Led by Jeffery Meyer, the ASU Symphony Orchestra performs challenging and diverse repertoire chosen to help emerging professional musicians develop a wide range of skills and aptitudes. Rich concert programming offers audiences and the greater arts community opportunities to engage with major works of the orchestral canon as well as cutting-edge works of our time. Exploring the full creative range of the contemporary symphony orchestra, the ASUSO seeks to perform canonical works with technical excellence and artistry while also pushing musical boundaries through innovative multi-disciplinary collaborations.

The ASU Symphony Orchestra aims to extend student learning through rich interactions with professional artists. ASU faculty are closely involved with their students’ orchestral experience and regularly lead orchestral sectionals. The ASU orchestras also maintain a vibrant relationship with the Phoenix Symphony with frequent guest artist visits in both sectional rehearsals and side-by-side rehearsal contexts.

Guest artists have included renowned faculty performers and other celebrated professional collaborators including:

Violinists Glenn Dicterow, Szymon Goldberg, Dylana Jenson, Ani Kavafian and Edvard Melkus
Cellists Colin Carr, Stephen Kates and Lazlo-Varga
Pianists André Watts, Ursula Oppens, Jeffrey Siegel, Victor Borge
Guitarist Manuel Lopez Ramos
Singers Faye Robinson, Anna Christy, Isola Jones
Conductors Carl St.Clair, Tito Muñoz, Lukas Foss, Vincent Persichetti
Composers Joan Tower, Phillip Glass and Gunther Schuller, PDQ Bach

The German Requiem is a sacred but non-liturgical composition by Johannes Brahms, for chorus, orchestra, and a soprano and a baritone soloist. It has seven movements.