The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra believes that orchestral music nurtures the human spirit and is integral to the preservation and development of our American culture.

It is our mission to perform a broad range of this music, including appropriate genres of American traditional and popular music, at the highest possible professional standards consistent with fiscal responsibility.

The Charlotte Symphony will be a highly respected, financially sound, and valued arts organization whose performances will enrich, inspire, entertain, educate, and develop large and diverse audiences of all ages.

Symphony History

Founded in 1932 by Spanish conductor and composer Guillermo de Roxlo, the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (CSO) has grown into one of the premier musical institutions in the Southeast, giving 115 performances each season and reaching an annual attendance of over 250,000 listeners. Building on a 76-year tradition, the Orchestra is led by the acclaimed German conductor Christof Perick, whose appointment as Music Director in 2001 garnered national attention, proclaimed by The New York Times as a "cultural jolt" to Charlotte.

The Charlotte Symphony is the largest and most active performing arts organization in the central Carolinas, employing over 100 professional musicians, 62 on full-time contracts, for a 40-week season. The Orchestra's principal home is the acoustically acclaimed 1,970-seat Belk Theater of the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center. The Symphony's Classics series and Baroque & Beyond concerts encompass a broad spectrum of symphonic and chamber orchestra masterworks respectively, from the Baroque through the current day. Throughout its history the CSO has collaborated with the world's leading soloists, including Andrés Segovia, Alicia de Larrocha, Luciano Pavarotti, Isaac Stern, André Watts, Itzhak Perlman, Emanuel Ax, and Yo-Yo Ma among many others. Committed to performing works by American composers and to expanding the orchestral repertoire through commissioning, the Charlotte Symphony has given the world premiere of 32 compositions.

The Charlotte Symphony explores American popular music through the Pops series, which over the years has featured quintessential orchestral favorites and performances with leading artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Tony Bennett, and James Taylor, as well as Magic of Christmas, a Charlotte holiday tradition. The Lollipops series introduces young listeners to orchestral music through one-hour story-based concerts.

A cornerstone of the cultural community, the Charlotte Symphony travels the region with special run-out concerts, reaches out through its extensive Community Partnership Program, and performs as the resident orchestra for Opera Carolina and North Carolina Dance Theatre. Every January the Symphony pays tribute to the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with Daybreak of Freedom, a community tradition The Charlotte Observer acknowledged as "too poignant to do without."

The Oratorio Singers of Charlotte, founded in 1952, is the acclaimed volunteer chorus of the Charlotte Symphony and includes the 150-voice main chorus and the 40-voice Chamber Singers. Oratorio Director Scott Allen Jarrett and the choruses perform with the Orchestra several times each season including the annual Messiah and at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston. The Chamber Singers' debut compact-disc, Sacred Voices of America, was released in 2000.

The Summer Pops series of outdoor concerts throughout the region is one of the most extensive series of symphonic concerts in the United States. In 2002 the Orchestra inaugurated its new summer home at Symphony Park at SouthPark, a permanent concert amphitheater.

Since 1954, the CSO has provided Education Concerts for schoolchildren throughout the region. Today, these concerts and another 800 classroom services reach more than 25,000 students each year.

The not-for-profit Symphony organization is governed by a 45-member volunteer Board of Directors and operates on a $8 million annual budget providing artistic excellence, community service, music education, and a wide variety of performances. It is supported by ticket sales, performance fees, generous individuals, the Symphony Guild of Charlotte, corporate sponsors, foundation grants, the North Carolina Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and by a grant from the Arts & Science Council-Charlotte/Mecklenburg.