Riverside Symphony

This professional orchestra was established by the composer Anthony Korf and the conductor George Rothman in 1981 who had originally met during the 1970s when then were students at the Manhattan School of Music.

After a concert at the Riverside Church the Riverside Symphony was put together with many of the 40 musicians being free-lance performers from New York. As well as performing the masterpieces it is known for discovering and championing contemporary music and much less well known works by composers that include Marius Constant, Mario Davidovsky, Henri Dutilleux, Andrew Imbrie, Guus Janssen, Poul Ruders and George Tsontakis as some of many.

The orchestra performs a concert series each year at the Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and are often joined by guest narrators and guest soloists that have included Frederic Chiu, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Jeremy Denk, Virginia McDowell, Cynthia Nixon, Irene Worth and Shai Wosner along with several others. It also has the International Composer Reading Program which focuses on expanding opportunities for living worldwide composers.

The orchestra has recorded at least seven albums which are Davidovsky/Korf/Wright: Orchestral Works, Poul Ruders: The Christmas Gospel, Stephen Hartke: Concerto for Violin & Orchestra, “Auld Swaara”; Symphony No. 2, Mario Davidovsky: Three Cycles on Biblical Texts, Anthony Korf: Presences from Aforetime, Marius Constant and the Grammy nominated Andrew Imbrie: Requiem; Piano Concerto No. 3.

In the field of musical education the orchestra established Music Memory which is a year-long classroom learning program in New York which started in a just a few schools and now covers schools in the five boroughs of New York each year. Every year the program finishes with the Music Memory Citywide Finals. It also provides programs in music education for adults known as Salon Series and Hear Hear!.

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Riverside Symphony

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