Seattle Symphony Orchestra

The Seattle Symphony is an American orchestra that gave its first performance on 29 December 1903 and has been resident at Benaroya Hall since 1998, where it also accompanies Seattle Opera. Under Gerard Schwarz, named music director in 1985 and succeeded after the 2010–11 season, it became known for performing twentieth-century American composers and made more than 100 commercial recordings. His successor Ludovic Morlot commissioned and premiered John Luther Adams' Become Ocean, which won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music and a 2015 Grammy Award. In September 2024 the orchestra appointed Xian Zhang its next music director from the 2025–26 season — the first woman and the first conductor of colour in the post.