The Symphony Orchestra at The University of Southern Mississippi is the oldest

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 ...

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

. Established in 1920, it has been under the direction of music director Dr. Jay Dean since 1988. The orchestra is part of the

University of Southern Mississippi The University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss or USM) is a public research university with its main campus located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor's, ma ...

School of Music. The orchestra performed with internationally known artists such as tenor

Plácido Domingo José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French ...

, violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist

Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma ('' Chinese'': 馬友友 ''Ma Yo Yo''; born October 7, 1955) is an American cellist. Born in Paris to Chinese parents and educated in New York City, he was a child prodigy, performing from the age of four and a half. He graduated from ...

, flutist Sir

James Galway Sir James Galway (born 8 December 1939) is an Irish virtuoso flute player from Belfast, nicknamed "The Man with the Golden Flute". He established an international career as a solo flute player. In 2005, he received the Brit Award for Outsta ...

, bassist

Edgar Meyer Edgar Meyer (born November 24, 1960) is an American bassist and composer. His styles include classical, bluegrass, newgrass, and jazz. He has won five Grammy Awards and been nominated seven times. Meyer is a member of the Telluride Bluegras ...

; trumpeter/conductor Doc Severinsen, singer

Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...

, pianist John Browning, flutist

Jean-Pierre Rampal Jean-Pierre Louis Rampal (7 January 1922 – 20 May 2000) was a French flautist. He has been personally "credited with returning to the Western concert flute, flute the popularity as a solo classical instrument it had not held since the 18th ce ...

, and soprano

Denyce Graves Denyce Graves (born March 7, 1964) is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. Early life Graves was born on March 7, 1964, in Washington, D.C., to Charles Graves and Dorothy (Middleton) Graves-Kenner. She is the middle of three children and ...

. Guest conductors have included

Leonard Slatkin Leonard Edward Slatkin (born September 1, 1944) is an American conductor, author and composer. Early life and education Slatkin was born in Los Angeles to a Jewish musical family that came from areas of the Russian Empire now in Ukraine. His fat ...

and

Louis Lane Louis Gardner Lane (December 25, 1923 – February 15, 2016) was an American conductor. He was born in Eagle Pass, Texas. He studied composition with Kent Kennan at the University of Texas at Austin where he earned his bachelor's in music degree i ...

. During the academic year, the orchestra rehearses four times a week and presents an average of eight public performances each season. These performances range from regular symphony concerts to children's concerts, operas, ballets, and pops programs. The 80-member orchestra tours and performs concerts throughout the southeast United States. The orchestra has more than 13 countries represented by its students.

History

The Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra is the oldest orchestra in Mississippi and was first organized in 1920 as the College Orchestra of the Mississippi Normal College under director Margaret Gillard. In 1924, Hazel Horton Read became the next director of the small orchestra. No orchestra existed for the next five years until 1930, but little is known about the ensemble. Dr. Jay Dean, the SMSO's current conductor, became Director of Orchestral Activities at Southern Miss in 1988. The orchestra is an international organization and includes over 80 musicians from the U.S. and 14 other countries. As Director of Orchestral Activities, Dr. Dean selects works for each program with the aim that they be educationally and technically purposeful for the musicians and aesthetically pleasing and interesting for audiences. Programs with a wide variety of artists from myriad backgrounds and nationalities are a main goal of Dr. Dean and the SMSO. Children's concerts, ballet, opera, and pops concerts round out the repertoire of the SMSO. SMSO is the only orchestra in Mississippi to work with Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute Communities Link Up! program. This groundbreaking effort allowed over 1,600 secondary school Mississippi students to perform with the university orchestra and study orchestral music. Additionally, the orchestra has developed a community and educational outreach program in conjunction with the City of Hattiesburg to bring musical opportunities to the community through performances and visits to local nursing homes, grade schools (K-12), and community centers. Internationally renowned artists such as Itzhak Perlman,

, Doc Severinsen,

, John Browning,

Christopher Parkening Christopher William Parkening (born December 14, 1947) is an American classical guitarist. He holds the Chair of Classical Guitar at Pepperdine University under the title Distinguished Professor of Music. Biography Parkening was born in Los Angel ...

Roberta Peters Roberta Peters (May 4, 1930 – January 18, 2017) was an American coloratura soprano. One of the most prominent American singers to achieve lasting fame and success in opera, Peters is noted for her 35-year association with the Metropolitan Oper ...

, Sir James Galway,

Joshua Bell Joshua David Bell (born December 9, 1967) is an American violinist and conductor. He plays the Gibson Stradivarius. Early life and education Bell was born in Bloomington, Indiana, to Shirley Bell, a therapist, and Alan P. Bell, a psychologi ...

, and

have performed with the orchestra. In fact, the SMSO is the only university orchestra in the world to have performed with Domingo, and it is the only orchestra in the world to have ever performed with the world's top four classical music performers. The orchestra's musicians have played venues such as Bossier City, Mandeville, Meridian, Jackson, Biloxi, and Tupelo. In addition, an orchestra member is currently a featured soloist at New York's Kennedy Center. The SMSO brings performances to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, its residents and visitors, and is the only orchestra to market its events internationally with people crossing state lines and international borders to attend performances, which average eight per year and some of which have been broadcast for television. When Ray Charles performed with the orchestra, an audience of 4000 from a 200-mile radius attended the concert. Additionally, Itzhak Perlman's, Yo Yo Ma's and Edgar Meyer's appearances each drew people locally as well as from Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Georgia, and internationally in the case of Mr. Meyer. Jean-Pierre Rampal brought in all of Mississippi's contiguous states as well as visitors from Michigan and Texas. Approximately 2,000 people statewide attended the Mississippi, the Birthplace of America's Music concert in which 1,500 musicians from all over Mississippi played. In 2002, The Night of 1000 Trumpets with Doc Severinsen, realized almost 1,000 guests from 32 states and 3 foreign countries, not including the 4,000 local residents who attended.

References

External links

About Symphony Orchestra
- University of Southern Mississippi School of Music {{authority control University of Southern Mississippi Musical groups established in 1920 Wikipedia requested audio of orchestras American orchestras Performing arts in Mississippi Musical groups from Mississippi 1920 establishments in Mississippi