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Official recognition of the YSO
September 9, 1965
 

     The 42-year history of the Yale Symphony Orchestra has been filled with constant experimentation and fresh challenges.  Throughout its history, the Yale Symphony Orchestra has carved out a well-respected niche in the musical world, establishing a commitment to challenging and exciting programs that it has maintained to this day.
          The Yale Symphony Orchestra evolved from the Calhoun College Chamber Music Orchestra, a group devoted to presenting chamber music concerts in the residential college of Calhoun.  Three of the group's members, Paul Gacek '67, William Krinsky '67, and John Baron '67, founded the Yale Symphonic Society in order to sponsor performances of larger orchestral works by Yale undergraduates.  William Waite, the chairman of the Department of Music, who aided the group with unflagging dedication throughout its early years, obtained funding from the Yale Friends of Music and official recognition of the Society from Yale College in the fall of 1965. 

     At that point, all the pieces were in place for the creation of the orchestra itself.   Twenty-five undergraduates were selected through auditions held that September, with faculty and students from the School of Music making up the rest of the 45-piece orchestra. Without a home of its own, the fledgling group obtained permission to rehearse in the Band Room on Monday nights.  On November 29, 1965, the Yale Symphonic Society presented the first concert of the newly-founded Yale Symphonic Orchestra.  Conducted by Justin Connolly, a graduate fellow in composition from England, the ambitious program featured Schumann's Third Symphony, Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture, and the Saint-Saens cello concerto with Ralph Kirshbaum '68, soloist.
          The new group was well received. "The outcome of this initial effort augurs well and, with increasing support from both musicians and audiences, we hope the Yale Symphonic Orchestra will move on to greater successes," nodded the Yale Daily News (December 1, 1965).  The Daily was not disappointed, as the Yale Symphony Orchestra (as it came to be called) played a variety of concerts under different conductors in the following months.  William Waite, continuing to lend his support, raised $1000 to hire assistant music theory professor Richmond Browne as the Symphony's permanent conductor for the 1966-67 season.  During his two-year tenure, Browne programmed a variety of pieces, including works by Hindemith, Schubert, Verdi and Bach, and offered many concertos featuring undergraduate soloists.  The group expanded during this time, as did its popularity among the community.
          The Yale Symphony Orchestra made great strides during these years, but under the baton of John Mauceri '67 , who succeeded Browne as conductor in the fall of 1968, the orchestra took flight.  A graduate student in music, Mauceri had been a guest and assistant conductor of the Yale Symphony Orchestra since the spring of his senior year.  The Symphony garnered 20 new instrumentalists from the freshman class of 1968, expanding its ranks to 70 by that spring.  Audiences increased, too, from the small cadre of devoted roommates and parents to crowds large enough to fill Woolsey Hall.  Concerts overtook the whole Yale campus, both figuratively, drawing thousands of audience members, and literally, in the case of one mobile concert that progressed from Old Campus to Beinecke Plaza.
          Mauceri's aggressive programming showed a flair for the little-known, the avant-garde, and the dramatic.  As a writer from the New Haven Register reported, "Nowhere during the present season have I encountered a series of programs as unusual and interesting as those proposed by the Yale Symphony Orchestra" (Oct. 13, 1968).  Titles of the concerts included: "Romeo and Juliet," featuring three musical interpretations of the tragedy; "Three Faces of Stravinsky;" "Wagner and Wagnerianism;" and "The Accepted Twentieth Century."  The year 1968 saw nine New Haven premieres, one world premiere, and an East Coast premiere of Britten's "The Building of the House," which had been published just one year earlier. That year Mauceri also joined with two art students to combine in concert the music of Milhaud with the films of Charlie Chaplin.  Mauceri and the Symphony teamed up again in 1969 with artists from both the Drama and the Art schools to present Scriabin's "Prometheus: The Poem of Fire" -- a spectacular show of music, light, aroma, and sensation that helped to put Scriabin back on the map.
          The Yale Symphony Orchestra put itself on the map when it toured France in 1971, thereby making not only its international debut but its very first appearance outside of New Haven.  Its international stature grew considerably with the June, 1973 European premiere of Leonard Bernstein's controversial "Mass" at the Weiner Konzerthaus.  The project began with John Mauceri's conducting two New Haven performances on February 17 and 18, 1973, in Woolsey Hall.  Requiring over 250 performers and 40 technicians behind the scenes, the "Mass" was a monumental task but a stunning success, leading soon afterwards to an invitation to premiere the work in Vienna.  Upon arriving in Austria, Mauceri and the Yale Symphony rehearsed feverishly with the Vienna Choir Boys and the Wiener Singverein in preparation for the five-day engagement.  Leonard Bernstein attended the June 25 opening performance, which received a ten-minute standing ovation; reviewers in many Austrian newspapers heaped praise upon the "first-rate production."
          The Yale Symphony Orchestra has since enhanced its reputation as one of the premiere undergraduate orchestras in the United States.  Under the baton of such past conductors as William Harwood , Robert Kapilow , Leif Bjaland , Alasdair Neale , David Stern , James Ross , James Sinclair, Shinik Hahm, and current conductor Toshiyuki Shimada , the orchestra has expanded its season and toured internationally and domestically on multiple occasions.  The orchestra often shares the stage with internationally recognized artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Emmanuel Ax, Frederica von Stade, Claude Frank, and Peter Frankl.  In addition, the Symphony introduces stars of its own through the annual William Waite Concerto Competition.  In a far more mischievous vein, the orchestra annually presents a multimedia extravaganza and spectacle at its sold-out Halloween concerts, performed in full costume at midnight.  The orchestra performs the film score to a silent movie produced and directed by orchestra members.  Previous "mystery guests" at these concerts have included Batman, James Bond, and Darth Vader.
          Serving not only as a musical outlet for its instrumentalists (many whom are not music majors but play simply to share in the joy of music-making), the orchestra has also provided an invaluable performance ground for new works by Yale and non-Yale composers.  In addition to providing students the opportunity to perform -- and its audiences the opportunity to enjoy -- a challenging and varied repertoire of traditional and contemporary works, the Yale Symphony Orchestra has also inspired the creation of several smaller orchestral ensembles on campus.
          Praise for all of these achievements has come from far and wide. As ambassadors of friendship and culture, the Yale Symphony Orchestra received enthusiastic accolades on its previous national and international tours, including a concert at Carnegie Hall in March of 1993.  In March of 1995, the Yale Symphony performed to over 10,000 people during a two-week concert tour of Portugal.  In May of 1997, the orchestra took a ten-day tour of Korea to explore the homeland of conductor Shinik Hahm.   The orchestra toured New England in March of 1998, performing in Jordan Hall in Boston.  Most recent was a tour of the Pacific Northwest, where the YSO performed from Eugene, Oregon to Vancouver, British Columbia, culminating in a free concert at Seattle's Benaroya Hall.