Our Story
“Why doesn’t Marquette have a symphony orchestra?”
Making music since 1996!
History
It was the mid-1990s. The summer Olympics were held in Atlanta, the first Nintendo 64 gaming console was released, the minimum wage was raised to $5.15, and Major League Soccer launched its first season in the US. At a music conference, Dr. Donald Grant, chair of the music department at Northern Michigan University, turned to Marquette violinist and music teacher Janis Shier (Norton) Peterson and asked, “Why doesn’t Marquette have a symphony orchestra?”
Why indeed? It was a powerful question with powerful implications, asked of the right person at the right place at the right time.
Instead of drifting off into thin air, the idea took hold. It galvanized an energetic group into action. Question succeeded in talking. Talk advanced to plans. Plans grew to an organization. By late 1996 they signed articles of incorporation, and the first board of directors was elected.
Over two dozen civic benefactors joined that first board. Edward Quinnell, Esq. was named president, with Richard Klahn, retired superintendent of the Marquette school system, serving as vice president. Community leader Yvonne Lee as treasurer, and Reatha Tweedie, Director of Arts and Culture for the City of Marquette, as secretary.
The list of local luminaries involved includes musicians, music enthusiasts, poets, media luminaries, consultants, civic leaders—all coming together in hopes of making their vision a reality.
They adopted a mission statement:
“The Marquette Symphony shall function in a collaborative effort with the public at large, the music educators of the Marquette Public Schools, and the Music Department of Northern Michigan University to provide and promote professional performances of orchestral music.”
They set a list of goals for their first season, including “Raise sufficient funds to meet our Budget,” “Involve and expose youth to a symphony,” and “Project the image that the Orchestra is ‘FOR EVERYONE.’”
Strategic Plan
At the end of each season, we send a survey to our community as part of our audience development efforts. We also survey our musicians yearly about the concluded season. In addition to four board members, the Artistic Advisory Committee includes three playing musicians who are not members of the Board. Their input has been critical in decisions about “cross-over” programming, free youth-programming and tickets and the presentation of the free summer chamber concerts.
2022-23 Season Annual Report
The Marquette Symphony Orchestra increased our yearly full-orchestra concerts from five to six.
"Quality means bringing to Marquette music, artists, live performances, and projects that enhance the lives of those in the community. Quality means giving access to beauty and doing so by bringing people together. Quality means being conscious of how the world around us is shaping and reacting to that. Quality means to give voice to those that have been historically underrepresented. We are committed to that quality, to do whatever is in our power to make this a better world."
— Octavio Más-Arocas, MSO Music Director
Public Radio 90, WNMU March 11, 2022
Our Story
The Marquette Symphony Orchestra’s mission is to create, provide, and promote professional performances of orchestral music through collaboration with residents and music educators of the central Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Five times a year, we offer exciting concerts—classical, pops, newly-commissioned works, old favorites, concerti, symphonies, and tone poems, and everything in between—to Upper Peninsula residents who come from as far as a hundred miles away. We also offer outreach concerts through the Besse Center in Escanaba.
In 2021-22 we celebrated our gala 25th anniversary season, a massive milestone to those who launched the organization with than faith, hope, and passion for good music.
Each year we employ dozens of area musicians, engage the interest of hundreds of area youth, and provide high-quality music to thousands of area patrons. We are a keystone of Marquette’s vibrant cultural life that makes it a mecca for area art-lovers and helps fuel the area’s tourist industry.
The MSO stands on three pillars: ticket sales, private donations, and foundation grants. We are grateful for assistance from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Option to Audit
MSO financial reports were not audited or reviewed by an independent accounting firm. The MSO maintains financial and other records that adequately show the use of the grant and sponsorship funds exclusively for their intended purpose. Grantors reserve the right to audit records associated with our projects during the grant period or subsequent two years. The MSO maintains its books and records so that the receipts and expenditures of grant funds will be shown separately from other funds in a form that can easily be checked and understood. The MSO keeps records of receipts and expenditures made with grant funds and copies of reports submitted to grantors and supporting documentation during the grant period and for the subsequent seven years. Any grant funds determined by a grantor used for purposes other than intending during an audit shall be returned.