The Anchorage Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is a professional symphony

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

located in

Anchorage Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Ma ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

. Randall Craig Fleischer was the Music Director until his passing in 2020. Elizabeth Schulze is the current Artistic Advisor and Chief Conductor while the ASO searches for a new Music Director. Linn Weeda is the assistant director and conductor. The Anchorage Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1946, more than a decade before Alaska became a state, by a consortium of like-minded musicians looking for a musical outlet. Their first program collaborated with the Anchorage Little Theatre for a production of

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

' ''

A Christmas Carol ''A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'', commonly known as ''A Christmas Carol'', is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. ''A Christmas C ...

''. From their original size of 17, the ASO grew through the 1950s, hiring Peter Britch as conductor, and increasing to 32 members. Anchorage, however, continued to grow with the development of the City of Anchorage as the North Slope oil fields grew and with the continued military presence of

Elmendorf Air Force Base Elmendorf Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) facility in Anchorage, Alaska. Originally known as Elmendorf Field, it became Elmendorf Air Force Base after World War II. It is the home of the Headquarters, Alaskan Air Command (AL ...

, the ASO by the 1980s crossed the threshold as a semi-professional ensemble. Today the organization boasts of an endowment, a board of directors, and 80 audition-entranced musicians in its ranks. In 2001, the symphony garnered the Mayor's Arts Award for an Outstanding Arts Organization and the Governor's Arts Award for an Outstanding Arts Organization. The Anchorage Symphony performs in the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Anchorage. Music educator

Lorene Harrison Lorene Harrison (1905–2005) was an American educator, singer, choir director, and milliner. In 2009, she was inaugurated into the Alaska Women's Hall of Fame. Early life and education Lorene Cuthbertson was born in 1905 in Sterling, Kansas ...

worked with the ASO among other area arts organizations.

References

External links

* American orchestras Musical groups established in 1946 Tourist attractions in Anchorage, Alaska 1946 establishments in Alaska Orchestras based in Alaska Film scores Video game musicians Native American musical groups {{US-orchestra-stub Musical groups from Anchorage, Alaska

See also

References

External links