Eckart Preu was named Music Director of the Stamford Symphony in October 2005.
The Stamford Symphony consists of 60 musicians, all of whom are members of professional musicians’ unions. It is the only fully professional orchestra in southern Connecticut.
The Orchestra’s home is the Stamford Center for the Arts' 1586-seat Palace Theatre, a spectacularly renovated former vaudeville house in the heart of Stamford’s downtown. It also performs regularly at the Steinway Piano Gallery of Westport, the Stamford Museum and Nature Center, and Stamford’s Columbus Park.
The Stamford Symphony’s subscription season features a series of five HARMAN Orchestra Classics concerts, each performed on both a Saturday night and a Sunday afternoon; a series of three chamber music recitals; and a series of three Sunday afternoon mini-concerts for families with children. The Orchestra also plays free outdoor pops concerts in the summer. This year, the Stamford Symphony is inaugurating a new recital program designed to introduce tomorrow’s classical music stars.
About 2,300 concertgoers attend Stamford Symphony performances during a HARMAN Orchestra Classics Series weekend.
The Stamford Symphony’s annual budget is $1.5 million, of which 40% is funded by ticket sales and 60% by donations and sponsorships.
The Stamford Symphony’s education programs reach more than 4,500 students in Stamford and its surrounding communities each year.
The Stamford Symphony provides free tickets to students, seniors, and community organizations in the Stamford area. Recent participants in our community engagement program include ARI adults with disabilities, Ballet School of Stamford, Ferguson Library volunteers, Food Bank of Lower Fairfield County, Norwalk Youth Symphony, Stamford Government Center Seniors and Project Music Program, Stamford Public Housing, Stamford Hospital, Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care, and the Young Artists Philharmonic, among many others.