Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra located in Buffalo, New York led by Music Director JoAnn Falletta. Its primary performing venue is Kleinhans Music Hall, which is a National Historic Landmark. Each season it presents over 120 classical series, pops, rock, youth, and family concerts. During the summer months, the orchestra performs at parks and outdoor venues across Western New York.

During the late 1920s and early 30s, considerable efforts were made to foster interest in a professional orchestra for the Greater Buffalo community. By late 1934, via the efforts of Cameron Baird, Frederick Slee and Samuel P. Capen, a conductor of extensive European training was recruited to Buffalo in the person of Lajos Shuk, a cellist and director of the New York Civic Symphony. Two buildings which house the music department at the University at Buffalo have been named after Baird and Slee, while the university's main administration building is named after Capen. Shortly thereafter, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra Society was formed and a series of classics concerts and the first BPO youth concerts were presented in the 1935–36 season.

Through the leadership of Society President Mrs. Florence B. Wendt, funds were raised to maintain a viable ensemble through 1937 when support was received from the federal WPA project, which sponsored additional players and recruited a conductor named Franco Autori from the Dallas Symphony. Over the next two seasons the orchestra suffered various administrative and financial growing pains. The orchestra also began performing run-out concerts to neighboring localities like Niagara Falls. By the opening of the 1939–40 season, the Society and the Greater Buffalo community were ready to provide support for the expansion of both the classical and lighter 'Pops' programming by the orchestra.

Kleinhans Music Hall was opened in the fall of 1940. Constructed with funds in part bequeathed by Edward L. Kleinhans and Mary Seaton Kleinhans, the Hall has since served as the Orchestra's permanent home. Kleinhans Music Hall was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989. The hall was designed by Eliel and Eero Saarinen. Though some improvements have been made, there have been little changes since the construction of the hall. The hall has a seating capacity of 2,400.

The BPO dedication concert of Kleinhans in October 1940 allowed the orchestra to grow with additional players, expanded outreach, the regular appearance of major concertizing artists, a series of FM broadcasts, and a diversification of repertoire. Autori resigned in the spring of 1945 and closed his tenure by conducting the Buffalo premiere of Copland's Lincoln Portrait with Carl Sandburg as narrator.

Cameron Baird (the Chairman of the UB Music Department) received a recommendation from Arturo Toscanini of the NBC Symphony that its Associate Conductor, William Steinberg, would be suitable for the job.

The Steinberg era of the BPO had many changes in orchestra personnel, including the beginning of an influx of European musicians who had sought new lives and careers here in the United States just after World War II. Their presence served to define a distinctly European sound that began during the late 40s and continued throughout the 50s and well beyond. The BPO's first commercial recording, the Leningrad Symphony No.7 by Shostakovich, was released on the Musicraft label during this period. Several of the Orchestra's performances were recorded for broadcast on the NBC radio network, beginning in 1947, and currently preserved in the BPO Archive and at the Library of Congress.

Steinberg resigned in 1952 to take over the Pittsburgh Symphony. Josef Krips, the former Music Director of the Vienna State Opera and London Symphony Orchestra was then chosen to lead the orchestra. The Krips era witnessed a major expansion in the length of the season and the number of musicians employed as well as the re-initiation of major tours in the eastern United States and Canada, including the Maritime Provinces.