From newspaper ad to diamond anniversary, Georgia Symphony Orchestra celebrates 75 years of music

Caption

Georgia Symphony Orchestra executive director Suzanne Tucker (right) visits the GPB studios for an interview with GPB classical music host Sarah Zaslaw (left).

Credit: Kristi York Wooten / GPB News

75 years. That is how far back the Georgia Symphony Orchestra traces its roots. The group was born in 1951 as the Marietta Music Club and now, three-quarters of a century and a couple of name changes later, it's still rooted in Marietta, Ga., and going strong. Today, it's a regional orchestra with programs that reach well beyond Cobb County. GPB's classical music host Sarah Zaslaw brought executive director Suzanne Tucker into the studio to talk about the organization's past, present and future. Below are excerpts from the conversation
 

TRANSCRIPT

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Sarah Zaslaw: Welcome! 

Suzanne Tucker: Thank you so much, so glad to be here. 

Sarah Zaslaw:  So wow, 75 years of enriching the community and just keeping an arts organization afloat. What is the secret sauce to this longevity of the Georgia Symphony Orchestra? 

Suzanne Tucker: Oh, wow. Community. Community is the connection. It's the through line all along. We've had, I think with every nonprofit organization, arts organization, it's heroes along the way who have said, "I really care about this and I'm going to do what's necessary to pull it through." But yeah, community has always been there behind us. 

Sarah Zaslaw:  The Georgia Symphony started as a community orchestra, but these days it's an interesting mix of both professional musicians who are union members and get paid each time they play, and then volunteer musicians from the area — who also have to pass auditions and play well, right? What fraction of the group is which? 

Suzanne Tucker: At this point, we're about 70% to 75% professional, and then the rest are talented amateurs who audition into the group. 

Sarah Zaslaw:  Hmm. How many total? 

Suzanne Tucker: It depends on the programming. So generally around 65 to 75 members on the stage. 

Sarah Zaslaw:  And where all do they come from? 

Suzanne Tucker: Oh, they come from all around, but we are very proud. We call ourselves "world-class, but homegrown." We have a lot of local musicians from around the Atlanta — metro Atlanta area. And then right there in Marietta, Ga., and Cobb County for us. So all around. 

Sarah Zaslaw: When you mention the Georgia Symphony Orchestra, do people ever confuse it with the full-time, only slightly older orchestra down the road, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, or with other groups? 

Suzanne Tucker: All the time. 

Sarah Zaslaw: So what do you say? 

Suzanne Tucker: Well, you know, they are a — they're a global phenomenon, right? I mean, they're the big dog in town, and of course — and we love them, and they're beautiful. And they're actually great with us, we're going to be doing our final concert of the season in [Symphony] Hall. So you just admire what they have built. People do find it confusing. The Georgia Symphony Orchestra has the name, the state name, and so it is very confusing to people. We just try to help them understand that we're a regional orchestra. Our mission's different. 

Sarah Zaslaw: The Georgia Symphony has grown into much more than just an orchestra. Under your umbrella are also a large volunteer chorus, a jazz ensemble, and a huge youth program: the Georgia Youth Symphony Orchestra, G-Y-S-O, which I guess is celebrating its own milestone, right? 20th anniversary? 

Suzanne Tucker: That is correct. 

Sarah Zaslaw: In 2026. It has grown, apparently, into the largest youth orchestra program in the Southeast, encompassing five orchestras — I can't believe it — five orchestras and a jazz ensemble, a percussion ensemble, chamber ensembles. So how many young players are involved in this? 

Suzanne Tucker: Right now we have about 300 students and we're actually in the middle of auditions now trying to pick up some additional wind and brass players now that marching band season is over. We like to pick up our talented kids whenever we can get them. 

Sarah Zaslaw:  Suzanne Tucker, you have degrees in music education yourself. You taught in public schools, and you headed a church music program. How does that background help you in this role as executive director of the Georgia Symphony Orchestra? 

Suzanne Tucker:  It's been really interesting. For most of my career, I was on the creative side of music making. So whether that was teaching or in my church, I was the one who was choosing the music and directing the groups. I still conduct a small choir in my church. So when I became part of the Georgia Symphony Orchestra, my role switched and I became the administrative side, the fundraising side, the patron management side. All of that is under my purview. And so it was a really interesting — I like to say that in that Venn diagram, those circles do not directly overlap. I had to definitely learn some new skills on that executive side, but it's been really interesting and challenging. In an organization like the GSO who does have such strong community support and such a legacy, it's been a real delight to walk into it and meet all of those people who care so much about it and learn from them. And it's an organization that it was very easy to walk in and care about immediately. It's a — its story is such an interesting one, how it was birthed and how it grew. And now the organization is — it cares so much about its mission to serve the community. 

