An
Act of Congress established the orchestra in 1990 with an appropriation to the
Smithsonian Institution of $242,000. In 1991
Gunther Schuller and
David Baker became the original artistic and musical directors of the orchestra, which began performing in 1991. Five years later Baker became its sole artistic and musical director. The inaugural season, jointly conducted by Schuller and Baker, consisted of six weekends of free concerts for which the conductors collected or commissioned transcriptions of the original arrangements of the works to be presented and provided the orchestra's members with tapes of the original performances. leading the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra during the
NEA Jazz Masters awards ceremony and concert in 2008 Since 1991 the SJMO has performed in nine foreign countries and twenty-six U.S. states, in addition to numerous free concerts in Washington, D.C. Appearances outside their base at the National Museum of American History have included a performance at the
White House in 1993 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the
Newport Jazz Festival; the Cultural Olympiad at the
1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia; and a 1999 tour of the United States to present concerts in tribute to the 100th anniversary of
Duke Ellington's birth that included a concert performance at the
Monterey Jazz Festival featuring Ellington's
Suite Thursday, which was commissioned for the festival. ==Members==