Tri-City Symphony Orchestra The orchestra began at a meeting of musicians and citizens from Davenport, Rock Island and Moline on February 10, 1916. They hired Ludwig Becker of
Chicago as the first music director. The first name for the orchestra was the Tri-City Symphony. The Tri-Cities, as the area was then called, was the smallest community in the United States to support a full symphony orchestra. The first rehearsal for the orchestra was held on March 12, 1916, and its first concert was held on March 29. The orchestra was composed of 60 amateur and professional musicians from the Tri-Cities. The first performance was held before an audience of 1,200 people at the orchestra's first home, the
Burtis Opera House, a
vaudeville theater in Davenport. The program included:
Wagner's Prelude to
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg; the Wagnerian aria
Dich Theure Halle sung by
contralto Esther Plumb;
Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 8 (Unfinished);
Camille Saint-Saëns’
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, featuring pianist Robert MacDonald; and a few shorter pieces, including a string Orchestra elegy, a waltz, and
Tchaikovsky's
Marche Slav, The symphony continued to grow in the 1950s. Concerts were moved to Centennial Hall at Augustana College. In the 1960s concerts were held at the
Masonic Temple in Davenport as well. In 1976 they hired Lance Willett as the first executive director.
Quad City Symphony Orchestra In the 1980s, the orchestra relocated its performances to the Adler Theater, the former
RKO Orpheum in Davenport, which was renovated. At the same time, the orchestra changed its name to the Quad City Symphony to better reflect the area. On October 10, 1996, the symphony premiered
Lalo Schifrin's
Rhapsody for Bix, a tribute to Davenport native and jazz great
Bix Beiderbecke. Schifrin conducted the orchestra. On July 3, 2010, the symphony participated in the Quad Cities
Independence Day celebration, "Red, White and Boom!", for the first time. They played a 60-minute pops concert in Davenport's LeClaire Park. ==Youth Ensembles==