• Home
• Concerts
  • Pops
  • Next Concert
  • Current Season
    • December Concert
    • February Concert
    • March Concert
    • May Concert
  • Prior Seasons
  • Tickets
• Musicians
  • Conductor
  • Asst. Conductor
  • Concert-master
  • Orchestra Members
  • Rehearsals
• Youth
  • Annual Competition
  • Youth Orchestra
  • Awards
• Join Us
  • Join the Orchestra
  • The Guild
  • The Board
  • Publicize LAS
• Support Us
  • Donations
  • Estate Sales
• Learn More
  • Contact Us
  • Press Releases
  • Overview / History
  • Grants
  • Related Groups

 
Livermore-Amador Symphony

Overview / History

In 1963, women from the Livermore-Pleasanton branch of the American Association of University Women identified the need for an amateur orchestra in the Tri-Valley area (which is at the eastern edge of the San Francisco Bay Area). They became determined to establish a community orchestra with professional leadership. Rehearsals began that same year, with Keith Polk, a doctoral candidate in musicology at the University of California, Berkeley, as conductor.

The fledgling Livermore Symphony presented its first concert on January 25, 1964.

Within a few months, Keith Polk completed his doctorate and accepted a position with the University of New Hampshire. The LAS Board of Directors held interviews and selected a new conductor, Arthur Barnes, who was a doctoral candidate in musical arts and conducting at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. While fostering the growth and development of the orchestra, Barnes completed his degree. Hired to teach at Stanford, Barnes continued to drive between Stanford and Livermore, an approximately 80-mile round trip. Years later, he retired from Stanford but not from LAS: Barnes has continued as conductor and music director of the Symphony since his acceptance of the position in 1964.

The Livermore Symphony Association incorporated in 1966, authorizing the contracting of a professional concertmaster and, as needed, the hiring of extra players. In 1971, the official name of the orchestra became the Livermore-Amador Symphony. Today, approximately sixty musicians comprise the orchestra, from teenagers to folks in the "65 sounds young" crowd. More than one of these current musicians have been players in the orchestra since its very first season!

The LAS concert season spans October through May. The season begins with a pops concert produced by the Livermore-Amador Symphony Guild. More formal concerts follow each December, February, March, and May.

The Symphony continues to collaborate with other musical groups as well as to reach out to youth. The orchestra provides both pit players and a conductor for Valley Dance Theatre productions of the Nutcracker ballet each December, and the LAS pit orchestra often plays at VDT's mid-year shows. LAS has provided family and school concerts (this despite difficulties such as the limited availability of volunteer musicians during school hours and the need to limit the exposure of stringed instruments to direct sun!).

The Livermore-Amador Symphony Association is a 501(c)(3) organization.

The Symphony is a member of the Livermore Cultural Arts Council (LCAC), the Association of California Symphony Orchestras (ACSO), and the League of American Orchestras.

This was stated in the booklet The First Twenty Years (1963–1983), but it's still accurate: “The success of the orchestra is truly the work of many hands, both on stage and behind the scenes. The symphony looks forward to the future and the continuing opportunity to welcome listeners to the wonderful world of music.”

© Livermore-Amador Symphony Association