The mission of the Washington Symphony Orchestra is to ‘engage the community by providing accessible, quality musical performances that entertain, educate and inspire.’

To accomplish this, seasonal performances are designed to balance well-known, accessible works with more contemporary compositions. Our performances at Trinity High School provide a state-of-the-art concert hall experience. Our concerts emphasize the virtuosity of our performers and showcase popular local and regional guest artists. We seek to expand our audience through affordable, excellent concerts that expose them to familiar and diverse music.

The WSO encourages and educates young musicians through our annual Young Artist Competition, a juried event which provides a small award to an outstanding area high-school music student. A Young Vocalist Competition was added in 2019-2020. In addition, the WSO participates with several local educational institutions in our annual side-by-side concert (in which local high-school students play alongside an Orchestra member for a concert performance), and through collaboration with area colleges and universities.

WSO concerts are free to local public and privately-schooled music students.

We are proud that approximately half of our orchestra members are volunteers whose commitment to music and performing impels them to work long hours and study extraordinarily hard to deliver concerts of professional quality.

The Washington Symphony Orchestra has established itself as a regional leader in the performing arts since its founding in 2002. We appreciate the support of the individuals and organizations that have made our growth possible.