| On Wikipedia | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston_Symphony |
| Alternative Spellings | Houston Symphony Orchestra, HSO |
| Creation | 1913, June 21st |
| Participants |
Leopold Stokowski
- Conductor
from 1955
to 1961
André Previn - Conductor from 1967 to 1969 Lawrence Foster - Conductor from 1971 to 1979 Christoph Eschenbach - Conductor from 1988 to 1999 Hans Graf - Conductor from 2001 to 2013 Andrés Orozco-Estrada - Conductor from 2014 |
| City | Houston, TX, United States |
| Country | United States of America |
[…] The person who is most responsible for the birth, rebirth, and development of the Houston Symphony Orchestra was a remarkable woman named Ima Hogg. She was the spark plug of a group of civic leaders in 1913 who formed a Symphony Society to establish a regular local orchestra. Until then, Houston had relied on touring orchestras to fill its taste for symphonic music.
In the beginning, it was an ill-paid group of part-time players. […] The orchestra was not paid well enough to survive World War I. The first conductor was Julian Paul Blitz (1913-1916), who was succeeded by Paul Berge who led the ensemble until it disbanded in 1918.
However, Hogg's organization remained in existence, and it increased sponsorship and regular appearances of several American orchestras in the city.
The Depression era might have seemed a poor time to try again, but a new orchestra was formed in 1930. […] It held on, despite the country's financial problems, under the musical leadership of Uriel Nespoli (1931-1932) and Frank St. Leger (1932-1935).
The orchestra was transformed into a fully professional orchestra by Music Director Ernst Hoffman(1936-1947) and attained high standards, which were still more improved by his successor Efrem Kurtz (1948-1954). […]
The orchestra has continued a policy of hiring well-known and established musicians as music director. Ferenc Fricsay served briefly in 1954, followed by Leopold Stokowski (1955-1961) and Sir John Barbirolli (1961-1967). The next director, André Previn (1967-1969) was only beginning his stellar conducting career, but already had been a major jazz and popular pianist for a decade. Then Lawrence Foster (1971-1978), Sergiu Comissiona (1979-1988) and Christoph Eschenbach (1988-1999) continued the Symphony's consistent artistic growth. […]
It obtained its current home, Jesse Jones Hall, in 1966. Ima Hogg continued to exercise her leadership until her death in 1975. By that time, the orchestra had become (in 1971) a full-time, 52-week orchestra and become acclaimed as one of America's finest. It plays over 200 concerts annually, records frequently, and has a radio program on Houston Public Radio.
A sub-ensemble, the Houston Symphony Chamber Players began appearing in 1993, using the principals of the orchestra, with Eschenbach appearing as conductor and pianist. It specializes in the Classical and contemporary eras, and carries on its own tours, in addition to the HSO's long tradition of touring.
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