Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra 200th Anniversary Tour
The HRO’s concerts are a central component of the arts community at Harvard University. Each year the HRO performs four subscription concerts and a special performance as a part of Harvard’s Arts First Festival. In recent years the orchestra has collaborated with artistic talents including Yo-Yo Ma, the Silk Road Ensemble, Daniel Barenboim, Lynn Chang, and Robert Levin. In addition, the HRO actively cooperates with various musical ensembles, including the Harvard Holden Choirs and the Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus. The HRO’s active outreach program also organizes educational concerts for local area elementary school children.
Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra traces its history back to the night of March 6, 1808, when six Harvard men first formed the Pierian Sodality, a society with a stated intent to “perform music for the enjoyment of others as well as serenade young women in [Harvard] square.” The Pierian Sodality rapidly changed its interests to more serious musical pursuits, and during the next fifty years it profoundly influenced the development of music in Cambridge and Boston. The Boston Symphony and the Harvard Glee Club, among other musical organizations, owe their existence to the efforts of the early Pierian Sodality.
By the early turn of the 20th century, the Pierian Sodality had become the largest college orchestra in America and referred to itself as the Harvard University Orchestra. In 1908 the orchestra embarked on a Centennial Tour through New York State, and this tour was so successful that many other tours quickly followed. The orchestra gradually built an international reputation and performed for many distinguished audiences. During World War II, the Harvard University Orchestra joined forces with women from Radcliffe College, and in 1942 it changed its name to the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra to reflect this new partnership. Although Harvard College and Radcliffe College united in 1999, the HRO maintains Radcliffe in its name to honor this heritage. Today the Pierian Sodality is retained as the Alumni Association of the HRO.
It is said that around 1950, the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra stopped making history and started making music with a degree of seriousness never before seen at the University. The orchestra continued to improve in quality and reputation as it took tours to Mexico (1962), Washington, D.C. (1966), and Canada (1972). In 1978, the HRO placed third in the Fifth Annual International Festival of Student Orchestras. The 80s and 90s saw tours of the former Soviet Union (1984), Asia (1985 and 1988), Europe (1992), and Italy (1996). Since the turn of the millenium, HRO has toured Brasil (2000) and Canada (2004).
Today, the HRO’s tours are not only artistic endeavors, but also serve to foster cultural and international community exchange, and this coming season, the HRO will be celebrating its Bicentennial by holding a number of special events including a summer tour to East Asia in the summer of 2008.
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