Vancouver Symphony

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO)
Orchestra
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra with Bramwell Tovey in 2009
Founded	1919
Concert hall	Orpheum
Music director	Bramwell Tovey
Website	www.vancouversymphony.ca

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO) is a Canadian orchestra based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The VSO performs at the Orpheum, which has been the orchestra's permanent home since 1977. With an annual operating budget of $13.5 million, it is the third largest symphony orchestra in Canada and the largest performing arts organization in Western Canada. It performs 140 concerts per season. The VSO broadcasts annually on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The orchestra is affiliated with the VSO School of Music, which was established in September 2011. Chamber music concerts by VSO musicians take place at Pyatt Hall on the VSO School of Music campus.

The current VSO was founded by the Vancouver Symphony Society in 1919, largely through the efforts of arts patron Elisabeth (Mrs B.T.) Rogers. (An earlier but unrelated orchestra using the same name was formed in 1897 by Adolf Gregory, but lasted for only one season; it was briefly revived in 1907 by Charles Ward.) The VSO's first conductor was Henry Green; F.L. Beecher was the first president and Rogers the first vice-president. After two seasons, the orchestra disbanded in 1921 for financial reasons and after Green left. Performances resumed in 1930, again largely because of Rogers, with Allard de Ridder as music director. From the 1940s until 1959, the orchestra performed at the Georgia Auditorium; it then moved to the new Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

The VSO also served as the Vancouver Opera company's orchestra during the 1960s and 1970s, until the creation of the separate Vancouver Opera Orchestra in 1977. During the late 1960s and 1970s, the orchestra often appeared in joint concerts with the Vancouver Woodwind Quintet. Kazuyoshi Akiyama was music director from 1972 to 1985, and is now the orchestra's conductor laureate.