The 96-member orchestra principally performs at two venues: the Adler Theater, located in Davenport, Iowa and Centennial Hall on the campus of Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois.

The orchestra began at a meeting of musicians and citizens from Davenport, Rock Island and Moline on February 10, 1916.

The Tri-Cities, as the area was then called, was the smallest community in the United States to support a full symphony orchestra.

The first performance was held before an audience of 1,200 people at the orchestra's first home, the Burtis Opera House, a vaudeville theater in Davenport.

The program included: Wagner's Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nuremberg; the Wagnerian aria Dich Theure Halle sung by contralto Esther Plumb; Franz Schubert's Symphony No.

The symphony struggled to set prices that would attract audiences while at the same time enable it to cover its costs.

Unable to perform its more traditional, complex programs, the orchestra offered free tickets for the 1933–34 season, except for a few seats that were sold for a quarter.

[1] In 1934 orchestra board member Elsie von Maur suggested they charge what the concerts were worth and return to hiring well-known guest artists.

Von Maur began the practice of the orchestra's playing the "Star Spangled Banner" on December 7, 1941, at the concert after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

Later Augustana College's radio station (WVIK) started to broadcast the orchestra's masterworks concerts the week after the performance.

[4] On July 3, 2010, the symphony participated in the Quad Cities Independence Day celebration, "Red, White and Boom!

Other groups in the Quad City Youth Ensembles include the Concert Orchestra for string and wind players who are not ready to play the full orchestral repertoire of the symphony, and the Prelude Strings an introductory group for students playing the violin, viola cello, or bass.

They organize fundraisers such as the Derby Day Party in May and the Second Fiddle Sale in June to support the symphony's music education programs.