The THSO Begins! (1926)
David Chapman | February 20, 2026 | history@thso.org
No orchestra is born on the day of its first concert, nor even at its first rehearsal. Orchestras emerge little by little from the dreams and hard work of many people over months and even years.
First known photograph of the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra, taken during a undated rehearsal at the Hippodrome Theatre on Ohio Boulevard (now the Scottish Rite building). It was published in the Terre Haute Tribune on December 5, 1926, the day after the orchestra performed its first concert in the Indiana Theatre. (This image came from the Vigo County Public Library’s microfilm collection, which resulted in the poor scan quality. If you have access to this photo in a better quality, please let us know at history@thso.org!)
The Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra has long considered 1926 to be its birth year, but its date of birth is much less clear. The entire year saw a rolling series of firsts for our orchestra, from its earliest weeks to its final month. The idea for a new orchestra came from members of the musicians’ union Local #25, then called the Terre Haute Musicians’ Protective Association. These first conversations likely took place in late 1925 or early 1926, since the Terre Haute Star reported on February 21, 1926, that plans were already underway for a “Terre Haute Orchestral Society.” The announcement directed interested parties to contact union musician Arthur Hill.
“Society Plans for Symphony Orchestra”
The mission of this new society was to serve both performers and audiences. Its primary aim would be to promote instrumental arts in Terre Haute and to provide opportunities for musicians from the city and the Indiana State Teacher’s College to play orchestral music together. Gifted students and amateurs would benefit from playing alongside experienced professionals. This new effort would also educate and grow the local listening audience for classical instrumental music. With an orchestra dedicated to the advancement of music culture and an audience edified by a little more “music appreciation,” Terre Haute’s citizens might take special pride in their hometown and recognize its worthiness as a city of note.
Portrait from the 1925 Indiana State Sycamore yearbook
After a call for musicians had been issued, the founders turned to the question of a conductor. They approached Indiana State music professor William H. Bryant about leading their new orchestra. Bryant had nearly thirty years of experience teaching music in public schools and leading bands and orchestras around central Indiana. (A biography for Bryant will appear on this blog in April.) Bryant seemed the perfect candidate to lead the city’s newest and most prestigious musical venture. The union’s inquiry paid off. Bryant’s name was first associated with the new orchestral society in a Terre Haute Star article dated March 7, 1926. Not only did he become an integral part of the fledgling ensemble’s formation, but he would also go on to serve as the orchestra’s conductor for the next twenty-three years!
“Orchestral Society Holds
First Meeting On Next Wednesday”
Weekly rehearsals began at the Indiana Theatre on the morning of Wednesday, March 24, 1926, and that same day the musicians elected organizational officers and a board of directors. Professor Bryant officially became the THSO’s inaugural director, Arthur Hill its first concertmaster, and Eugene Asbury its first librarian. In the week after this first meeting, several local newspapers noted the quality and energy of this first day of rehearsals, and the Terre Haute Star prophesied on March 28 that the new orchestra “forecasts the development of an extremely capable organization and one that seems destined to make Terre Haute musical history.”
Photograph of Indiana Theatre, published in Moving Picture World, March 18, 1922
At first the orchestra counted twenty-eight musicians among their members, with plans to expand to fifty or more. Rehearsals later moved from the Indiana Theatre to Indiana State’s Normal Hall, and later still to Professor Bryant’s and others’ homes, until the heat of summer began to set in. In July, rehearsals were suspended. Though the structure of the organization was now in place, they still had not performed publicly and did not yet have any plans to do so.
“Orchestra’s Showing Promises
Excellent Musical Ensemble”
That changed when the Terre Haute Woman’s Department Club approached Professor Bryant with a special opportunity. The club’s music section planned to hold a morning musicale and lunch banquet on its annual Guest Day on October 15, and they asked Bryant if he would arrange an ensemble concert for it. Bryant saw this as an opportunity to give the city’s new orchestra its debut. The summer break, however, had cost the ensemble some of its momentum from the previous spring and several of its members had moved away from Terre Haute to pursue other jobs, including founding member and first concertmaster Arthur Hill (Sr.).
