Amarillo Symphony reflects on past 100 years with season opening and the future 100

The Amarillo Symphony (AS) is kicking off its 100th season and is beginning the celebrations, leading up to its centennial anniversary on October 2024.

As the symphony celebrates its music artists and community, they also are commemorating the past 100 years leading up to this momentous milestone. According to Kimberly Hieb, Associate Professor of Music History at West Texas A&M University School of Music, the symphony initially began as a music club founded by a single woman in 1905. The club was initially called the Amarillo Philharmonic Club.

In 1921, three years before the symphony was founded, two other music clubs were founded including the Harmony Music Club and a local chapter of the national MacDowell Music Club.

"Even before the symphony began and was founded in 1924, there was a lot of music performance in this town," Hieb said. "When you look at newspaper articles in the last decade of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th, people were really interested in live music. And, there (are) all of these accounts of music being performed at peoples' houses at teas and lunches and concerts put on called the 'Twilight Musicals,' and they often occurred on Sunday afternoons."

According to Hieb, as the Amarillo Philharmonic Club, they hosted concerts twice a month for the community as a part of these "Twilight Musicals" and more. To be a part of the club, you had to meet one requirement, which was having the ability to play an instrument; this led the club to include predominantly women and over time grew into the symphony we know today.

"The consistency of performances, moving decades forward, despite the depression and the dust bowl that plagued this part of the country, and despite WWII and all of the economic turmoil that that caused, the orchestra just performed incredibly consistently despite the world events and oftentimes even flourished. ... And that just shows the importance of music to our community and their determination," Hieb said.

Beginning in the 1960s, the Amarillo Symphony established a more permanent location for performances in the Municipal Auditorium before moving into the Amarillo Civic Center, catering to a larger audience, and finding their current home in the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts in 2006, where they have remained since.

Amarillo Symphony Pianist, Dr. Jim Rauscher, a retired professor of music for Amarillo College, has been a part of the symphony for more than 40 years. He spoke of what the symphony has given him and the community during that time.

"The growth of the orchestra artistically, if I think back 43 years to now, there has defiantly been huge growth and improvement in the overall sound and performance capabilities of the orchestra. ... I think because of the community support that has been with the orchestra from the beginning, the orchestra has been able to grow and grow, even with the city itself, to become one of the pillars in the Amarillo art community," Rauscher said.

"In some ways, this is a capstone of what has happened the past 100 years, but it is also a springboard for the next 100 years," Rauscher added. "I think we are in a place right now where the sky is the limit of where we could grow to, and I am just so excited to be a part of this milestone year. I have been a part of the symphony for almost half of its existence, and that is kind of shocking to me. But, I am so excited to see where it will go, and this celebration is just the beginning."

This season, the Amarillo Symphony hosted its kickoff event in Hodgetown on Saturday featuring Randall King, with a mix of patriotic and Western favorites and guest local stars Eric Barry and the Opera Cowgirls, complete with a fireworks finale.

Amarillo Symphony Music Director George Jackson spoke of this year's focus to cater to the area and provide sounds that represent the community. Jackson says that this years kick-off event is just the beginning to the season, and that there is plenty more excitement to come.

Following the kickoff, concerts will include Rhapsody in Blue, ¡Celebraciones!, Brahms and Bluegrass, Bach to Bartók, Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, A Spring Symphony, and Beethoven’s Ninth & HSQ.

"We have tried to look at the season and think who in this amazing, diverse community are we not serving, and how can we make sure that we are fulfilling what they want from their symphony. So, that is why for example we begin the season at Hodgetown with Randall King," Jackson said. "There is a huge percentage of people in the community who might not be that interested in a classical concert, but they will come and hear someone like Randall King. And maybe that will interest them to listen to other pieces of music within that concert, and hopefully they will see that although they enjoy Randall King, they really enjoy the orchestra as well."

Jackson shares that this season will include world premieres including music from composer and Grammy Award nominee Christopher Theofanidis, as well as guest artists including international harp artist Mahan Esfahani, bluegrass singer Sara Hershkowitz, award-winning Mariachi singer Nayelli Peña, pianist Michelle Cann, and more.

"With this centennial celebration, there are two things. The first is looking back and looking at the past and thinking about how there is a rich legacy historically, but at the same time it's also looking forward and realizing that we have also got to think about the next 100 years. So I think we are in two minds about that, celebrating both the past and the future. My intention is that the special celebration of this season becomes the model of how we continue, and I'm hoping that future seasons are as special and build on what we do this season," Jackson said.

In addition to catering to every part of the community, Jackson hopes to make more collaborations with local organizations and draw in more first-time symphony attendees to create a potential reoccurring audience.

Official concert details and times can be viewed online at the official symphony website online at https://amarillosymphony.org/ Tickets can also be purchased on its website.

A special edition book release, written and created by Heib and AS researchers, will be released late next year, including more in-depth information of the sympohny over the past 100 years. The book, tentatively titled "Amarillo Symphony the first 100 years," will be available for the official 100th anniversary in October 2024.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Amarillo Symphony opens 100th season, celebrating centennial