The Des Moines Symphony Orchestra is one of Iowa’s and the Midwest’s premiere arts institutions. The mission of the Des Moines Symphony Association is to enrich, educate and inspire our community by performing great orchestral music.
Led by Music Director Joseph Giunta since 1989, the Orchestra has established an outstanding national reputation as one of the country’s leading regional orchestras, performing a regular series of Masterworks, Pops, Family, and Education Concerts, as well as performing for special events. With the establishment in 2003 of the Des Moines Symphony Academy, the organization is one of only four American orchestras to sponsor an Academy of Music as an integral part of its core mission and the Symphony & Academy together are now the largest employer of professional artists in Iowa.
The Symphony is the principal resident company of the acoustically acclaimed, 2,662 seat Des Moines Civic Center. Performances there on its regular season of seven pairs of Masterworks concerts have included the major works of the orchestral repertoire and collaborations with some of the music world’s most prominent soloists and artists.
Under the leadership of Joseph Giunta, the Orchestra has offered a well-received, highly creative and diverse mix of programming and has commissioned and given the world premieres of 23 new works over the last 27 years, including the groundbreaking work, Symphony In Sculpture, a 30-minute work inspired by the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park. In August 2016, the Des Moines Symphony accepted an invitation by the State Fair Blue Ribbon Foundation to perform Peter Hamlin’s Symphony on a Stick on the opening night of the 2016 Iowa State Fair — the very event which had inspired its commission by the Symphony in 2015. The Symphony and Joseph Giunta together received the League of American Orchestras prestigious ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming in recognition of their commitment to contemporary music.
The organization also produces a summertime Water Works Pops series as well as the Des Moines Symphony’s annual Yankee Doodle Pops concert in July on the grounds of the Iowa State Capitol which attracts more than 100,000, the largest single-day attendance of any concert event in the State.
All of the Orchestra’s Masterworks programs are broadcast statewide on IPR Classical, the radio home of the Des Moines Symphony.
