Title: Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra Scrapbooks and Photographs

Date/Date Range :   1943-1971

Extent: 0.1 linear feet

Abstract:

The material in this collection is primarily related to the formation of the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra. Although the collection spans the years of 1943 to 1971, the bulk of the collection consists of two scrapbooks kept by Waldo E. Cohn which documents the creation and the early years of the Orchestra between 1943 and 1949.

Call number: MS-2188

Repository: University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Knoxville, TN

Aquisition Information:

This collection was donated to the University of Tennessee Special Collections Library on August 17, 2000.

Access Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Copyright:

The copyright interests in this collection remain with the creator. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library.

Preferred Citation:

[Identification of Item], Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra Scrapbooks and Photographs, MS-2188. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Special Collections Library.

Collection consists of three folders.

The earliest roots of the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra, Tennessee's oldest continuing symphony, began in the autumn of 1943 when Waldo Cohn arrived in Oak Ridge to begin work at the National Laboratory. He organized a small group of musicians to play chamber music in his living room. Once the group had grown too large for Cohn's house they began to meet in a local high school auditorium. The Oak Ridge String Symphonette gave its first concert with Waldo as conductor on June 16, 1944. The Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra formed later that summer and the first full-fledged symphony concert was performed in November 1944. Cohn would serve as the Orchestra's conductor for eleven years.

The material in this collection is primarily related to the formation of Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra. Although the collection spans the years of 1943 to 1971, the bulk of the collection consists of two scrapbooks kept by Waldo E. Cohn, marked as "Book #1" and "Book #2," which documents the creation and the early years of the Orchestra between 1943 and 1949. These scrapbook albums include letters, newspaper clippings, photographs, copies of photographs, programs, sheet music, two May 11, 1945 tickets to the Orchestra's program at High School Auditorium, and a Civil Service Award issued to Waldo E. Cohn on March 21, 1947 by the Fraternal Order of Eagles. For related material see MS-2535.

• Symphony orchestras -- United States.
• Oak Ridge (Tenn.).