Boston Symphony Orchestra

The Boston Symphony Orchestra was founded by Civil War veteran, businessman and philanthropist Henry Lee Higginson, fulfilling his vision of having a great and permanent orchestra in his hometown. The Orchestra gave its inaugural concert on 22 October, 1881 under Georg Henschel, in the Boston Music Hall, where performances were held for the first 20 years, until the opening of the Symphony Hall in 1900. Now, acoustically, among the world’s top three concert halls, it remains the home of the BSO and since 1999, has been a US National Historic Landmark. Following a long line of German-born and trained conductors, the legendary Karl Muck led the orchestra on its first transcontinental trip to San Francisco, setting the precedent for their successful history-making tours. In 1956, they became the first American orchestra to tour the Soviet Union under Charles Munch, and in 1979, under Seiji Ozawa, the first American orchestra to tour mainland China. The orchestra has also become renowned for its interpretations of the French repertoire, under conductors Pierre Monteux and Charles Munch, and for its championing of contemporary music, commissioning works from today’s most important composers. Having made recordings since 1917, the orchestra performs frequently over radio, gives up to 250 concerts annually, and continues to make national and world tours. The Russian-born Serge Koussevitzky, who was Music Director from 1924 to 1949, passionately shared Major Higginson’s dream of “a good honest school for musicians,” and in 1940 he founded the Berkshire Music Center, as the summer home of the BSO and an institute for advanced training. Now called the Tanglewood Music Center, it is one of the world’s premier centres for young professional-calibre musicians. Its summer season is also among the world’s most important music festivals, and it helps develop future audiences through BSO Youth Concerts and educational outreach programmes involving the entire Boston community. The Boston Symphony Orchestra began a new chapter in its history when the internationally acclaimed young Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons was announced as the BSO’s next music director in 2013. Having led the BSO in Grammy Award-winning recordings and on notable tours of Europe and East Asia, Nelsons initiated a historic alliance between the BSO and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, of which he became Gewandhauskapellmeister in 2018.