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| Arts and Culture |
The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra enjoys a fine
reputation around the world, especially among experienced musicians,
composers and conductors.
One will be hard pressed to find a major soloist who has not
performed with the Philharmonic - from Jascha Heifetz to Itzhak
Perlman, from Jennie Tourel to Jessye Norman, from Artur Rubinstein
to Van Cliburn, from Danny Kaye to Yo-Yo Ma. The list of conductors
is likewise impressive with names like Leonard Bernstein, Igor
Stravinsky, Neville Marriner, Henry Mancini and a host of others.
Perhaps the Orchestra's greatest accomplishment is its contribution
to the artistic life of Western New York, made possible by more
than six decades of support from its dedicated patrons. The
Orchestra has performed over a thousand Youth Concerts for more
than two million students on the Niagara Frontier as well as
many concerts at campuses across the United States. The Philharmonic
averages more than 100 community performances each year bringing
orchestral music to audiences throughout the region.
As Buffalo's cultural ambassador, the Philharmonic has performed
across the United States and Canada in hundreds of cities, including
concerts at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Boston's Symphony
Hall, San Francisco's Davies Hall, Montreal's Place Des Arts,
and more than twenty appearances in Carnegie Hall. The Philharmonic
also made two national tours under famed Boston Pops conductor
Arthur Fiedler, as well as a highly successful European tour
in 1988 under Semyon Bychkov.
In late 1934, as a result of the efforts of Cameron Baird, Frederick
Slee and Samuel Capen, Conductor Lajos Shuk was attracted to
Buffalo from his post as the director of the New York Civic
Symphony. Shortly thereafter the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
Society was formed and a series of light concerts were presented
in the 1935-36 season. In 1937, the Society's Board of Directors
received support from a federal WPA project. Additional musicians
were engaged and Franco Autori was lured to the podium from
the Dallas Symphony. The only thing missing was a fine concert
hall. In the fall of 1940 Kleinhans Music Hall opened under
critical acclaim as one of the finest music halls in the world.
Constructed with funds bequeathed by Edward L. and Mary Seaton
Kleinhans, the hall has served as the Orchestra's permanent
home. By 1945 the Philharmonic podium was ready for a conductor
with extensive European credentials. Upon the recommendation
of Auturo Toscanini, the Society appointed William Steinberg,
then associate conductor of the NBC Symphony. The period was
marked by many changes in personnel and a broad expansion of
repertoire. By the time Steinberg departed for the Pittsburgh
Symphony in 1952, the Philharmonic was becoming a mature and
polished ensemble, a factor which appealed to his successor,
the renowned Josef Krips of the Vienna State Opera.
The Krips era witnessed an expansion in season length and the
number of musicians employed, as well as renewed touring in
the eastern United States and Canada, including the maritime
provinces. His successor in 1963 was the American Composer,
Conductor and Piano Virtuoso Lukas Foss. At his opening concert,
the walls of Kleinhans shook for the first time with Stravinsky's
Rite of Spring. It was a propitious moment - within three seasons
the Philharmonic led the world in the performance of 20th century
orchestral music.
When Foss resigned to take on the Jerusalem Symphony in 1971,
he was followed by the 24-year-old American-born Conductor Michael
Tilson Thomas. Over the next several seasons, the Orchestra
made two Columbia recordings and toured regularly, with frequent
appearances in Carnegie Hall, including a special with jazz-great
Sarah Vaughan.
In 1979, Julius Rudel, the sophisticated conductor of the New
York City Opera, was appointed music director. Rudel's tenure
was marked with an emphasis on traditional repertoire and gala
performances. The brilliant young Russian emigre, Semyon Bychkov
was appointed music director in 1984. The period was highlighted
by the Orchestra's 50th anniversary season and its European
tour in 1988 during which it performed two sold-out concerts
in Vienna's hallowed Musikvereinsall, as well as concerts in
Switzerland, Germany and Italy.
When Bychkov left for Europe and the Orchestre de Paris in 1989,
Chilean Conductor Maximiano Valdes took the Orchestra's podium.
His strong leadership rekindled the Philharmonic's reputation
for program variety in both standard and contemporary repertoire.
Appointed in May of 1998, JoAnn Falletta began her tenure as
music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in the
fall of 1999, becoming one of only three women leading major
American orchestras. Ms. Falletta has been hailed by The New
York Times as "one of the finest conductors of her generation"
and by the Los Angeles Times as "one of the brightest stars
of symphonic music in America."
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