In Saturday’s (12/11) Dallas Morning News, Leigh Munsil writes, “Though a nearly two-decade-old split still resonates in Irving, the city’s two professional symphony orchestras have learned to play in relative harmony. Of the dozen or so full-scale, professional symphonies in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, two are based in this city of 214,000. … They will hold Christmas concerts within a week of each other—the Irving Symphony Orchestra tonight and the Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra next Saturday. Each will be at the Carpenter Performance Hall of the Irving Arts Center at 8 p.m. … The Irving Symphony Orchestra was founded as the Irving String Ensemble in 1962 by a piano instructor on the campus of the University of Dallas. In May 1988, its board of directors decided to make the city’s namesake orchestra a professional ensemble. … Robert Carter Austin took the baton of the now-professional Irving Symphony Orchestra, but he remained for only two seasons. He split off and founded the professional Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra in August 1991 after disagreements over the ISO’s budget and artistic vision. … It has taken adjustments, such as expanding outside of Irving and tailoring their styles to appeal to different audiences, but the directors of the LCSO and ISO said they’ve found ways to share the community.”
Posted December 13, 2010
