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 with local audiences that around 1,200 people attended a concert he conducted at the Syria Mosque during one of Pittsburgh's worst snowstorms. He returned to Pittsburgh in 1949, 1950, and 1951 to perform with the symphony. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra established a Guest Conductor Chair in his name in 2010. In its 23 years under the direction of William Steinberg, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra remained a superb ensemble and developed an eager and devoted following. By 1961, audiences had increased 250 percent. What's more, in the five preceding years, the Pittsburgh Symphony was the only American orchestra to sell out