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
CBC Symphony Orchestra Violinist Albert Pratz was concertmaster of the orchestra from 1953-1961. The CBCSO played weekly broadcasts on CBC Radio and also made frequent appearances on CBC Television. The orchestra performed internationally, including a tour in London, England, and a performance at the Inter-American Music Festival in 1961. Many of its performances were recorded by Radio Canada International and distributed outside Canada. The orchestra recorded with the Mendelssohn Choir, with CBC's Festival Singers, and with pianist Glenn Gould. The CBCSO performed and recorded many of the works of composer/conductor Igor Stravinsky, including his "Symphony of Palms", which featured Stravinsky as conductor and