Alabama Symphony Orchestra

The Alabama Symphony Orchestra is the state’s full-time professional orchestra, based in Birmingham and performing most of its main season at the Alys Robinson Stephens Performing Arts Center on the University of Alabama at Birmingham campus on the Southside. Its concerts range from the great works of the classical repertoire to film scores, Broadway music and pop collaborations, and its musicians also play in smaller ensembles at venues across the city and around Alabama.

The orchestra traces its beginnings to April 1921, when a group of local musicians came together to play at the Birmingham Music Festival at the old Jefferson Theater. The first formal concert followed in 1933 at Phillips High School, and the Birmingham Symphony Association was organized that October with a modest budget for four concerts. The ensemble grew steadily through the following decades, launched children’s concerts and a youth orchestra in the 1940s, and later absorbed the Alabama Pops Orchestra in 1966 with help from a major Ford Foundation grant. A financial crisis in the 1990s nearly ended the organization, but it rebuilt under its current name and has since grown its endowment and its reach across the state.

The concert season is organized into several series. Masterworks concerts present the core symphonic repertoire alongside newer compositions, reflecting a long commitment to contemporary American music that has earned the orchestra national recognition, including the ASCAP John S. Edwards Award and an invitation to perform at Carnegie Hall. The SuperPOPS! series covers pop songs, Broadway selections and live orchestra film screenings, while Coffee Concerts offer shorter daytime programs. Chamber performances in smaller Birmingham venues add variety through the year.

Some of the orchestra’s most popular events are free and outdoors. The season traditionally opens with Symphony in the Gardens at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens in September and closes with Symphony in the Summer, three nights of free music at Railroad Park over Memorial Day weekend. Tunes on Tap brings small groups of musicians to breweries around the metro area, and Music Meets Medicine sends chamber performances into local hospitals for patients and health care workers.

Education is a major part of the mission. The orchestra’s school programs provide standards-based concerts, lesson plans, streamed performances and classroom visits, reaching tens of thousands of students across dozens of Alabama counties each year. The Alabama Symphony Youth Orchestra trains talented young players from around the region, and field trip concerts introduce many students to a live orchestra for the first time.

The Alabama Symphony Orchestra performs on a concert schedule rather than keeping daily public hours. Tickets for individual concerts and subscriptions are sold through the orchestra’s website, which also lists discounts, group options and what to expect at a performance. Most Masterworks and SuperPOPS! concerts take place at the Alys Stephens Center, where parking is available in nearby UAB lots, while free community concerts are held at outdoor venues around Birmingham. Questions about tickets can go to the orchestra’s patron experience staff by phone.