Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
By late 1934, via the efforts of Cameron Baird, Frederick Slee and Samuel P. Capen, a conductor of extensive European training was recruited to Buffalo in the person of Lajos Shuk, a cellist and director of the New York Civic Symphony.
[1] Through the leadership of Society President Mrs. Florence B. Wendt, funds were raised to maintain a viable ensemble through 1937 when support was received from the federal WPA project, which sponsored additional players and recruited a conductor named Franco Autori from the Dallas Symphony.
By the opening of the 1939–40 season, the Society and the Greater Buffalo community were ready to provide support for the expansion of both the classical and lighter 'Pops' programming by the orchestra.
Autori resigned in the spring of 1945 and closed his tenure by conducting the Buffalo premiere of Copland's Lincoln Portrait with Carl Sandburg as narrator.
[2] Cameron Baird (the Chairman of the UB Music Department) received a recommendation from Arturo Toscanini of the NBC Symphony that its Associate Conductor, William Steinberg, would be suitable for the job.
The Steinberg era of the BPO had many changes in orchestra personnel, including the beginning of an influx of European musicians who had sought new lives and careers here in the United States just after World War II.
Several of the Orchestra's performances were recorded for broadcast on the NBC radio network, beginning in 1947, and currently preserved in the BPO Archive and at the Library of Congress.
Though faced with many financial constraints, Rudel's tenure was marked with emphasis on the classical repertoire as well as gala performances with Beverly Sills and Plácido Domingo.
The 1988 European tour consisted of performances at Musikvereinssaal in Vienna, as well as concerts in Geneva, Zurich, Milan, and Frankfurt and other venues in Germany and Switzerland.
Under her direction, the orchestra reinitiated a series of broadcasts on public radio and returned to Carnegie Hall in 2004 and 2013 as part of Spring for Music.
Soloists who have appeared with the BPO under maestro Falletta include Van Cliburn, Renée Fleming, Yo-Yo Ma, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Joshua Bell, and Midori.
Past music directors of the Philharmonic include William Steinberg, Josef Krips, Willis Page, Lukas Foss, Michael Tilson Thomas, Semyon Bychkov, and Maximiano Valdés.
Other celebrated conductors who have led the orchestra include Leonard Bernstein, Igor Stravinsky, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Sir Neville Marriner, and Henry Mancini.
