| The Omaha Symphony | |
|---|---|
| Orchestra | |
 | |
| Founded | 1921 |
| Location | Omaha, NE |
| Concert hall | Holland Performing Arts Center |
| Music director | Ankush Kumar Bahl |
| Website | https://www.omahasymphony.org/ |
The Omaha Symphony is a professional orchestra performing more than 200 concerts and presentations annually in Omaha, Nebraska and throughout the orchestra's home region. The orchestra was established in 1921. It is considered a major American orchestra, classified under "Group 2" among the League of American Orchestras, which ranks symphony orchestras by annual budget, with Group 1 the largest and Group 8 the smallest. Its annual budget in 2022 was approximately $8.4 million.[1] The orchestra's home and principal venue is the 2,005-seat Holland Performing Arts Center, the $100 million purpose-built facility designed by Polshek Partnership that opened in October 2005. In a review, The Dallas Morning News called the Holland "one of the country's best-sounding" symphony halls.[2][3]
The current music director, Ankush Kumar Bahl, has been at the top artistic position since July 2021. Its music director from 2005-2021 was Thomas Wilkins. He also is principal guest conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra,[4] which is under the auspices of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Wilkins also is the Germeshausen Family and Youth Concerts Conductor for the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 2011; the Boston Globe named him among the "Best People and Ideas of 2011."[5] Before his Omaha post, Wilkins was resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Since the 1992/93 season, Ernest Richardson has served as the Omaha Symphony's resident conductor. Prior to coming to Omaha, Richardson was a violist with the Phoenix Symphony.[6]
In 2002, under the baton of then-Music Director Victor Yampolsky, the orchestra performed the world premiere of Philip Glass's Piano Concerto No. 2 (After Lewis and Clark).[7] It regularly performs with some of the world's most highly regarded musicians, including Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Joshua Bell and Renee Fleming, whose 1990 performance of Maria Padilla with Opera Omaha, for which the Omaha Symphony is the resident orchestra, is considered a major debut and a springboard for her noted career.[8]
- ^ "Nonprofit Report for OMAHA SYMPHONY ASSOCIATION". guidestar.org.
- ^ "Holland Performing Arts Center". hdrinc.com.
- ^ "Fisher Dachs Associates - News - Making Some Noise: Omaha's Concert Hall - Modern and Masculine". fda-online.com.
- ^ "Thomas Wilkins". hollywoodbowl.com. Archived from the original on 25 August 2012. Retrieved 1 August 2013.
- ^ "Germeshausen Youth and Family Concerts Conductor, endowed in perpetuity". bso.org. Archived from the original on 13 August 2012. Retrieved 1 August 2013.
- ^ "Resident Conductor - Omaha Symphony". www.omahasymphony.org. Archived from the original on 11 December 2012.
- ^ "MATA » Philip Glass". matafestival.org.
- ^ "From the Archives: Opera Comes Alive Behind the Scenes at Opera Omaha Staging of Donizetti's 'Maria Padilla' Starring Rene Fleming - Leo Adam Biga's Blog". Leo Adam Biga's Blog. 26 September 2011.