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The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, under the artistic leadership of Music Director David Itkin, performs more than thirty concerts each year at Robinson Center Music Hall through the Stella Boyle Smith Masterworks Series, ACXIOM Pops LIVE! Series, and through special events such as The Masters and ACXIOM SuperPops! More than 250,000 Arkansans hear the orchestra each year through these programs, plus a busy schedule of touring and performances in numerous other venues throughout the state, including River Rhapsodies Chamber Music Series at the Great Hall of the Clinton Presidential Center Library.

Intricate to the ASO’s mission driven educational activities are three resident string quartets—the Quapaw Quartet, the Rockefeller Quartet, and the Sturgis Quartet—the ASO Arts Partners and the Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestras.

An impressive roster of distinguished guest artists that includes such luminaries as Itzhak Perlman, Van Cliburn, Yo-Yo Ma, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Maya Angelou, Al Jarreau, Bernadette Peters, Danny Glover, Aretha Franklin, James Earl Jones, Olivia Newton John, Alicia DeLarrocha, President William Jefferson Clinton, Michael Bolton, Martina McBride, Maureen McGovern, Natalie Cole, William Shatner, Liza Minnelli, Marvin Hamlisch, Lucie Arnaz, Robert Klein and Michael McDonald is another reflection of the ASO’s international reputation.

National audition tours and new recruitment initiatives enable the ASO to attract the finest and most well trained orchestral musicians to its ranks, upholding the ASO’s reputation for excellence.