City of Kyoto Symphony Orchestra

The City of Kyoto Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1956 under the management of Kyoto City Government to create a new culture in the city. It had a period of intense rehearsal led by Carl Caelus the first Chief Conductor. With singers from Nikikai, it performed Mozart Opera Series throughout Japan in 1959 and won numerous prizes. At that time, the orchestra with only 40 musicians was known by its superb performance of Mozart's works. Today CKSO performs about 100 concerts a year including 11 subscription concerts, special concerts, community concerts, and student concerts. It won the special contribution award of the 25th Kyoto-fu Bunka-sho (Kyoto Prefectural Culture Awards) in January 2007 as recognition of its positive activities like instrument training workshop for young students, charity concerts at welfare facilities, and support as a music coach for Kyoto Junior Orchestra which was founded in 2005.