Denver Symphony Orchestra

The Denver Symphony Orchestra, established in 1934 and dissolved in 1989, was a professional American orchestra in Denver, Colorado. Until 1978, when the Boettcher Concert Hall was built to house the symphony orchestra, it performed in a succession of theaters, amphitheaters and auditoriums. It was the predecessor to the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, although the two ensembles were legally and structurally separate.

A community ensemble called the Civic Symphony Orchestra had been formed in Denver in 1922. In 1934, the Civic Symphony Society formed the Denver Symphony as the city's first all-professional orchestra. Its first concert was offered on November 30, 1934, at Denver's Broadway Theatre. Its Tuesday-night concerts were usually performed in the Municipal Auditorium. Both the community and professional orchestras were maintained through the 1946-47 season. Conductor Horace Tureman led both until his 1944 retirement due to illness.

In 1945, Saul Caston, who had been associate conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra under both Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy, became The Denver Symphony's Conductor and Music Director. Caston built the orchestra significantly during his tenure, through touring, school performances, low-priced family ticket plans, and outdoor performances at the Red Rocks Amphitheater, west of Denver. A 1951 Time Magazine article documented his leadership, declaring, “Last season the Denver Symphony was among the leaders in performing American music.”

In 1938, Sergei Prokofiev conducted the orchestra in his First Symphony and performed his First Piano Concerto under the baton of Horace Tureman. The performance was hampered by Prokofiev's demeanor, poor printings of the scores, and insufficient rehearsal time, and pleased neither reviewers nor Prokofiev. During the 1950s, under Saul Caston's direction, Jascha Heifetz, Rudolf Serkin, Gregor Piatigorsky and Leon Fleischer were among the symphony's guest artists.

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