The Columbus Symphony Orchestra (CSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Columbus, Ohio. The oldest performing arts organization in the city, its home is the Ohio Theatre. The orchestra's current executive director is Denise Rehg. Rossen Milanov is the orchestra's music director.
The Columbus Symphony offers annually 12 classical concert programs, mostly in pairs of two performances, 6 pops programs, and 2 Concerts for Kids. In the summer the orchestra performs a series of outdoor pops programs, "Picnic with the Pops" and "Popcorn Pops", on the lawn of Columbus Commons. The Columbus Symphony also serves as the orchestra for Opera Columbus and BalletMet.
History
The Columbus Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1951 as the Columbus Little Symphony, following the demise of the city's previous professional symphony, the Columbus Philharmonic Orchestra. The first music director of the orchestra was the flutist and conductor Claude Monteux. In its first year, the Columbus Little Symphony presented a series of 5 concerts with 28 musicians. Its first full season of concerts took place at Central High School (now COSI Columbus) in 1952. In 1955, the Columbus Little Symphony officially became the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. From its founding until 1961, the Symphony was unique in that it was governed exclusively by women, veterans of the Women's Association of the Columbus Philharmonic.
The longest-serving music director was Evan Whallon, who led the orchestra for 26 seasons, from 1956 to 1982. From 1956 to 1970 the orchestra performed concerts at the Franklin County Veterans Memorial Auditorium. The Ohio Theatre has been the orchestra's home since 1970. The former movie theater was saved from demolition and renovated largely to provide a new hall for the orchestra.
In the absence of a professional opera company in Columbus, the Columbus Symphony began presenting opera in the 1970s. At this time it was also able to hire its first full-time musicians, thus increasing the caliber of its performances. By 1980, the Columbus Symphony was presenting three fully staged operatic productions each year. In 1981, as the Symphony celebrated its 30th anniversary, it had grown from three concerts in its first season to a nine-concert symphonic series, three pops concerts, a chamber orchestra and ensemble series, more than 200 educational programs and three major outdoor pops concerts. Due to high demand for opera, Opera Columbus was formed so the Symphony could focus on symphonic music. 1983 began the inaugural season of the Columbus Symphony's Picnic with the Pops summer concert series, now a central Ohio tradition.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s the symphony expanded in size and activity becoming an orchestra of up to 53 full-time musicians and offering a full slate of classical and pops concerts with noted guest artists. In addition, it began performing with Opera Columbus and Ballet Met and expanded its educational activities, both in the Columbus City Schools and with a Youth Orchestra program. In 2001 it celebrated its 50th anniversary with a debut concert at Carnegie Hall under music director Alessandro Siciliani. Gunther Herbig, the former conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, was the orchestra's music adviser during the search for a music director following the tenure of Siciliani.
After a two-year search, management named Junichi Hirokami as the orchestra's sixth music director on June 1, 2006. In 2008, the orchestra experienced a severe financial crisis, resulting in an extended labor dispute centering around a proposal by the orchestra's board to reduce the number of full-time musicians from 53 to 31. The summer pops season was canceled and the orchestra's musicians staged a series of independent concerts during the orchestra's suspension of activities, conducted by Siciliani and Hirokami. The orchestra's troubles received national attention with articles appearing in The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, The Cincinnati Enquirer, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other publications. During the orchestra's 2008 financial crisis, Hirokami strongly supported the musicians, which caused strained relations between him and the orchestra's board and management. On November 13, 2008, in a letter to the orchestra's musicians, Hirokami announced that the board of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra had dismissed him from his post, effective immediately. Herbig returned as the orchestra's de facto principal guest conductor, though without that formal title, and musical adviser.
