The Little Orchestra Society shares the vitality of live classical music and builds future audiences by presenting unusual, dynamic concerts. We make music more accessible and fun through interactive explorations, providing thematic programming that educates and inspires. The Little Orchestra Society's unique concerts create a participatory experience of classical music for both adults and children.
How we do it:
For adult audiences, concerts are accompanied by scripted narration that provides a musical and historical framework for the music being performed. Children's concerts are age-appropriate and specially written to engage children, involve them in the performance and introduce them to musical concepts. The Little Orchestra Society strives to make its programs available to all New Yorkers regardless of financial need through subsidized concerts and tickets.
When Thomas Scherman organized The Little Orchestra Society in 1947, his goal was to revive the smaller-sized ensemble for which many of the great early composers wrote and to bring new works to the public. This mission continues today under the direction of Dino Anagnost. Since 1979, Maestro Anagnost has been developing programs that reconnect audiences with classical music by putting the music in engaging and, educational contexts. The Little Orchestra Society offers programs for audiences of all ages that inspire and inform. The name itself was "borrowed" from the Little Orchestra of London, an ensemble founded by Felix Mendelssohn to launch the Bach revival movement in the mid-19th century. Since its inaugural concert, The Little Orchestra Society has presented many unique concert programs for both adults and children. Its enormous breadth of repertoire and scope of musical styles ranges from early Baroque works to world premiers and commissions by American, Latin American and European composers, as well as concerts that incorporate jazz, blues and folk music.
