orchestra

The orchestra was founded as the City of Birmingham Orchestra in 1920, with Edward Elgar conducting its first concert in September of that year. The programme included Overture: Saul by Granville Bantock, a strong supporter of the orchestra's foundation. Adrian Boult was chief conductor from 1924 to 1930. The CBO became a full time organisation in 1944, changing its name to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 1948. The composer Andrzej Panufnik was chief conductor from 1957 to 1959.

The New York Philharmonic is the oldest active symphony orchestra in the United States, organized during 1842. Based in New York City, the Philharmonic performs most of its concerts at Avery Fisher Hall. The orchestra is older than any other American symphonic institution in existence by nearly four decades; its record-setting 14,000th concert was given in December 2004.[1] Since 2002, the Philharmonic's music director has been Lorin Maazel, whose tenure is scheduled to conclude at the end of the 2008-2009 season.

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra has been giving concerts since its beginnings in 1893. It has grown over the last century and today it gives upwards of 130 concerts a year from its home base in Poole to Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Southampton, Weymouth, Swindon, Exeter, Bristol , Basingstoke and Winchester. The BSO also performs a series of outdoor classical spectaculars with fireworks at some of the most important stately homes in the UK including Wilton House, home of the Earl of Pembroke, and Osborne House, favourite residence of Queen Victoria.

Melbourne has the longest continuous history of orchestral music of any Australian city and the MSO is the oldest professional orchestra in Australia, celebrating its centenary in 2007.
The MSO performs to more than 250,000 people in Melbourne and regional Victoria in over 150 concerts a year. The Orchestra has performed with renowned artists such as Igor Stravinsky, Mariss Jansons, Isaac Stern, Yehudi Menuhin, Jessye Norman, Artur Rubinstein, Mstislav Rostropovich, Hakan Hagegard, Geoffrey Lancaster, Emanuel Ax, Jeffrey Tate, Sumi Jo, and Nigel Kennedy.