page_title: Grand Rapids Symphony
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Grand Rapids Symphony / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Music Director Marcelo Lehninger conducting the Grand Rapids Symphony in DeVos Performance Hall in Grand Rapids, Michigan USA. Terry Johnston
context_page_description: The Grand Rapids Symphony is a professional orchestra located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1930, the Symphony is celebrating its 90th anniversary season in 2019-20. In 2006, its recording Invention and Alchemy was nominated for Best Classical Crossover Album at the Grammy Awards. The Grands Rapids Symphony presents more than 400 performances throughout Michigan each year, reaching over 200,000 people, and is heard in West Michigan on broadcasts by WBLU-FM and WBLV-FM. The organization also implements 18 educational and access programs that benefit over 80,000 Michigan residents.
  Since 2016, the Grand Rapids Symphony's music director has been Marcelo Lehninger.
context_section_description: In 2000, the orchestra toured northern Lower Michigan and to Michigan's Upper Peninsula with performances at Ferris State University, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Lake Superior State University, Northern Michigan University and Michigan Technological University, where the Grand Rapids Symphony was the premier entertainment for the grand opening of Michigan Tech's $20 million Rozsa Center for Performing Arts, which opened in October 2000. In 2003, the GRS performed in Detroit’s Orchestra Hall as part of inaugural activities for the remodeled Max M. Fisher Music Center. The orchestra celebrated its 75th anniversary season by making its debut in New York City's Carnegie Hall on May 21, 2005. The Grand Rapids Symphony was nominated in 2006 for a Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album for its recording, "Invention & Alchemy," featuring harpist and composer Deborah Henson-Conant. "Invention & Alchemy" also was recorded for a DVD, which has aired on PBS-TV in the United States. 
  In 2013, the GRS joined the ranks of the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians (ICSOM), one of five player conferences within the American Federation of Musicians, representing the largest, professional orchestras in the United States.
  The Grand Rapids Symphony's previous music director, David Lockington, stepped down from the post in May 2015 to become music director laureate, the first in the Grand Rapids Symphony's history. Associate conductor is John Varineau, who is in his 35th anniversary season with the Grand Rapids Symphony in 2019-20 as well as in his 32nd season as conductor of the Grand Rapids Youth Symphony. Robert Bernhardt was named principal pops conductor in 2015.
  In June 2016, Brazilian-born conductor Marcelo Lehninger was named the 14th music director of the Grand Rapids Symphony. He had formerly served as music director of the New West Symphony in Los Angeles, and associate conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
  The biennial Grand Rapids Bach Festival, which was launched in 1997 and is held in the spring every other year in Grand Rapids, is an official affiliate of the Grand Rapids Symphony. In March 2018, Julian Wachner was appointed Artistic Director.
  In 2018, Lehninger led the Grand Rapids Symphony, joined by the Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus, in the orchestra's second appearance in Carnegie Hall on April 20. Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire, who has performed previously in Carnegie Hall with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, was soloist in music including Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos' Momoprecoce for piano and orchestra, a work that had been performed only once previously in Carnegie Hall by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1959.
caption: Music Director Marcelo Lehninger conducting the Grand Rapids Symphony in DeVos Performance Hall in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Photo by Terry Johnston for the Grand Rapids Symphony
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