We recently realized that Peoples’ Symphony Concerts has been bringing the joy of great music to folks of modest means for more than half the life of this country!

As PSC is about to celebrate its’ 125th season of providing the best music at affordable prices to music-lovers on a limited budget, we continue to find all sorts of fascinating stories in our history, that we’ll share with you as part of our PSC Storytelling series

110 years ago, one of our early stars was the first American violinist to receive international acclaim and be hailed as one of the greatest artists at the turn of the century- a young woman from Peru, Illinois, named Maud Powell.

A truly remarkable woman, she was an advocate for women, contemporary music and composers of color, commissioning a concerto from Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. She gave the U.S. premieres of the Tchaikovsky and Sibelius Concertos, which remain among the most popular violin concertos to this day!

Maud Powell is just one of many in PSC’s 125 year legacy of presenting many of the world’s greatest artists that continues to this day! See the a list of some of those great artists here!