New Production

The American Symphony Orchestra

Leon Botstein, music director and principal conductor

The American Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1962 by Leopold Stokowski. As part of Lincoln Center Presents Great Performers, the American Symphony performs thematically organized concerts at Avery Fisher Hall, linking music to the visual arts, literature, politics, and history. In addition, the American Symphony Orchestra performs in a lecture/concert series with audience interaction called Classics Declassified at Columbia University's Miller Theatre. It is also the resident orchestra of The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College. Its music education programs extend through New York, New Jersey, and Long Island.

The Orchestra has toured extensively and has made numerous recordings and broadcasts. Its most recent recording is of music by Copland, Sessions, Perle, and Rands in a special tribute album to legendary American music patron Francis Goelet, issued by New World Records. The Orchestra also recently recorded music of Ernst von Dohnányi for Bridge Records. Its recording of Richard Strauss's opera Die ägyptische Helena with Deborah Voigt was released in 2003 by Telarc. This recording joins the American Symphony's recording of Strauss's Die Liebe der Danae, also from Telarc. Other recordings with Leon Botstein include Franz Schubert: Orchestrated on the Koch International label, with works by Joachim, Mottl, and Webern, and, on the Vanguard Classics label, Johannes Brahms's Serenade No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11 (1860). The American Symphony has made several tours of Asia and Europe and appears at charitable and public benefits for such organizations as Sha'are Zedek Hospital, the Jerusalem Foundation, and PBS.