The Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1947, is an orchestra located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. The orchestra performs at the Theater for Performing Arts in the Baton Rouge River Center.
In 1940, a group of women formed a string quartet, playing in their own homes, their long-term dream being to have a symphony orchestra able to service the local community. After several years of work, the new Baton Rouge Civic Symphony Orchestra gave its first performance on February 5, 1947 in the Baton Rouge High School Auditorium.
Aim
Its mission is to develop and maintain a financially sound, first-class symphony orchestra with a regional and national profile which will provide education and cultural enrichment for the people of the greater Baton Rouge region and neighboring communities.
The orchestra's long-term vision is to ensure the future of classical music in the greater Baton Rouge region and neighboring communities by: performing orchestral and chamber concerts selected from a range of repertoire and genres; providing music-related educational programs and services for the people; supporting the programs of volunteer performing and service organizations who share its mission; acting in a fiscally responsible manner through the implementation of cost-effective programming, and effective marketing and fundraising strategies.
History
Initially, the orchestra consisted of 60 musicians from Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Southeastern Louisiana Institute (now Southeastern Louisiana University) in Hammond, and Southwestern Louisiana Institute (now ULL) in Lafayette. Frederick Kopp conducted the first concert. Three concerts were held during the season, and the first soloist to appear with the orchestra was violinist Miriam Solovieff. The season closed with a performance of the Redemption by Charles Gounod.
1940s
In the 1948-49 season, four concerts were presented by the orchestra’s new conductor, David Forrester. A newly established chamber recital series, sponsored by the orchestra, was inaugurated with two world-famous soloists, Mischa Elman, violin, and Amparo Iturbi, piano. A highlight of the 1949-50 season was the appearance of the Baton Rouge Boys Choir, conducted by Carver Blanchard. Another development was the inauguration of a children’s series designed to introduce music to Baton Rouge youth by having the orchestra perform in the schools.
The orchestra had a new conductor, Orlando Barera, who resigned as assistant conductor of the Houston Symphony to come to Baton Rouge.
1950s
The 1950-51 season was extended to include six subscription concerts, in addition to the youth concerts and the chamber recital series, with Amparo and Jose Iturbe as recitalists. The board of directors re-elected Dr. Cecil Lorio as president, and voted Bobby Lorio as permanent honorary president of the Baton Rouge Civic Symphony Association. Conductor Richard Korn replaced Alfredo Antonini, who could not honor his new contract because of his responsibilities as music director of CBS in New York.
Several years after its inception, the orchestra appointed its first long-term conductor. Maestro Emil Cooper, who had retired as conductor of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York City, was hired at the beginning of the 1951-52 season. Cooper remained as conductor of the Baton Rouge Civic Symphony through the 1959-60 season. That same season the orchestra moved to the new Lee High School Auditorium. He was to lead the orchestra in the 1960-61 season, but became ill and was unable to conduct the first concert.
1960s
Dr. Peter Paul Fuchs, a native of Vienna, Austria, and professor of conducting at Louisiana State University, was engaged to conduct the opening concert on October 19, 1960, to fill in for the ailing Maestro Cooper. Cooper informed the Association that he was too ill to return for the second concert on November 16, which was then also conducted by Dr. Fuchs. On that very evening Maestro Cooper died in Roosevelt Hospital in New York. Fuchs was contracted to finish the season.
Fuchs was engaged as the permanent conductor for the 1961-62 season, a position he held until his retirement from LSU in the spring of 1976.
When the new theater was opened in the LSU Union in 1964, the orchestra moved its performances to that facility. The new hall afforded audiences comfortable seating, air-conditioning and better acoustics.