventh music director, effective immediately with an initial contract of 4 years.
The program is divided into four Orchestras, based on ability and age.
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
based in Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
. The oldest performing arts organization in the city, its home is the Ohio Theatre. The orchestra's current President and Chief Creative Officer is Roland Valliere. Starting in 2010, Jean-Marie Zeitouni is the orchestra's music director.
The Columbus Symphony offers 14 classical concert programs, mostly in pairs of two performances, and 9 pops programs. In the summer the orchestra performs a series of outdoor pops programs, "Picnic with the Pops", on the lawn of Chemical Abstracts Service
Chemical Abstracts Service
Chemical Abstracts is a periodical index that provides summaries and indexes of disclosures in recently published scientific documents. Approximately 8,000 journals, technical reports, dissertations, conference proceedings, and new books, in any of 50 languages, are monitored yearly, as are patent...
. The Columbus Symphony also serves as the orchestra for Opera Columbus and Ballet Met.
History
The Columbus Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1951 as the Columbus Little Symphony, following the demise of the city's previous professional symphony, the Columbus Philharmonic OrchestraColumbus Philharmonic Orchestra
The Columbus Philharmonic Orchestra was a symphony orchestra of the United States, located in Columbus, Ohio. Founded in 1941 and disbanded in 1949, the Columbus Philharmonic was the first professional symphony orchestra in Columbus and was a precursor to the present Columbus Symphony Orchestra...
. The first music director of the orchestra was the flutist and conductor Claude Monteux. In its first year, the Columbus Little Symphony presented a series of 5 concerts with 28 musicians. Its first full season of concerts took place at Central High School (now COSI Columbus) in 1952. In 1955, the Columbus Little Symphony officially became the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. From its founding until 1961, the Symphony was unique in that it was governed exclusively by women, veterans of the Women's Association of the Columbus Philharmonic.
The longest-serving music director was Evan Whallon, who led the orchestra for 26 seasons, from 1956 to 1982. From 1956 to 1970 the orchestra performed concerts at the Franklin County Veterans Memorial Auditorium. The Ohio Theatre has been the orchestra's home since 1970. The former movie theater was saved from demolition and renovated largely to provide a new hall for the orchestra.
In the absence of a professional opera company in Columbus, the Columbus Symphony began presenting opera in the 1970s. At this time it was also able to hire its first full-time musicians, thus increasing the caliber of its performances. By 1980, the Columbus Symphony was presenting three fully staged operatic productions each year. By 1981, as the Symphony celebrated its 30th anniversary, it had grown from three concerts in its first season to a nine-concert symphonic series, three pops concerts, a chamber orchestra and ensemble series, more than 200 educational programs and three major outdoor pops concerts. 1983 began the inaugural season of the Columbus Symphony’s Picnic with the Pops summer concert series, now a central Ohio tradition.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s the symphony expanded in size and activity becoming an orchestra of up to 53 full time musicians and offering a full slate of classical and pops concerts with noted guest artists. In addition it began performing with Opera Columbus and Ballet Met and expanded its educational activities, both in the Columbus City Schools and with a Youth Orchestra program. In 2001 it celebrated its 50th anniversary with a debut concert at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
under music director Alessandro Siciliani
Alessandro Siciliani
Alessandro Siciliani is an Italian conductor of opera and symphonic music. He is also a composer of symphonic music. Siciliani was born in Florence, Italy in 1952, the son of Ambra and Francesco Siciliani, the celebrated opera impressario...
. Gunther Herbig, the former conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. Its main performance center is Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood...
, was the orchestra's music adviser during the search for a music director following the tenure of Siciliani.
After a two-year search, Junichi Hirokami
Junichi Hirokami
is a Japanese conductor.Born in Tokyo, Hirokami studied conducting, piano, musicology, and viola at the Tokyo College of Music. He won the first Kondrashin International Conducting Competition in Amsterdam in September 1984 at age 26...
was named the orchestra's sixth music director on June 1, 2006. In 2008, the orchestra experienced a severe financial crisis, resulting in an extended labor dispute centering around a proposal by the orchestra's board to reduce the number of full time musicians from 53 to 31. The summer pops season was canceled and the orchestra's musicians staged a series of independent concerts during the orchestra's suspension of activities., conducted by Siciliani and Hirokami. The orchestra's troubles received national attention with articles appearing in The Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Cincinnati Enquirer, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other publications. During the orchestra's 2008 financial crisis, Hirokami strongly supported the musicians, which caused strained relations between Hirokami and the orchestra's board and management. On November 13, 2008, in a letter to the orchestra's musicians, Hirokami announced that the board of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra had dismissed him from his post, effective immediately. Herbig returned as the orchestra's de facto principal guest conductor, though without that formal title, and musical adviser.
