This community orchestra, originally called the Kenwood Chamber Orchestra, was founded in 1972 from it beginning as an adult education class. It is based in Washburn High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota and over the years its membership started to grow, as did its reputation. Lee Humphries was a conductor while it was still the Kenwood Chamber Orchestra.
As the orchestra grew and its repertoire expanded it was renamed the Kenwood Symphony Orchestra in 2003 and comprised more than 50 amateurs, retired musicians and students along with professional musicians. They perform numerous concerts each season and have played musical events such as Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker and Swan Lake with the Metropolitan Ballet. It also has it’s own Summer POPS! symphonic series.
In 2007 the orchestra took on the Artistic Director Yuri Ivan who had previously been an Associate Conductor of thee State Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Dnepropetrovsk in Ukraine from 1996 to 2000, Artistic Director of he Trans-Carpathian Philharmonic and was a co-founder of the Uzhgorod Youth Orchestra. He has also been the Music Director of the Linden Hills Chamber Orchestra since 2006.
Many conductors have since conducted the orchestra with these including Uri Barnea, Kenneth Freed, William Intriligator, Miles Hernandez, Jim Riccardo, Jeffrey Stirling and Jeannine Wagner.
Sources:
- https://kenwoodsymphonyorchestra.org/about-kso/
- https://kenwoodsymphonyorchestra.org/about-kso/yuri-ivan-music-director-of-kso/
- https://www.givemn.org/organization/Kenwood-Symphony-Orchestra
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/4850290-Lee-Humphries
- https://www.exploreminnesota.com/event/nutcracker-holiday-classic-kenwood-symphony-orchestra-december-16-17-2023/32105
- https://www.minnesotaparent.com/calendar/kenwood-symphony-orchestra/
- https://www.theatermania.com/shows/minnesota-theater/minneapolis-theater/swan-lake-with-the-kenwood-symphony-orchestra_320453/