Allentown Symphony Association

The Allentown Symphony Association operates the region's only professional symphonic orchestra and has a tradition of bringing internationally renowned guest artists and innovative programming to audiences in the lehigh valley and surrounding region. The Allentown Symphony orchestra, whose 74 classically trained musicians are drawn from Pennsylvania and four surrounding states plus Washington, dc, has risen to high standards of artistic excellence under music director diane wittry during 28 seasons to-date. The Allentown Symphony Association is one of only several symphonic organizations in america to own and operate its own performance venue, historic miller Symphony hall. Since the early 2000's the Symphony has funded a series of capital improvements, at a cost of more than 12 million, beginning with the fowler education wing, which transformed the 1899-era theater into a first-class performing arts center. Miller Symphony hall offers three performance spaces and facilities that can be rented by the public for meetings, conferences, and special events. During the 2022-2023 season, the Allentown Symphony Association presented 16 Allentown Symphony orchestra classical and pops concerts; 12 jazz upstairs performances; 13 met in hd broadcasts; and a variety of other programs, including two new music chamber series concerts as part of its composer-in-residence program. It also rented miller Symphony hall to external organizations and individuals for meetings, performances, and private events. The Allentown Symphony Association's educational programs are vital to its mission. El sistema lehigh valley, the daily afterschool string instrument education program, set a record with 139 students from 21 lehigh valley schools. Group lessons were held after school for the majority of the program's students, while students attending raub middle school and south mountain middle school had lessons 1-2 days per week during the school day. The Symphony's youth and family concerts and young musicians string festival both returned after being on hiatus during the pandemic, welcoming thousands of students to miller Symphony hall. The Allentown Symphony orchestra's composer-in-residence program continued with two new music chamber series concerts held at miller Symphony hall and the lehigh valley charter high school for the arts. The Symphony ball, which raises funding for these education programs, was held in september 2022 raising a record amount of revenue for the asa.