Why go
A concert here changes the soundtrack of a Nashville visit and puts the city’s wider musical life in view. The orchestra’s story reaches from a postwar founding and early performances at War Memorial Auditorium to its purpose-built downtown hall, named for longtime music director Kenneth Schermerhorn.
The full story
Nashville had an earlier orchestral group in the 1920s, but the present Symphony was founded after World War II. Nashville native Walter Sharp helped organize it, and its first concert took place in 1946 at War Memorial Auditorium. That beginning is a reminder that the city’s musical institutions were never limited to country stages. The orchestra later moved its subscription concerts to Jackson Hall at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. Kenneth Schermerhorn led it for more than two decades, a period that included recordings and performances beyond Nashville. The Schermerhorn Symphony Center opened in 2006 with Laura Turner Concert Hall as the orchestra’s new home. For visitors, that sequence makes the building more than an isolated concert venue: it marks the Symphony’s growth within the city’s performing arts district.