“For 75 years, Spokane Symphony has survived recessions, strikes and conductor crises—all while growing into an exceptional arts institution,” writes Jim Kershner in Wednesday’s (10/7) Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA). “The orchestra has been led by a Pulitzer Prize-winning conductor. It has recorded CDs for major labels. It has accompanied legends, including Van Cliburn, Itzhak Perlman and Ella Fitzgerald. In the 2000s, it purchased and renovated the Fox Theater, an Art Deco masterpiece, making it one of the few orchestras of any size to own its own hall.” The article features Kershner’s timeline of the orchestra, which includes entries from 1914, when the orchestra performed its first concert at the Orpheum Theater conducted by Leonardo Brill, to 2019, when James Lowe became the orchestra’s eighth music director—his first season with the orchestra was interrupted in March 2020 by COVID-19. The article also includes a chart of longest-serving members in the 67-musician orchestra, topped by Principal Trumpet Larry Jess, in the orchestra for 51 years. The Spokane Symphony has postponed its 75th-anniversary season to 2021-22 due to the pandemic.
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