Rehearsals resumed on October 6, 1926, and the Guest Day concert was postponed to December. The orchestra quickly expanded to forty-eight musicians, more than twenty of which were high-school and college students from nearby schools. Nearly half of its musicians and organizational leadership were women, a feat accomplished without any surprise or comment from the community. Marguerite Miller (née Kickler), a stalwart of the Terre Haute string community, replaced Hill as concertmaster. In an era when people still debated whether women should perform in orchestras, Terre Haute women simply did.
“Woman’s Department Club to Present New Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra”
The Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra’s first concert took place at the Indiana Theatre at 10:30 A.M. on Saturday, December 4, 1926. All 1,400 tickets sold out. The performance opened with Felix Mendelssohn’s Overture to Ruy Blas and the last two movements of Haydn’s Symphony no. 104, followed by an intermezzo by Louis Gregh and the “Bacchanale” from Glazunov’s The Seasons. After an intermission, the second half began with an opera aria (Meyerbeer’s “Shadow Song” from Dinorah) sung by Terre Haute’s own Alma Robertson, a local voice teacher and a soprano of considerable talent. Her performance was very well received and the Terre Haute Star later reported that the audience “applauded to the echo,” demanding an encore from her before the orchestra could proceed with the rest of their program. Unfortunately, there is no known record of what she sang for her encore.
Photograph of soprano Alma Robertson, published in Terre Haute Star, November 28, 1926
Grieg’s colorful Peer Gynt Suite no. 2 filled out the second half and the concert closed with a rollicking march and processional from Gounod’s Queen of Sheba. It is unclear what the final ovation was like, but we might speculate that it was very enthusiastic: the Saturday Spectator later reported that the inaugural performance of Terre Haute’s new symphony orchestra had been “exceedingly successful.” The day after the concert, the Terre Haute Tribune published the ensemble’s first photograph, seen at the top of this post.
“T.H. Symphony Group Pleases Large Audience”
It took nearly a year from concept to launch, but by the end of 1926, Terre Haute had a new symphony orchestra.
The Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra has much to celebrate in 2026. As our centennial year begins, we reflect on those efforts by local musicians to form the organization and recruit new members and leaders, first announced on February 21. Then, on March 24, we remember their first rehearsal and election of officers, when the founding musicians began to act collectively as an organization. In October, we will note the moment that the organization reconvened to begin rehearsals for its first concert. And finally, on December 4, we will celebrate its public debut as Terre Haute’s largest and most elite music ensemble, a designation it still holds today.
“Destined to make Terre Haute musical history,” indeed!
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Sources on the founding:
“Society Plans for Symphony Orchestra,” Terre Haute Star, February 21, 1926, page 19.
“Orchestral Society Arouses Interest Far Out of City,” Terre Haute Star, March 7, 1926, page 12.
“Music Box,” Terre Haute Saturday Spectator, March 13, 1926, page 39.
“Orchestral Society Holds First Meeting on Next Wednesday,” Terre Haute Star, March 21, 1926, page 22.
“Orchestra’s Showing Promises Excellent Musical Ensemble,” Terre Haute Star, March 28, 1926, page 12.
“Terre Haute Symphony,” Terre Haute Saturday Spectator, April 3, 1926, page 16.
“Terre Haute Has Symphony Orchestra,” Pantagraph [Bloomington, Illinois], April 17, 1926, page 18.
“Orchestra Planned for Terre Haute,'“ Press-Telegram [Long Beach, California], April 25, 1926, page 18.
Sources on the first concert:
“Department Club,” Terre Haute Spectator, October 9, 1926, page 46.
“Music Box,” Terre Haute Saturday Spectator, November 20, 1926, page 22.
“Department Club,” Terre Haute Saturday Spectator, November 27, 1926, pages 5 and 45.
“Woman’s Department Club to Present New Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra,” Terre Haute Star, November 28, 1926, page 8.
“Civic Symphony Orchestra Will Play Saturday,” Terre Haute Star, December 3, 1926, page 8.
“Music Box,” Terre Haute Saturday Spectator, December 4, 1926, 29, page 31; and “Department Club,” page 41.
“Woman’s Club Music Section Will Entertain,” Terre Haute Star, December 4, 1926, page 7.
Nora Ball Ragsdale, “T.H. Symphony Group Pleases Large Audience,” Terre Haute Star, December 5, 1926, page 12.
Anna Bowles Wiley, “What Women Are Doing,” Terre Haute Tribune, December 5, 1926, page 6.
“Music Box,” Terre Haute Saturday Spectator, December 11, 1926, page 52.