On September 22, 2008 it was announced that a new contract had been ratified by the board and the musicians of the CSO allowing a truncated 2008-2009 concert season to proceed following five months of silence. The new contract preserved the orchestra's 53 full time positions but reduced salaries by about 27 percent. Further cuts in management expense reduced the annual budget by a total of $2.7 million (USD) for a new annual budget of $9.5 million (USD). The concessions were made, according to news reports, in the interest of preserving the orchestra. Following the dispute a new board chairman, Martin Inglis, was elected. Subsequently, executive director Tony Beadle left the organization. A new executive director, Roland Valliere, began his tenure with the orchestra on August 3, 2009. During the 2009–2010 season, the Columbus Symphony resumed performing a full season of classical and pops concerts, its first since the dispute.
In October 2010, the orchestra announced the appointment of Jean-Marie Zeitouni as its seventh music director, effective immediately with an initial contract of 4 years.
Music directors
- Claude MonteuxClaude MonteuxClaude Monteux is an American flutist and conductor.-Career:As a flutist Claude Monteux played under the batons of Arturo Toscanini, Bruno Walter, Thomas Beecham, Leopold Stokowski, Pablo Casals, Igor Stravinsky, and his father Pierre Monteux...
(1953–1956) - Evan Whallon (1956–1982)
- Christian BadeaChristian BadeaChristian Badea is a Romanian opera and symphonic conductor.A native of Bucharest, Romania, Badea's early training was as a classical violinist. He later studied conducting at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. He has performed as a conductor of both the opera and symphonic repertoires...
(1983–1991) - Alessandro SicilianiAlessandro SicilianiAlessandro Siciliani is an Italian conductor of opera and symphonic music. He is also a composer of symphonic music. Siciliani was born in Florence, Italy in 1952, the son of Ambra and Francesco Siciliani, the celebrated opera impressario...
(1991–2003) - Gunther HerbigGünther HerbigGünther Herbig is a German conductor.Born in Ústí nad Labem, Czechoslovakia, Herbig studied conducting at the Franz Liszt Academy in Weimar in 1951 with Hermann Abendroth. He later was a student of Hermann Scherchen, Arvid Jansons, and Herbert von Karajan...
(2003–2006; and 2009–present; music adviser) - Junichi HirokamiJunichi Hirokamiis a Japanese conductor.Born in Tokyo, Hirokami studied conducting, piano, musicology, and viola at the Tokyo College of Music. He won the first Kondrashin International Conducting Competition in Amsterdam in September 1984 at age 26...
(2006–2008) - Jean-Marie Zeitouni (2010–present)
Youth Orchestra
The Columbus Symphony also sponsors a Youth Orchestra program, directed by Peter Stafford Wilson.The program is divided into four Orchestras, based on ability and age.
- Junior Strings - grades 3-6, Sara Given, Conductor
- Chamber Strings - grades 6-9, Robert Gillespie, Conductor
- Cadet Orchestra - grades 7-10, Mark Sholl, Conductor
- Youth Orchestra - grades 9-12, Peter Stafford Wilson, Conductor
Notable events
- 1951 - Columbus Little Symphony, conducted by violinist George Hardesty, debuts at the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Museum.
- 1960 - Columbus Symphony Chorus is organized as an auditioned all-volunteer ensemble of more than 100 voices.
- 1970 - The Columbus Symphony moves its concerts to a new home, the Ohio Theatre, which was preserved in part to provide an acoustically superior hall for the orchestra.
- 1974 - A grant from the National Endowment for the Arts enables the Columbus Symphony to produce The Barber of Seville, making the CSO one of only a handful of U.S. orchestras producing opera. The CSO continued to produce staged operas each season until the establishment of the independent OperaColumbus company in 1980.
- 1978 - A grant from Battelle Foundation enables the Columbus Symphony to hire additional first full-time musicians, giving the institution a core of 13 professional players and helping it to achieve a higher quality of performance.
- 1999 - The Columbus Symphony performs with Luciano PavarottiLuciano Pavarottiright|thumb|Luciano Pavarotti performing at the opening of the Constantine Palace in [[Strelna]], 31 May 2003. The concert was part of the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of [[St...
for a sold-out crowd at the Schottenstein Center. - 2001 - As part of its year-long, 50th anniversary celebration, the Columbus Symphony and Chorus travel to New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where they perform in Carnegie HallCarnegie HallCarnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
. - 2008 - The Columbus Symphony faces financial crisis. Picnic with the Pops season is canceled.
- 2008 - Yo Yo Ma performs the Haydn Cello Concerto in C with the Columbus Symphony, May 15. In support of the symphony, he speaks to the audience (a packed house) and remains on stage to play the final piece on the program (Ravel's Bolero).
- 2009 - The Columbus Symphony returns in the spring with a shortened season featuring guest artists such as pianist Emanuel Ax and trumpet player Chris Botti. The summer series, "Picnic with the Pops," is re-instated and begins June 20.
- 2009 - The Columbus Symphony launches a full concert season for the 2009 - 2010 year.