University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra

The University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra has been an integral part of the cultural life of UK and its communities since the founding of the School of Music in 1918. Selected by audition, the Orchestra is comprised of the finest string, wind, and percussion instrumentalists from both graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Kentucky.

The Orchestra presents ten or more performances each season including symphonic concerts, operas, major works with choirs, and the Concerto Competition concert. It regularly collaborates with distinguished guest artists and the University of Kentucky music faculty. Its repertoire covers a wide range of the master works of orchestral literature from the Baroque to the present.

The University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra was formed in 1918 by Carl Lampert, composer of the UK Fight Song and Alma Mater.  Over the last century, the orchestra has built a tradition of performing major symphonic masterworks. The orchestra also performs regularly with the UK Opera Theater, which presents several fully staged productions each season.  This concert season, the orchestra will give more than twenty performances for an audience of more than 40,000 people and for thousands more on television in Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. The orchestra program attracts students from the state of Kentucky, throughout the United States, and around the world. These highly skilled young performers regularly go on to complete graduate studies at top conservatories, and graduates of the UK School of Music perform in some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras.

Most recently, the orchestra has recorded two CD’s, Music of the Horse (2005) in collaboration with Keeneland and the In Times Like These - music of Arlo Guthrie (2007). The Music of the Horse CD is available from the Gift Shop at Keeneland or at any UK Orchestra performance. The Arlo Guthrie CD is now available at UKSO concerts and usual music outlets. (Read the review by Walter Tunis - Lexington Herald-Leader.)

University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra Studio Faculty

John Nardolillo, Director of UK Orchestras

The University of Kentucky School of Music provides undergraduate and graduate degrees in instrumental and vocal performance, music education, theory and composition, music history and musicology. For more information:
www.uky.edu/FineArts/Music.