The 2006-2007 season marks the fourth season for the orchestra's 10th Music Director, the internationally acclaimed Carlos Kalmar. Kalmar also is Music Director of Chicago's Grant Park Music Festival and until recently Vienna's Tonkünstlertorchester. Kalmar's first two seasons in Oregon were marked by rave reviews from the community and critics, as well as many sold-out Classical concerts and a record renewal rate.

Kalmar succeeds James DePreist, who after 23 years of service now holds the honored title of Laureate Music Director for his immeasurable contributions to building the orchestra and its community. In addition to its centerpiece Classical concerts, the Symphony presents one of the country’s most successful Pops series, founded by Laureate Associate Conductor Norman Leyden, as well as Kids Concerts, family concerts, education/youth concerts, Front Row Center audience development concerts and select Special Event concerts and presentations to an audience of more than 320,000 annually.

The Oregon Symphony serves the state of Oregon through the Community Music Partnership, an innovative music residency program specifically designed to serve rural or remote communities. Formerly known as the Regional Tour, the CMP focuses on one community to help realize the potential to strengthen and sustain a community’s music education program. The orchestra’s presence is crafted to the needs of a community and activities are shared with a variety of constituencies - from school children and musicians to senior citizen centers and Rotary Clubs. Local “ownership” of the partnership is central to ensuring that our efforts succeed and are long lasting. The Community Music Partnership is funded by the Ford Family Foundation and JELD-WEN Foundation. Oregon Symphony in the Neighborhoods presents a local series of free neighborhood parks concerts and educational events funded through the Regional Arts and Culture Council by the city of Portland.

In August of 2003, “Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezin,” a concert/drama conceived, written and conducted by former Resident Conductor Murry Sidlin, was broadcast nationally on PBS. The concert/drama honored Raphael Schächter, a little-known choral conductor from Prague who brought spiritual hope to thousands of imprisoned Jews by organizing and leading 16 performances of Verdi’s “Requiem” while interred at the Nazi concentration camp in Terezin during World War II.

In addition to these performing activities, the Oregon Symphony has released a series of 11 successful commercial recordings, all with DePreist, since 1987. One of the most recent features the works of Oregon composer Tomas Svoboda and earned the orchestra its first Grammy nomination in the spring of 2004 for Principal Percussion Niel DePonte’s solo performance on Svoboda’s Marimba Concerto. A series of recordings honoring DePreist on the Delos International label were funded by a $1 million gift from Gretchen Brooks. The most recent Delos recording features Sibelius’ Symphonies Nos. 2 and 7.

The Oregon Symphony is proud to provide varied music of the highest artistic standards to diverse audiences, with a strong commitment to engaging as broad a statewide audience as possible. For more information, call: (503)228.1353, or go to www.orsymphony.org.