By Alex Padalka

Queens resident and musician extraordinaire David Katz wanted to have professional classical music without having to cross the tunnel to Manhattan.
Five decades later the company he founded in his basement, the Queens Symphony Orchestra, is the largest, and now oldest, professional arts organization in the borough and one of the finest regional orchestras in the nation. Without its own performance space, the Orchestra made it its mission to bring the music to all the different communities of the borough.

Queens Symphony Orchestra started out playing in the basement of its founder’s home.

As part of its Masterworks Series, QSO puts on four concerts every year by 60- to 80-person ensembles at the Queensboro College Performing Arts Center. All the performers are professional musicians that play everywhere from the Metropolitan Opera to Broadway. Smaller chamber ensembles of three to five people go out regularly to Queens schools, libraries and community, cultural and senior centers as part of QSO’s free Music on the Move! series. Every summer, the orchestra gives free performances at parks throughout Queens. And, dedicated to fostering music appreciation in all of Queens’ multicultural communities, the Orchestra is teaching elementary school students through its Arts-In-Education Program, which culminates each year with QSO’s Young People’s Concerts. Overall, the Orchestra presents 15 to 20 performances each year to an estimated 50,000 Queens residents.

It isn’t cheap. Combining classical music with more modern forms of entertainment, or what some purists call pop-ization, helps raise demand. For its Halloween performance, the Orchestra will host a children’s costume competition and play music from Star Wars. “It’s really good-fun classical orchestra music for the whole family,” said Executive Director Lynda Herndon. It’s luring audiences to the “Peter and the Wolf” concert with a promise of a surprise celebrity narrator. The February performance will include dancers performing waltzes, polkas and “a tango or two.”

Up to 80 musicians play at every orchestra’s performance.

But even selling out the 875-seat hall for its Masterworks concerts at the maximum of $25 a ticket does not cover the $30,000 to $75,000 cost. “Ticket sales are not what keeps us afloat,” said Herndon. “We seek corporate sponsorship and foundation support.” One source of help comes from public support from the New York Council on the Arts, the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts, and the city and state assemblies. It probably helps that the City Council has at least one person who grew up appreciating classical music – Councilwoman Melinda Katz, David Katz’s daughter, who collaborated with Herndon, QSO President Herbert M. Chain and Conductor Arthur Fagen in starting a corporate and private sponsorship program.

The QSO will need the extra help if it is to realize its lofty ambitions. This year its Art-In-Education program will already reach 16,000 students, twice as many as last year, but QSO wants to expand its educational programs even further. In addition, it would like to offer free tickets for the Masterworks series to senior citizen centers, mental and social service community centers and to low and moderate income families, particularly children who otherwise do not have the opportunity to experience first-rate classical performances. But the results are on hand – the Peter and the Wolf performance features QSO’s very own, pianist Abba Bogin.

Performers take a bow during the annual Young People’s Concert.

This year the Orchestra bids farewell to music director and conductor Arthur Fagen, who’s held the post for 15 years. He is only the second director/conductor since founder David Katz, a rarity in the orchestra world. For those interested, the QSO is definitely looking. “We are currently in a music director search mode,” said Herndon.