On Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Symphony_Orchestra
Alternative Spellings CSO
Creation 1891
Participants Theodore Thomas - Conductor from 1891 to 1905
Frederick Stock (Friedrich August Stock) - Conductor from 1905 to 1942
Désiré Defauw - Conductor from 1943 to 1947
Artur Rodziński - Conductor from 1947 to 1948
Rafael Kubelik - Conductor from 1950 to 1953
Fritz Reiner - Conductor from 1953 to 1963
Jean Martinon - Conductor from 1963 to 1968
Irwin Hoffman - Conductor from 1968 to 1969
Georg Solti - Conductor from 1969 to 1991
Daniel Barenboim - Conductor from 1991 to 2006
Riccardo Muti - Conductor from 2010
City Chicago, IL, United States
Country United States of America

In 1890 Charles Norman Fay, a Chicago businessman, invited Theodore Thomas to establish an orchestra in Chicago. Under the name "Chicago Orchestra," the orchestra played its first concert October 16, 1891 at the Auditorium Theater. It is one of the oldest orchestras in the United States.

Orchestra Hall was designed by Chicago architect Daniel H. Burnham and completed in 1904. Maestro Thomas served as music director for thirteen years until his death. The orchestra was renamed "Theodore Thomas Orchestra" in 1905.

The orchestra was renamed "Chicago Symphony Orchestra" in 1913.

Subsequent music directors have included Désiré Defauw, Artur Rodziński, Rafael Kubelík, Fritz Reiner, Jean Martinon, Georg Solti, and Daniel Barenboim.

On May 5, 2008, Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association President Deborah Rutter announced that the orchestra had named Riccardo Muti as its 10th music director, starting with the 2010–2011 season.

The three principal guest conductors of the orchestra have been Carlo Maria Giulini, Claudio Abbado, and Pierre Boulez.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra maintains a summer home at Ravinia in Highland Park, Illinois. The Orchestra first performed there during Ravinia Park's second season in November 1905 and continued to appear there on and off through August 1931, after which the Park fell dark due to the Great Depression. The Orchestra helped to inaugurate the first season of the Ravinia Festival in August 1936 and has been in residence at the Festival every summer since.

The Chicago Symphony has amassed an extensive discography. Recordings by the CSO have earned 62 Grammy Awards.

In 2007, the Chicago Symphony formed its own recording label, CSO Resound©. After an agreement was reached with the Orchestra's musicians, arrangements were made for new recordings to be released digitally at online outlets and on compact disc.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus have recorded the music for two movies: Fantasia 2000 conducted by James Levine and Lincoln conducted by John Williams. Selections from the Orchestra and Chorus's recording of Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion, conducted by Sir Georg Solti, were used in the movie Casino.

The Chicago Symphony first broadcast on the radio in 1925. Though often sporadic, there have been broadcasts ever since. The CSO appeared in a series of telecasts on WGN-TV, beginning in 1953.

Sir Georg Solti also conducted a series of concerts with the Chicago Symphony that were recorded for the European firm Unitel and were broadcast in the 1970s on PBS. Wikipedia