About The Symphony
The Glens Falls Symphony Today
Our Mission:
The mission of the Glens Falls Symphony (GFS) is to be the best in its class among professional orchestras in the U.S. through excellence in performance, adventurous programming, and diverse educational outreach. We are a 501(c)3 non-profit devoted to producing outstanding performances of orchestral music in the concert hall and public outdoor concerts.
For 30+ years, the GFS has brought classical music to audiences in the Adirondack region and beyond and is a leading cultural institution in the greater Glens Falls area. For more than three decades, the Glens Falls Symphony has brought fine symphonic music to audiences in the Adirondack region and beyond. Under the direction of Maestro Charles Peltz, the orchestra is a fully professional union orchestra with musicians hailing from our local region, the Capital District, New York City, Rochester, Boston, New Jersey, and other areas.
The five-concert subscription season is presented from October through May on Sundays at 4 p.m. Most concerts take place at the Glens Falls High School auditorium, an award-winning, state-of-the-art theatre offering comfortable seating for 1,200 concertgoers. Outside the indoor concert season, the orchestra presents free summer pop concerts, including the annual July 3 Independence Day Celebration concert with fireworks in Crandall Park, Glens Falls.
While the pandemic presented unique challenges, the Symphony was able to successfully pivot to virtual programming, presenting a series of four engaging concerts filmed and recorded in different venues throughout the Glens Falls area. The Symphony is grateful for funding from the Glens Falls Foundation, Charles R. Wood Foundation, area businesses, and individual donors, whose support enabled the Symphony to purchase the camera and video editing equipment necessary to produce virtual performances.
The Symphony’s comprehensive five-year strategic plan for 2022-2027 envisions a major expansion of educational programs, including live orchestra concerts for students, musician-student coaching, collaborative performance, and deeply engaging activities that enrich the lives of children from our local Warren County region east into Washington County, and north into the southeastern Adirondack Park.
As one of the leading cultural institutions in the greater Glens Falls region, the Glens Falls Symphony is proud to reside in the smallest city in America to support a fully professional symphony.
Our Vision:
“We envision the Glens Falls Symphony as an inspirational music-making organization that delights, uplifts, educates, and connects diverse audiences and participants through the power of great live music. We aspire to be our region's abiding cultural source for community-building, life-affirming artistic experiences, and audiences of all ages today, and for many generations into the future."
Music Director Charles Peltz
Maestro Peltz celebrates his 25th season as Music Director of the Glens Falls Symphony in 2025-26!
The Bard, Brogue, and Birthdays
What a season! Every concert is a unique event made just for you.
We start with a celebration of “The Bard,” William Shakespeare. Music for operas and ballets by Prokofiev and William Walton based on two of his greatest plays – “Romeo and Juliet” And “Henry V”. With a Shakespearean actor reciting famous lines, we will feel like we are at the Globe Theater. November has us promenading through a gallery listening to music inspired by the most engaging paintings. We celebrate American music icon Gunther Schuller’s 100th birthday with his “Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee”. Then onward into the Russian gallery with Modest Mussorgsky and his magnificent “Pictures at an Exhibition”.
We’ll say Happy Holidays with an Irish brogue as we welcome one of America’s great Irish fiddlers, Liz Knowles, as she joins the GFS and two of the region’s high school choirs, for a Celtic Christmas – Silver Bells and Begorrah! Looking for something new? - our March program will, for the first time, celebrate the orchestra's wind, brass, and percussion sections as they play alone and with a small army of local high school students as these young musicians thrill to sit side-by-side with the pros.
“Happy Birthday, America!” We will shout together as we celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday with an inspiring afternoon of American music: Joplin to Copland, Ives to Ellington. We will revive our nationally renowned GFS premiere in Joan Tower’s ”Made in America” as well as premiere a GFS commission by Chris Brubeck, the country’s foremost composer of music combining jazz and classical streams. The best musical birthday party you can imagine!
Breathless as you read this? Just wait until you join our growing audience of enthusiastic music lovers and experience the magic of a Glens Falls Symphony season, and feel the excitement!
History
Begun in 1977 as a community orchestra at the then-Adirondack Community College, the Symphony incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation in 1983. In 1990, the Board and musicians voted to adopt membership in the national American Federation of Musicians (AFM), the professional musicians’ union. This enabled the orchestra to advertise in the AFM publications for players, enabling the orchestra to recruit nationally .
In 2000, the current Music Director, Charles Peltz, was hired to lead the orchestra. During the next 22 years, Mr. Peltz, who is an award-winning faculty member of the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, has consistently challenged what it possible for a regional orchestra. His energy, preparation, and artistry have drawn ever-finer musicians to join the orchestra, and have attracted nationally known solo artists like Sarah Chang and Chris Brubeck. The orchestra has also consistently collaborated and/or co-commissioned works from America’s most esteemed living composers such as Jennifer Higdon, Ezra Laderman, David Amram, Joan Tower, and Christopher Theofanidis. The orchestra regularly performs at an artistic level expected from orchestras with two to five times the budget size. Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Joseph Schwantner has referred to the Glens Falls Symphony as “One of the great orchestras of the country”.
Dress Rehearsal for 2018-19 Season Opening Concert