Oregon Symphony Quick Facts

• Music Director: Carlos Kalmar
• Resident Conductor: Gregory Vajda
• Laureate Music Director: James DePreist
• Laureate Associate Conductor: Norman Leyden
• Board of Directors’ Chair: Walter E. Weyler
• President: Elaine Calder
• Total No. of Full-time Musicians: 76
• Concert Hall: Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
  Located at the corner of Broadway and Main in downtown Portland; Seats 2,776
• Budget Size: $15 million
• Annual Attendance: 225,000 per season

• 14 Classical concerts (3 performances each)
• 7 Pops concerts (3 performances each)
• 3 Kids concerts (1 performance each)
• 40 Youth Concerts (4 full orchestra; 36 ensemble Kinderkonzerts)
• 4 Inside the Score concerts
• 9 concerts in Salem, Oregon
• 5 Specials including: Gospel Christmas, Yuletide Celebration, Smokey Robinson, Eartha Kitt and Van Cliburn
• 4 Community concerts in Portland parks, Eastern Oregon and Newberg, Oregon

• 350+ Community Music Partnership residency activities (La Grande, Cove and Estacada, Oregon)
• 36 Kinderkonzert performances (Multnomah and Washington Counties)
• 16 Symphony Storytime visits (4 residencies in Multnomah County Libraries)
• 60+ classroom visits by volunteer docents

• 25 tours of the Concert Hall
• 42 Concert Conversations (discussions about the concert held in the concert hall one hour before every classical series concert)
• 42 Prelude performances (youth and community ensemble performances in the lobby before classical series concerts)

www.OrSymphony.org

11 commercial recordings, released between 1987 and 2004, with Delos and KOCH International and Albany records. (See Discography.)

• 1896
  Founded and called Portland Symphony Society, making the Oregon Symphony the oldest orchestra in the West and one of only six major orchestras established in America before 1900
• Oct. 30, 1896
  First concert performed, at the Marquam Grand Theatre, W.J. Kinross conducting
• 1918
  Civic Auditorium premiere
• 1955
  Salem Series premiere
• August 1967
  Name changed to Oregon Symphony to reflect increasing number of concerts played outside Portland and a commitment to serve the statewide and regional community
• Nov. 13, 1970
  Norman Leyden's first Pops concert; Leyden was named Associate Conductor in 1974
• November 1977
  James DePreist's first concert; DePreist, then Quebec Symphony Principal Conductor, appeared as a guest conductor
• 1982
  Achieved "major" orchestra status
• September 1984
  Moved to renovated Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall & elevated from part-time to full-time orchestra
• June 2, 1988
  Recorded theme music for The Cosby Show which aired on NBC Television throughout the 1988-89 season
• November 1991
  Awarded $750,000 NEA Challenge Grant to launch and sustain model regional touring project
• Sept. 1 & 3, 1992
  Made debut appearances at Hollywood Bowl by invitation of Los Angeles Philharmonic
• November 1992
  Became only second major U.S. orchestra to do statewide young composers project
• January 1995
  Began series of four telecasts on CBS Television affiliate KOIN-TV
• June 1995
  Hosted 50th American Symphony Orchestra League Conference to launch its Centennial Celebration
• May 1996
  Became one of five American orchestras to participate in a unique audience development program, "The Magic of Music," funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
• August 1996
  Launched an annual series of free local parks concerts and outreach/educational events funded through the Regional Arts and Culture Council by the city of Portland
• March 26, 1997
  Featured on PBS's "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" in a story about possible solutions to the challenges facing symphony orchestras
• June 13, 1997
  "Music For Everyone" Centennial special produced by KOIN-TV won Northwest Regional Emmy for Best Fine Arts Special
• August 1997
  Launched Oregon Symphony World Wide Web site
• October 1998
  Tony Woodcock named as Oregon Symphony president
• January 1999
  Partnered with local educators to create and implement pilot program, funded by an ArtsPlan Partners grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council, designed to aid students in mastering Oregon's new Content Standards
• Christmas 1999
  KOIN TV and the Symphony present Emmy-nominated "The Oregon Symphony By Air," a one-hour television special featuring Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2 set to video highlights of Oregon's geographical beauty
• May 2000
  Gretchen Brooks Recording Fund established with a $1,000,000 contribution to produce a series of recordings celebrating DePreist's tenure with the orchestra
• November 2000
  Management and musicians embrace Interest-Based Bargaining (IBB) process for negotiations
• January 2001
  "Film-Harmonic," an unprecedented collaborative effort with the NW Film Center, presents an evening of symphonic works and their cinematic interpretations
• February 2001
  First KinderKonzert, a concert series aimed specifically at kindergarteners, first and second graders, is held at Peninsula Elementary School
• April 2002
  "Defiant Requiem," a concert/drama by Oregon Symphony Resident Conductor Murry Sidlin honors Raphael Schächter, the choral conductor who organized and led 16 performances of Verdi's "Requiem" while interned at the Nazi concentration camp in Terezin during World War II
• May 2002
  Carlos Kalmar chosen to succeed Oregon Symphony Music Director and Conductor James DePreist, beginning with the 2003-2004 season
• August 2002
  Public kickoff of James DePreist Tribute Season, honoring DePreist's 23 years as Music Director
• 2002-2003 Season
  Community Music Partnerships debuts in Klamath Falls, Ore.
• August 2003
  "Defiant Requiem" airs as a national PBS television special
• May 2004
  Grammy nomination for Principal Percussion Niel DePonte's solo performance on Tomas Svoboda's Marimba Concert
• October 2005
  The James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation pledges the single largest gift in the Symphony's history, a $6 million challenge grant designed to help expand the Symphony's donor base
• January 2005
  Gregory Vajda is named Resident Conductor beginning with the 2005-2006 season
• June 2005
  Oregon Symphony is awarded the MetLife Award for Excellence in Community Engagement by the American Symphony Orchestra League at the national conference in Washington D.C.
• June 2007
  Oregon Symphony fulfills requirements of The Miller Match, resulting in $3.075 million in new and increased gifts plus the $1.5 million challenge grant from the James F. & Marion L. Miller Foundation. This was the final year of the grant, which contributed $6 million to the Symphony over the past three seasons.
• June 2007
  Jun Iwasaki named Concertmaster beginning with the 2007-2008 season
• July 2007
  Elaine Calder named Oregon Symphony president

• 1918-1925
  Carl Denton
• 1925-1938
  Willem van Hoogstraten
• 1947-1949
  Werner Janssen
• 1949-1953
  James Sample
• 1955-1959
  Theodore Bloomfield
• 1959-1961
  Piero Bellugi
• 1962-1972
  Jacques Singer
• 1973-1980
  Lawrence Leighton Smith
• 1980-2003
  James DePreist
• 2003-present
  Carlos Kalmar