Tanglewood Festival Chorus performing in Boston, New York and Tanglewood. In 1970, John Oliver proposed to the management of the Boston Symphony Orchestra that he would create a permanent chorus for the orchestra, which had relied on various area choruses for much of its history. In Oliver's words, "To my utter amazement now--I wasn't amazed then, because I was just a brash young man--they said, 'Go! Form a chorus.'" The TFC's first concert was a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at Symphony Hall in April 1970 when Leonard Bernstein substituted for William Steinberg who had fallen ill. Bernstein had been engaged to conduct
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra the 2003–2004 season after which he began acting as director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich. Also, in 1995, the orchestra welcomed Marvin Hamlisch as its first principal pops conductor. Composer of more than 40 motion picture scores and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway show "A Chorus Line", Hamlisch previously appeared as guest conductor of symphony orchestras around the world. With three Oscars, four Grammys, a Tony Award and three Golden Globe Awards to his credit, Hamlisch eagerly began exploring new avenues of music-making with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. In January 2004, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra with conductor Gilbert