Formed in 1866, the Peabody Orchestra, was the first professional orchestra

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...

 in the city of Baltimore. Based at the Peabody Conservatory, its leaders included Lucien Southard

Lucien Southard

Lucien Southard was an American conductor, who directed concerts at the Peabody Institute following the tenure of James Monroe Deems. Southard's reign in control of the Institute was not entirely positive, a situation which Southard blamed on the lack of a "proper musical atmosphere" in...

, Asger Hamerik

Asger Hamerik

Asger Hamerik , was a Danish composer of classical music.Born in Frederiksberg , he studied music with J.P.E. Hartmann and Niels Gade. He wrote his first pieces in his teens, including an unperformed symphony...

 and James Monroe Deems

James Monroe Deems

James Monroe Deems was an American composer and music educator from Baltimore, Maryland, as well as a distinguished Union Army officer during the American Civil War. He served as lieutenant colonel of the 1st Maryland Cavalry and was brevetted as a brigadier general of U.S...

. The Orchestra premiered several influential works by Americans, as well as providing the first United States performance of several European pieces, especially from Hamerik's own Denmark. Among the Peabody Orchestra's players were flautist Sidney Lanier

Sidney Lanier

Sidney Lanier was an American musician and poet.-Biography:Sidney Lanier was born February 3, 1842, in Macon, Georgia, to parents Robert Sampson Lanier and Mary Jane Anderson; he was mostly of English ancestry. His distant French Huguenot ancestors immigrated to England in the 16th century...

and pianist Harold Randoph. The Orchestra disbanded in 1896.