Bangor Symphony Orchestra
Bangor Symphony Orchestra
On November 2, 1896, a crowd filed into Bangor’s City Hall with excitement, not for a municipal meeting, but to hear the first performance of the city’s new symphony orchestra.
Spearheaded by Abbie N. Garland, a popular piano teacher in the city and a composer, the Bangor Symphony Orchestra was born not just out of the ambitions of a 44-year-old woman, but from a broader civic desire to make Bangor a cultural center as well as a lumber powerhouse.
In its 130 years of existence, the orchestra weathered periods of financial instability and Bangor’s fading lumber economy and evolved into an institution that does far more than perform music. The BSO supports a variety of community music initiatives, such as the Maine High School Concerto Competition, the Bangor Symphony Youth Orchestras, and music programming at local hospitals.
The orchestra has also grown considerably since that first performance of Schubert’s “Unfinished Symphony” when just 16 musicians took the stage. From its home at the Collins Center for the Arts on the University of Maine’s campus, today the orchestra numbers roughly 60 members from Maine and the region. It brings in guest performers from around the world, and is among the oldest continuously operating orchestras in the United States.
Author: Stephanie Bouchard