History and Highlights:

The Symphony of Westchester is a professional orchestra that has gradually become known in Westchester County and its surrounding area for our first rate and inspiring performances, world class soloists, exciting and engaging programming, the commissioning and premiering of new and meaningful compositions and our exemplary outreach programs for children. Now in its seventeenth year at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, The Symphony of Westchester was founded as The Westchester Chamber Orchestra in 1984 by its Artistic Director, Barry Charles Hoffman. The continued growth and success of The Westchester Chamber Orchestra since its series began at Iona College in 1997, inspired Maestro Hoffman to expand the orchestra in 2010, renaming the orchestra, The Westchester Chamber Symphony. Now, in our inaugural season as The Symphony of Westchester, we plan to fulfill our new mission to program larger fully symphonic orchestral works for greater Westchester audiences.

The commissioning and premiering of new works is an important part of our mission. In 1996, under the direction of Maestro Hoffman, we commissioned and premiered many works of noted American composer Seymour Barab. These have included: The Selfish Giant (broadcast on WQXR), Three Riddles in the Talmudic Tradition, and How The Elephant Got Its Trunk. Additionally, we commissioned noted composer Jon Deak to write Duo Concertante for Violin and Chamber Orchestra, which we premiered at our Iona College series with New York Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow and his violist wife, Karen Dreyfus as soloists in 2000. Among several works we commissioned noted composer Charles Griffin to write for us, is his Concerto for Orchestra, which we also premiered at our Iona College series in 2008.