Stow Symphony Orchestra

About Us

The Stow Symphony Orchestra was founded in the spring of 1998 by Music Director and Conductor, Darrell Lee Music, and has enjoyed fifteen years of performing some of the best loved classical and popular music ever written. Classical music is meant to be explored and the SSO's mission is to do just that with the masterpieces of the orchestral literature and the music of living composers including Eric Ewazen, Roger Zahab, and Darrell Lee Music. The orchestra has also participated in the commissioning and performance of the music of living composers including Jamie Wilding, Joseph Schwantner and Joan Tower whose piece "Made in America" received the 2008 Grammy award for 'Best Classical Contemporary Composition'. The Stow Symphony Orchestra gave the only Ohio performance of this seminal work in October of 2005. The World Premiere Performance of Jamie Wilding's "The Continents" was given by the SSO in the fall of 2006.

Several concerto performances of the SSO have included members of the Cleveland Orchestra including violists Art Klima and Eliesha Nelson , violinist Alicia Koelz, and cellist Bryan Dumm. Other artists have included violinists Robert Waters, Linda Nagy Johnston, and Andrew Sords; Pianists Daniel Barber, Jerry Wong, and Paolo Tatafiore.

The SSO exists to give orchestral musicians the opportunity to perform classical and contemporary classical repertoire in a professional atmosphere. It also gives audiences who might not otherwise have it the opportunity to experience the classical repertoire in a setting that is comfortable- not intimidating, affordable, and enjoyable.