England. Following Maestro Stokowski's departure,
Kazuyoshi Akiyama was appointed music director from 1973 to 1978. Music directors during the early 1980s included as principal conductors,
Moshe Atzmon and
Giuseppe Patanè. In 1985,
John Mauceri assumed the post as music director. In 1991,
Catherine Comet left her post at the end of her tenure with the orchestra and was succeeded by Bard College president
Leon Botstein.
Present day
Under music director
Leon Botstein, the ASO has pioneered the concept of presenting concerts curated around various themes drawn from the visual arts, literature, politics, and history, and unearthing rarely performed masterworks for well-deserved revival. These concerts are performed in the Vanguard Series at
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...
. The ASO seeks to preserve the rare works it performs from disappearing from the repertoire. While some rare works are available with complete parts and a score in usable condition, others require extensive restoration and even creation to render them performable. ASO's efforts to create these parts mean that these works are now available for performance by other orchestras.
The orchestra also performs in the concert series Classics Declassified at Peter Norton
Symphony Space
Symphony Space, founded by Isaiah Sheffer and Allan Miller, is a multi-disciplinary performing arts organization at 2537 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Performances take place in the 760-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theatre (also called Pe ...
, and is the resident orchestra of the
Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College is a performance hall located in the Hudson Valley hamlet of Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The center provides audiences with performances and programs in orchestral, chamber, ...
. In 2010, the American Symphony became the resident orchestra of The
Collegiate Chorale, performing regularly in the Chorale's New York concert series. The orchestra has made several tours of Asia and Europe, and has performed in numerous benefits for organizations including the Jerusalem Foundation and PBS.
ASO's award-winning music education program, Music Notes, integrates symphonic music into core humanities classes in high schools across the tri-state area.
Recordings
In addition to many albums released on the Telarc, New World, Bridge, Koch, and Vanguard labels, many live performances by the American Symphony are now available for digital download. In many cases, these are the only existing recordings of some of the rare works that have been rediscovered in ASO performances.
References
External links
American Symphony Orchestra's official site*
Musical groups established in 1962
1962 establishments in New York City
Orchestras based in New York City
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