Virginia Symphony Orchestra

The VSO aims to entertain, educate, and inspire the residents and visitors of our area through high quality orchestral music performances, education programs, and community engagement initiatives. Our myriad programs and performances are designed to actively engage a broad audience of students, adults, and lifelong learners throughout our region.

In order to accomplish these goals, the VSO is committed to fostering long-standing relationships with audiences, artists, donors, volunteers, community and business partners based on the following values: excellence and quality, accessibility and community service, financial integrity and sustainability, diversity and inclusiveness, cooperativeness and flexibility, openness and transparency, and perseverance and tenacity. The VSO's new strategic plan emphasizes the importance of establishing a strong base of local support and reaching out to a broader, more diverse community through a variety of different programs.

The VSO has a thriving network of support throughout the Hampton Roads community, including many local business partners, regular patrons, partners in education, community volunteers, and more. To strengthen existing relationships and develop new partnerships, the VSO employs an active full-time staff of 19 non-profit professionals and a 26-member Board of Directors, including local business leaders, educators, and community volunteers. Our well-established network of partners throughout 11 districts in Southeast Virginia help us to decide which on programs and to what audience the VSO should be focusing our efforts. In addition, the VSO enjoys the support of more than 500 volunteers throughout our community, who contribute more than 14,000 hours a year towards helping us reach our goals.

In recent years, the VSO has made great strides towards achieving fiscal stability. By cutting costs in every department and increasing revenues through increased marketing efforts, the VSO has been taking the necessary steps towards eliminating our debt and reaching a healthy financial future. Despite our progress, the VSO has a long way to go to accomplish the goal of financial stability.

The VSO has also greatly improved the quantity and quality of our Education and Community Engagement programs. This accomplishment has been the result of hard work from our partners in education, musicians, and administrative staff. In future years, the VSO aims to expand current our Education and Community Engagement programs to reach more students and lifelong learners beyond Hampton Roads.