Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc.

The first Boston Symphony concert, in the Old Boston Music Hall, was performed under the direction of Georg Henschel. Symphony Hall, one of the world's most highly regarded concert halls, was inaugurated on October 15, 1900. Henschel's tenure as Music Director ended in 1884. He was succeeded by a series of German-born and -trained conductors including Wilhelm Gericke, Arthur Nikisch, Emil Paur, Max Fiedler, and Karl Muck, who served two tenures as music director, 1906-08 and 1912-18. In 1915, the orchestra made its first transcontinental trip to San Francisco where it played thirteen concerts at the Panama-Pacific Exposition. In the fall of 2001, James Levine was named to succeed Seiji Ozawa as music director. Maestro Levine began his tenure as the BSO's fourteenth music director - and the first American-born conductor to hold that position - in the fall of 2004. His wide-ranging programs balance great orchestral, operatic, and choral classics with equally significant music of the 20th and 21st centuries, including newly commissioned works from such important American composers as Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, John Harbison, Peter Lieberson, and Charles Wuorinen. He also appears as pianist with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, conducts the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, and works with the TMC Fellows in classes devoted to orchestral repertoire, Lieder, and opera. Today the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc., presents more than 250 concerts annually. It is an ensemble that has richly fulfilled Henry Lee Higginson's vision of a great and permanent orchestra in Boston. Source: www.bso.org