San Bernardino Symphony

Established in 1929, the San Bernardino Symphony provides the Inland Empire with world-class fine arts experiences close to home.

The Symphony’s Fund supports activities and programs that uphold their mission to foster a love of music, excite the spirit, and enrich our diverse community and region through live orchestral performances and music education. Specifically, the fund supports equitable access, arts education and exposure, and creative repertoire presented by professional musicians and performed in local historic venues.

Equitable access to the arts is enabled region-wide through numerous community outreach partnerships. Under the baton of Maestro Anthony Parnther, the Symphony seeks to grow its diverse orchestra with the dual goals of musical excellence and regional representation. In 2022, the Symphony hopes to establish several endowed chairs for young musicians.

Arts education and exposure are supported through:

• Annual Free Concerts for the Schools benefiting over 3,000 local students
• Music in the Schools, the Symphony’s instrument education program serving every third-grade class in the San Bernardino City Unified School District
• Maestro in the Schools, the Symphony’s masterclass series for intermediate and advanced high school musicians
• Classroom to Concert Hall which celebrates student achievement with concert tickets distributed through local schools. School-selected students receive tickets in desired quantities allowing their families to share in an evening of recognition and beautiful music.  
• Symphony Debs and Red Ties, the Symphony’s certificated teen ambassador program

To ensure a wide variety of quality music is available to the community, funds also support performances of works by an array of composers from Classical icons to emerging and underrepresented musicians. The Symphony also plans to augment their subscription season with several jazz concerts and to hold an outdoors Independence Day Concert for the community. 

Contributions to the Fund can be targeted to a desired program or used for general operations based on the will of the donor. All gifts will benefit a region that, sadly, has been systematically neglected by both government and foundation funding. Using the universal language of music, the Symphony hopes to partner with donors to change the narrative about the Inland Empire while building pride of place and enhancing cultural literacy for all.