Sarah Zaslaw: You talk about its birth and development. What do you mean? You want to tell us about that? 

Suzanne Tucker: Sure! Yes, well as you referred to it was born as the music, Marietta Music Club and at the time — it was actually born in the '40s. We should be celebrating a much later anniversary than we are; the symphony was born in '51, but the music club was in existence in the '40s.

Sarah Zaslaw: Ah, OK.

Caption

Internationally acclaimed soprano from Atlanta, Indra Thomas, performs with the Georgia Symphony Orchestra on Oct. 25, 2025.

Credit: Georgia Symphony Orchestra

Suzanne Tucker: And it was born for women who wanted to gather and be educated in the arts. And not exactly in performing arts. They would invite professors in to lecture to them or performers to come and recital. So it was much more about the academic side of music. And through the years, they decided they wanted to add an instrumental element to what they were doing. They wanted to — One of the — Irma Miller was one of the organizers at the time, and she wanted to have a group for fiddling hymns in her living room. And so she put an advertisement in the Marietta Daily Journal for instrumentalists. But they, uh, it was kind of a typo: They put in that she was looking for a symphony. And so all of a sudden instrumentalists from all over the place started phoning her and saying, "When is the symphony rehearsal? Where would they perform? When can we, how can we be a part of this?" 

And so the symphony was kind of accidentally born by this typo in the newspaper because all of the sudden instrumentalists started coming. And it did not take very long at all before they needed a conductor. So they started looking for one. They had a man named Don Everett for a little while but very quickly the quality of the organization, the quality of the musical group kind of outgrew his skills and so they needed someone else. And there was a young woman named Betty Shipman Bennett who played flute in the organization, and she had musical training. And so they came to Betty and they were like, "We need you to direct." And she did and for the next 40 years, she led the organization through an incredible time of growth. From the Marietta Music Club, it became the Marietta Community Symphony and then the Cobb Symphony Orchestra, and then finally the Georgia Symphony Orchestra. So it's just a really interesting story how it just snowballed. 

They cared about children's programming and family programming right from the beginning. She had a series of concerts called the Lollipops Concerts that she did for kids. So to me what is really interesting is the DNA of the organization is very true to itself. 

Sarah Zaslaw: The current music director, Timothy Verville, has been there for about 10 years now, going on his 10th season, and has started various initiatives with the orchestra in his time here. Tell me about the sensory-friendly concerts. Who does that serve, and what are those concerts like? 

Suzanne Tucker:  Our sensory-friendly concerts are one of our favorite things that we do. And about 10 years ago, there was a family who attended. The mother had two twin autistic boys, and they came to one of our holiday pops concerts and she struck up a conversation with Susan Stensland, who was the executive director at the time and said, "My boys love music; how can we make this an easier experience for them?" And so that was kind of the genesis of our sensory-friendly concerts. Tim Verville was there at the time and starting as the director. And so they started working with various community autism groups to find out what would it take to make a classical music concert sensory-friendly — so, friendly for whether you're on the autism spectrum or you have some other type of sensory sensitivity that makes a public event, a concert experience, something that is maybe not comfortable for you or the unexpected. So we worked with the community organizations and what we came out of that was just a dialog with them. 

And so what we do is we offer concerts that are about 45 to 50 minutes in length. We have accommodations such as we leave the lights at kind of an intermediate level so that it's not too dark, it's no too bright. The volume of the music we keep in kind of  an expected level. We prepare them in advance. We say, "This song's gonna be a little louder." So, you know, be forewarned, you know. We also just set up an environment where it's comfortable for them if they want to vocalize, if they want to move, if they want to dance, if they want to clap in the middle of the song, all of it's OK. Everything's OK. We just create a — an environment that's comfortable. We also have a quiet room, so that if you need to escape the crowds or the noise or whatever else, you've got a place where you can go and kind of regather yourself. We partner with another nonprofit called Notes of Impact to provide an instrument petting zoo, so that the people can go out and make their own music, get their hands on things. So it's really all about keeping an open dialog with the people that you're serving and finding out what they want and then trying to see how we can accommodate that as an orchestra. 

Sarah Zaslaw: Do these sensory-friendly concerts have a big following? Who shows up? 

