On March 31, 1904, Theodore Thomas introduced his friend Richard Strauss to the Chicago Orchestra at the Auditorium Theatre. Strauss went straight to work, rehearsing his Also sprach Zarathustra, ...

On January 4, 1905, Theodore Thomas, the Orchestra’s founder and first music director since 1891, died at his home on Bellevue Place in Chicago. He had contracted influenza during rehearsals for Orc...

[caption id="attachment_14449" align="alignright" width="197"]December 14, 1904[/caption] On December 14, 1904, Orchestra Hall first opened its doors with a grand dedicatory concert, with Theodore Thomas ...

The first meeting for the incorporation of The Orchestral Association was held at the Chicago Club on December 17, 1890, at which a board of five trustees was elected to serve: Adolphus Clay Bartlett,...