Mission Statement
The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra Society, Inc. provides a resident, professional, major symphony orchestra of artistic excellence and integrity to enrich the quality of life in Western New York through the presentation of live symphonic music and other musical events which educate and entertain the broadest possible audiences within and beyond the Western New York region.
History
As Buffalo’s cultural ambassador, the Grammy Award-winning Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under Music Director JoAnn Falletta presents more than 120 Classics, Pops, Rock, Kids and Music for Youth Concerts each year and reaches more than 40,000 K-12 students per year across all eight counties of Western New York.
Since 1940, the orchestra’s permanent home has been Kleinhans Music Hall, a National Historic Landmark designed by Eliel and Eero Saarinen with an international reputation as one of the finest concert halls in the United States.
The BPO was founded in 1935, performing most often at the Elmwood Music Hall, which was located at Elmwood Ave. and Virginia St., and demolished in 1938 as its permanent home, Kleinhans Music Hall, was constructed. During the Great Depression, the orchestra was supported by funds from the Works Progress Administration and the Emergency Relief Bureau.
Over the decades, the BPO has matured in stature under the batons of some of the leading stars of the podium. William Steinberg, Josef Krips, Lukas Foss, Michael Tilson Thomas, Maximiano Valdez, Semyon Bychkov and Julius Rudel are among the luminaries who have served as music directors of the Buffalo Philharmonic. Doc Severinsen and Marvin Hamlisch have served as principal pops conductors for the orchestra.
The BPO’s history contains many exciting moments. They made the world premiere recording of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 “Leningrad” in 1946. In 1964 and 1965, they toured as the Boston Pops under the baton of Arthur Fiedler. Music director and composer Lukas Foss ushered an experimental era at the BPO, culminating in a groundbreaking collaboration with the Grateful Dead in 1970 which saw both band and orchestra stretch themselves, feed off one another’s energy and draw inspiration from each other’s styles. In 1977, the BPO’s music was used in the soundtrack for Woody Allen’s film, Manhattan. 1988 saw the BPO’s first European tour, with stops in Vienna, Frankfurt, Geneva, and Milan.
The BPO’s guest artist and conductor roster is a veritable who’s who of 20th century classical music. Sarah Vaughan, Van Cliburn, Itzhak Perlman, Midori, Emmanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, James Galway, Percy Grainger, Joshua Bell, Peter Serkin, and Isaac Stern are just a few of the notable musicians who have performed with the orchestra. Ralph Vaughan Williams, Paul Hindemith, Aaron Copland, Morton Gould and Pablo Casals are among those who have led the orchestra.
The orchestra has made 24 appearances at Carnegie Hall, most recently in 2012 at the Spring For Music festival. Designed to encourage innovation in classical music programming, participation in Spring For Music is extended to only six orchestras in the nation. At Spring For Music, the BPO shattered the record for hometown fan attendance and came close to beating the festival’s all-time ticket sales record. The orchestra’s performance of Giya Kancheli’s Life Without Christmas and Reinhold Gliere’s Symphony No. 3 “Il’ya Muromets” was broadcast live on WQXR, New York City’s public radio station, and simulcast on Western New York’s WNED-FM.
The BPO has toured widely across the United States and Canada, including the Florida Friends Tour with JoAnn Falletta in March 2010, the first multi-city tour since the 1988 European tour. In February 2014, the BPO returned to Florida with a six-performance tour.
During the tenure of current music director JoAnn Falletta, the BPO has rekindled its distinguished history of radio broadcasts and recordings, including the release of 29 new CDs of a highly diverse repertoire on the NAXOS and Beau Fleuve labels. The Philharmonic’s Naxos recording of composer John Corigliano’s “Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan,” featuring soprano Hila Plitmann, won Grammys in two categories of the three for which it was nominated: Classical Vocal Performance and Classical Contemporary Composition.
2013 saw the release of several recordings, all of which garnered positive reviews and strong sales. A Tchaikovsky disc was released in January. A disc of Duke Ellington's music was released on the Naxos label in February 2013, with a disc of Gershwin music released in June. The second disc of the BPO's multi-year Marcel Tyberg recording project was released in August. The BPO's highly-anticipated release of Gliere's Symphony No. 3 was released to international acclaim in February 2014. In April, the BPO released the Live in Concert CD, recorded during its Florida tour.
