History and Archives
Today the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc., presents more than 250 concerts annually. It is an ensemble that has richly fulfilled Henry Lee Higginson's vision of a great and permanent orchestra in Boston.
History of the BSO
The first Boston Symphony concert was performed under the direction of Georg Henschel in the Old Boston Music Hall.
more info
Symphony Hall Online Exhibits
Enjoy an online companion to archival exhibits featured in Boston's Symphony Hall during the 2019-2020 season.
more info
Check out "HENRY" our new
Performance History Database!
Through generous grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Sloan Foundation, we have been able to scan and digitize over 17,000 Boston Symphony Orchestra program books and make them available to the general public.
more info
BSO Music Directors
From the orchestra's founding in 1881 until 1918, all six of the BSO's music directors were central Europeans recruited by Henry Lee Higginson. Higginson built the BSO upon the German musical traditions he learned to love as a student in Vienna.
More Details >
Georg Henschel, the First BSO Conductor
The premiere season of the Boston Symphony Orchestra featured twenty programs at Boston's Music Hall, presented on Saturday nights at 8PM.
More Details >
Archival Collection
The Boston Symphony Orchestra Archives houses printed programs, press clippings, posters, photographs, administrative files, an extensive collection of radio broadcast tapes of concerts and commercial recordings.
More Details >
Online Exhibit: An Archival Companion to the BSO/DG Recordings
In this online exhibit, news clippings, photographs, and other documents of interest pertaining to early BSO performances of six of Dmitri Shostakovich's symphonies as well as selections from Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.
More Details >
Acoustics - The Perfect Sound
Symphony Hall's continued popularity would come as no surprise to its architects and builders. They modeled the hall after two of the top concert halls in the world, the Leipzig Neues Gewandhaus and the old Boston Music Hall.
More Details >