Symphony Orchestra
The University of Kansas Symphony Orchestra (KUSO) provides performance majors the highest quality preparation for a professional career in orchestral playing. KUSO offers a comprehensive course of orchestral studies and performs repertoire spanning from the Baroque to the 21st century, including premieres of new works. In addition to large-scale symphonic programming, each season includes performances of major solo works featuring faculty, student, and leading international guest artists who recently have included Blake Pouliot, Joshua Roman and Simone Porter.
The KU Symphony Orchestra also regularly collaborates with KU Theatre and KU Opera productions, for whom it is the resident ensemble. The orchestra combines with KU Choirs for the immensely popular annual Holiday Vespers concerts and in other choral/orchestral literature throughout the year, and showcases the works of student composers in the KU Composition studio. In addition to works presented for performance, the Symphony Orchestra also regularly reads and rehearses additional orchestral literature. Seating for strings and part allocation for woodwind, brass and percussion typically rotates for each concert cycle, ensuring KUSO musicians enjoy a range of orchestral experiences and opportunities over the course of their membership in the ensemble. KUSO's concert stage is the magnificent 2,000-seat Lied Center of Kansas and the orchestra also regularly performs at the nationally renowned Kauffman Center in Kansas City.
KU orchestral alumni have gone on to important teaching and performance careers and have appeared as soloists nationally as well as with orchestras throughout the region. They are members of professional orchestras including the Buffalo Philharmonic, Utah Symphony, New Zealand Symphony, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and the Kansas City Symphony. They currently serve on faculties at universities such as Penn State University, Mercer University (GA), Harrisburg University (PA), and the University of Utah (Logan).
KU Symphony Orchestra Performance Schedule 2023-24
September 26 (Tuesday) – Creston Herron, music director
Inspiration! Festive Overture – Quinn Mason
Violin Concerto Op. 14 – Samuel Barber (Blake Pouliot, Lied Center guest artist)
Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Op. 17 “Ukrainian” – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
November 7 (Tuesday) – Creston Herron, music director & Jeffrey Grogan, guest conductor
Festive Overture in A Major, Op. 96 – Dmitri Shostakovich
Sinfonia Concertante in E flat Major, K 364 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (David Colwell & Boris Vayner, faculty soloists)
Symphony No. 2, Op. 30 “Romantic” – Howard Hanson
December 3 (Sunday), Annual KU Holiday Vespers – Creston Herron & Eduardo Garcia-Novelli, faculty conductors
Repertoire TBA
February 8 (Thursday) – Boris Vayner & Robert Garza III, guest conductors
Musica Ignota – Ingrid Stolzel
Symphony No. 5 in B flat Major, D 485 – Franz Schubert
April 3 (Wednesday) – Creston Herron, music director
The Hebrides – Felix Mendelssohn
Student Concerto Competition Winner – repertoire TBD
Equus – Eric Whitacre
Pines of Rome, P 141 - Ottorino Respighi
KU Symphony Orchestra History
Founded in 1904, the orchestra program at the University of Kansas is one of the oldest in the nation. Dean Skilton first assembled a group of music students to form a rudimentary ensemble and the KU Symphony Orchestra (KUSO) has grown during the ensuing 100 years. The KUSO serves the university community and the greater Lawrence area, while reaching out to audiences in nearby cities.
References to an orchestral ensemble at the University of Kansas date back to the 1870s. Formally established in 1904, the orchestral program at the University of Kansas is one of the oldest in the nation. Dean Skilton first assembled a group of music students to form a small ensemble and the KU Symphony Orchestra has grown to national prominence during the ensuing years. KUSO serves the university community, the greater Lawrence and Kansas City areas, whilst reaching out to audiences in nearby cities.