Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
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The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra is located in Buffalo, New York, near D'Youville College. They perform regularly around the world, and enjoy the patronage of the Knox family, former owners of the Buffalo Sabres and patrons of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. When the orchestra is in Buffalo, their performances are held in Kleinhans Music Hall.
The orchestra was founded by Cameron Baird, Frederick Slee, and Samuel Capen in 1934. (Baird's and Slee's names now grace the two buildings which house the music department at the University at Buffalo, while the university's main administration building is named after Capen.) The BPO first performed during the 1935-1936 season under music director Lajos Shuk, and moved to Kleinhans when it opened in 1940.
The orchestra has had a history of impressive music directors, including William Steinberg, Josef Krips, Lukas Foss, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Semyon Bychkov. During Foss's tenure, the BPO was considered the world leader in performance of 20th century symphonic music. The current music director is JoAnn Falletta, the orchestra's first female music director. Other celebrated conductors who have led the orchestra include Leonard Bernstein, Igor Stravinsky, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Sir Neville Mariner, and Henry Mancini. Doc Severinsen was the resident pops conductor in the 1990s. Marvin Hamlisch is the current pops conductor and is best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, A Chorus Line.
Notable soloists who have performed with the BPO include Itzhak Perlman, Van Cliburn, Artur Rubinstein, Renée Fleming, André Watts and Yo-Yo Ma.
The orchestra has recorded extensively. Under Steinberg, the BPO performed a cricitally-acclaimed recording of Dmitri Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony. Under Falletta's directorship, the BPO's recording program has focused on American composers, including Frederick Converse and Charles Tomlinson Griffes.
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