Suzanne Tucker: Yes, they do have a big following. So, we just had one two weeks ago. We had our first one of the seasons and we had about, oh goodness, around 300 people there. So a nice turnout for it. They come from all over. So it does have a reputation as a quality program that really serves the population it's meant to serve. So people will drive for it and they come from all over the metro Atlanta area. 

Sarah Zaslaw:  So there's a lot going on at the Georgia Symphony — but anchoring each season are still the performances by the Georgia Symphony Orchestra itself. And the 75th anniversary season kicks off this Saturday in Kennesaw with the program "Drama and Destiny: Opera meets Broadway." Tell us about the guest star soprano and what's on the program. 

Suzanne Tucker:  Absolutely. This is going to be a really exciting way to kick off our season, some dramatic music. So we are bringing in world-renowned opera singer Indra Thomas, who is also an Atlanta native. So we're very excited. She just has a beautiful voice and such a light from the stage. I know everyone's really going to enjoy her performance. We're doing highlights from Aida and Wicked and Porgy and Bess, and just some real hits of the opera and Broadway stage, so it's going to be a fun concert. 

Sarah Zaslaw: And then other highlights ahead on the Georgia Symphony's Diamond anniversary season?

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The Marietta Daily Journal published a special insert to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Georgia Symphony Orchestra.

Credit: Kristi York Wooten / GPB

Suzanne Tucker: Absolutely. We have so much we're offering. We're offering a brand new chamber concert series that will be held in historic sites in Marietta. The first one will be at Lawrence Chapel, which is an old Civil War-era chapel at St. James Episcopal Church. And then we'll also have a concert at Zion Heritage Museum that will feature —called "Celebrating Black Voices." So it's gonna be African American classical composers that will be featured in January. Additionally, we're going to have a concert called "Big Band and Beyond" where we combine our GSO Jazz group with our orchestra and do Charlie Parker with strings and a lot of other fun band- and jazz-influenced music. 

Sarah Zaslaw: And then tell me about this grand finale with a cast of hundreds. 

Suzanne Tucker: Yes, absolutely. It is truly a grand finale. We're coming to the only stage big enough to hold it, which is at Woodruff Arts Center, and for that we will be combining our top-level youth symphony orchestra with our GSO, doing what we call a side-by-side concert. So the students will be interspersed among the professional players. So we'll have about 200 musicians on stage, and they will be doing sections of "The Planets." Additionally, we're going to have what we call kind of a festival chorus. So our chorus is about 120 members right now, all amateur from the Marietta and Cobb County area. We will be combining with some of our partners through the years, such as the Uzee Brown Society of Choraliers, Morehouse, Spelman, KSU, to have about 200 singers on stage as well. And we'll be doing sections from Mahler's Second Symphony. 

Sarah Zaslaw: The Resurrection Symphony. Holst's "Planets" and Mahler's "Resurrection Symphony" — that is ambitious repertoire. 

Suzanne Tucker:  Big time, big time, so —

Sarah Zaslaw: So sounds like 400 people on stage at Symphony Hall and that's coming up May 23 of next spring, "GSO 75: A Musical Celebration." 

Suzanne Tucker:  Absolutely.

Sarah Zaslaw: Plus you've got your pops series, chorus concerts, jazz, and the youth orchestra programs. So always a lot going on at the Georgia Symphony Orchestra 

Suzanne Tucker:  Always a lot going on and something for everybody. 

Sarah Zaslaw:  Looking to the horizon, what are your hopes and dreams for the Georgia Symphony for, if not the next 75 years, then maybe the next five or 10 years? 

Suzanne Tucker:  Absolutely. Well we want to continue on the trajectory we are now. We want to continue to find more students who want to be part of that program. We think that our youth symphony program offers so much more than just music. It's connection, it's creativity, it is collaboration. So we know how much students gain from that. We wanted to expand our sensory and family programming and make sure that we've are filling those seats with people who need that kind of connection. And for the symphony, we just want to continue to be able to offer innovative programming that connects with our community. 

Sarah Zaslaw: The Georgia Symphony Orchestra and Indra Thomas graced the stage this Saturday at KSU's Bailey Performance Center. Details and tickets at georgiasymphony.org. Executive Director Suzanne Tucker, thank you so much for taking time to chat during a busy concert week. 

Suzanne Tucker: Thank you for having me. I enjoyed it. 

Sarah Zaslaw:  And congratulations on 75 years of the Georgia Symphony. For GPB, I'm Sarah Zaslaw.