Through five decades under the batons of Music Director Lawrence Golan and founding Music Director Brooke Creswell, the Yakima Symphony Orchestra has grown from an ambitious volunteer community orchestra into a polished professional ensemble recognized nationally as one of the finest regional orchestras in the country. This recording celebrates those first fifty years of exceptional artistry and service to the Yakima Valley.
The roots of the YSO lie much earlier in the 1880s, when Charles Carpenter, a hop farmer by trade but a violinist by avocation, raised the artistic profile of the Yakima Valley by forming a small orchestra which played public concerts. Through the decades that followed, musical pioneers such as “Chief” Adolph Freimuth and many other individuals, as well as the YSO’s direct predecessor, the Yakima Civic Symphony, laid the groundwork for the current professional symphony orchestra and organization.
The Yakima Symphony Orchestra has from its earliest days played a leading role in the cultural life of the Yakima Valley, and with more recent artistic growth its reach has expanded throughout the Pacific Northwest. The musicians of the orchestra include full-time professional freelance performers and composers, private music instructors, public and private school music educators, college music professionals and others, with an impact that resonates far beyond the concert stage. In addition to the fully professional YSO, the symphony organization provides opportunities for broad community participation through the Yakima Symphony Chorus as well as two youth orchestras, and provides teaching artists and mentors for the El Sistema-inspired youth leadership program Yakima Music en Acción (YAMA). From collaborations with community and cultural organizations to educational partnerships and programs, the musicians of the YSO provide musical inspiration, entertainment and education throughout central Washington and beyond.