Highlights
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1916 as a municipal orchestra, supported by taxpayer money. Gustave Strube served as the first conductor of the group of about 50 players. It became a private institution in 1942. The orchestra came into its own in the 1960s when philanthropist Joseph Meyerhoff became president. During his tenure, the BSO moved from the Lyric Opera House to its new permanent home at the 2,443-seat Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. The orchestra also performs at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda. The BSO had many firsts under conductor Sergiu Comissiona, whom Meyerhoff appointed. Comissiona expanded the orchestra's season to 52 weeks. The BSO went o...
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1916 as a municipal orchestra, supported by taxpayer money. Gustave Strube served as the first conductor of the group of about 50 players. It became a private institution in 1942. The orchestra came into its own in the 1960s when philanthropist Joseph Meyerhoff became president. During his tenure, the BSO moved from the Lyric Opera House to its new permanent home at the 2,443-seat Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. The orchestra also performs at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda. The BSO had many firsts under conductor Sergiu Comissiona, whom Meyerhoff appointed. Comissiona expanded the orchestra's season to 52 weeks. The BSO went on its first international tour in 1979 and became the first American orchestra to be invited to the Dresden Music Festival in 1981. Comissiona also led the BSO's first recordings. Under director David Zinman, the BSO was the first American orchestra to tour the Soviet Union after cultural relations were resumed at the end of the Afghanistan war. The BSO won several Grammys for its recordings with Yo-Yo Ma in the 1980s and '90s and received nominations for other works. In 2005, the BSO made history when it named Marin Alsop its 12th director, making her the first woman to be appointed music director of a major U.S. orchestra. Under Alsop, the orchestra released recordings on iTunes and was broadcast on XM Satellite Radio. For the 2007-2008 season, the orchestra unveiled a ticket sales plan intended to boost attendance. New and current BSO subscribers paid $25 per concert for seats anywhere in the hall.
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BGE head led building of Calvert Cliffs
George Vincent McGowan, the retired chief executive officer of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. whose civic roles included the chairmanship of the University of Maryland Board of Regents, died of heart failure Thursday at the Hospice of Queen Anne's County....Tags: Queen Anne (Prince George's, Maryland), Museum Dioramas, Queen Anne (Talbot, Maryland), McCormick & Company Inc., Death and Dying
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Joan S. Buck, teacher and businesswoman
Joan S. Buck, a former educator and businesswoman, died Friday evening at Maryland General Hospital after being stricken with a heart attack at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. She was 86.
Joan Stewart Elliott, the daughter of a stockbroker and a homemaker,...Tags: Christianity, Colleges and Universities, Wheaton College, Chemistry, Charlottesville (Charlottesville, Virginia)
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Spano guides a spirited BSO
These haven't been the most upbeat of times for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, financially speaking, what with pay cuts, furloughs and all the other fallout from the Great Recession. But they sure are banner times, musically speaking. With just a...Tags: Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, John Adams
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Langrée, BSO bring power to dramatic work of Haydn
All orchestras need to get back to their roots periodically, putting aside the big-gun Tchaikovsky and Mahler works and exploring the more intimately scaled world of Haydn. He was, after all, the "father of the symphony," the composer who created the mold...Tags: Music Industry, Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Classical Music (genre), Hospitals and Clinics
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Renowned pianist stirs emotions behind bars at Jessup
As a child, Heather Patterson played the piano. She's always loved opera and classical music. But that was a long time ago, before she wound up in prison on drug charges.
Yet those memories came back Friday as renowned classical pianist Simone...Tags: Museum Dioramas, Metal and Mineral, Classical Music (genre), Prisons, Music Theater
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The world at his fingertips
Baltimore SunCertain artists, like certain politicians, generate such intense for-them or against-them camps that there's little room for any reaction in between. Lang Lang is such an artist. The Chinese-born piano virtuoso, who is on the bill of David Foster &...Tags: Michael Johns, Cecilia Bartoli, Beijing (China), Opera (genre), Recording Industry Association of America
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James Ehnes and BSO join up for Tchaikovsky
Baltimore Sun reporterThe first time violinist James Ehnes visited Baltimore, it was to catch a game at Camden Yards. Don't hold it against him, but he was rooting for the Red Sox. He's been a fan since he was a kid, when his father would drive him to Boston from their home in...Tags: Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Fenway Park, Marin Alsop, Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Long Island
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Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Gala
Special to The Baltimore SunThe Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's annual gala has retained its status as the kickoff event to Baltimore's social season - and the party to see and be seen at. Hundreds of formally dressed folks swirled under a tent just outside Meyerhoff Symphony Hall to...Tags: Colleges and Universities, National Government, Coppin State University, Finance, Kennedy Krieger Institute
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Tuning in to the folk music notes found in classical music
Baltimore Sun reporterAlthough it's convenient for some to think of music being divided into totally separate worlds, with the classical variety way over in some isolated corner where only the "elite" indulge in it, there are innumerable connecting, welcoming points between...Tags: Folk (genre), Marin Alsop, Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Classical Music (genre)
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Marion A. Hecht, teacher and activist
Marion A. Hecht, a former teacher and community activist, died Oct. 7 of rectal cancer at St. Agnes Hospital. The Charlestown retirement community resident was 82.
Marion Ann Stout was born and raised in Wyeville, Wis.
She earned a bachelor's degree...Tags: Activism, Museum Dioramas, Colleges and Universities, National Government, Robert Earl
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Reclusive songwriter Ray LaMontagne shares stage with BSO
Baltimore Sun reporterBig crowds don't scare singer/songwriter Ray LaMontagne. It's the little spaces that really unsettle him. For LaMontagne, performing live is such a painfully intimate process, he prefers to play larger venues where he is more removed from the crowd....Tags: Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Family, Vietnam War, Radio Industry
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