San Jose Symphony Records
Finding aid created by History San Jose Research Library staff using RecordEXPRESS
History San Jose Research Library
2021
1661 Senter Road
San Jose, California 95112
(408) 287-2290
research@historysanjose.org
http://www.historysanjose.org/
Title: San Jose Symphony Records
Dates: 1940-2001
Collection Number: 2000-51
Creator/Collector:
San Jose Symphony
Extent: 32 linear feet
Repository:
History San Jose Research Library
San Jose, California 95112
Abstract: Records of the San Jose Symphony, which operated between 1878 and 2001 in San Jose, California. The collection includes business
records, scrapbooks and programs, photographs, press clippings, and recordings of performances.
Language of Material: English
The collection is available to researchers by appointment with the Curator of Library & Archives. Performance recordings are
only available for research purposes and must be accessed in-house.
San Jose Symphony Records. History San Jose Research Library
The records were donated to History San Jose in July 2000.
Biography/Administrative History
In 1878, conductor/musician F. Louis King arrived from England and an Australia tour to lecture in San Francisco, and was
hired by the College of the Pacific to head their new Music Department, and a private conservatory. He founded the San Jose
Orchestral Society, drawing on many local musicians from the San Jose Normal School faculty and Germania Verein Amateur Orchestra
then extant; it was the first classical European-style orchestra west of the Mississippi. He and J. H. Elwood of the Normal
School also mounted a giant choral festival in October, 1878, that attracted hundreds of singers, musicians -- and potential
audiences -- for the new orchestra.
The name was later changed to the San Jose Symphony; it performed under King until 1892, when Herman Brant succeeded him.
After World War I, the symphony declined until it was reorganized and combined with the San Jose Elks Orchestra (the two groups
shared members); the group continued to perform, decline and reorganize periodically through the 1950s and 1960s under William
Van der Heide and Sandor Salgo, until George Cleve became conductor between 1972-1992, succeeded by Leonid Grin.
Management and financial problems, crises and scandals periodically threatened the existence of the Symphony over the years;
it struggled until 2001 when it could no longer continue.
Players and managing director Andrew Bales reorganized the group and saved the instrumental scores, and the Silicon Valley
Symphony continued the tradition, playing in the Center for the Performing Arts until opening in the restored California Theatre
in 2004.
San Jose Symphony conductors:
1878: F. Louis King
1890: Hermann Brandt
c. 1937: William Van den Burg
1941-1945: Suspended during war era
1946: Gaston Usigli
1950s: Sandor Salgo
1970: James K. Guthrie
1972: George Cleve
1992: Leonid Grin
Scope and Content of Collection
The San Jose Symphony Records include a selection of pre-1945 concert programs, a small selection of programs from the 1950s
and 1960s, and an extensive collection of concert programs and season announcements from the 1970s through 2001 when the Symphony
ceased performing.
News clippings document events and artists, and various management and union crises and confrontations from the same period.
Records of the company include office operations; Board of Directors papers; fundraising/marketing materials; personnel records
including materials on conductors, staff, union/management problems; and material about the Youth Symphony, school concerts,
and other educational activities of the Symphony.
Audiovisual material consists of promotional photographs of soloists and conductors; and photographs of performances, as well
as recordings of performances and governance meetings.
Ephemeral material includes late 19th century activities of King Conservatory/early San Jose Orchestral Society activities,
and scrapbooks containing concert/recital programs.
Symphony orchestras
San Jose (Calif.)