Marshall Symphony Orchestra

05/15/2026

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The 50th Anniversary season is almost here! Begins June 14 (flag day) at Holy Cross Episcopal. As always - a FREE concert! Come join us.

05/06/2026

A fun morning at Marshall High School as some of our quartet players performed for students today. Pieces spanned from Mozart to Taylor Swift! Cello player, Brett Andrews led students through the musicality and patterns and styles of each of the pieces in fun and engaging ways.

We are thrilled to be creating opportunities to showcase symphonic music and music education in our local public schools and have exciting things planned for the 2026-27 school year! We are so grateful for the cooperation and partnership of our Marshall Independent School District in our mission of spreading music appreciation and education to all ages, but especially to the students in our community.

04/24/2026

Be sure to tune into Red River Radio today at 12:06pm to relive the beauty of the MSO’s season finale Kermit Poling’s The Angels Gathered! You can listen on the radio or stream it online!

Check out redriverradio.org to stream and for more information about programming and Regional Symphony Broadcasts!

04/09/2026

Thank you for the feature, Marshall News Messenger! Our season finale concert was one to remember!

The Marshall Symphony Orchestra recently ended its season with a collaborative concert commemorating Shreveport’s yellow fever epidemic of 1873. Closing the season with a performance at the East Texas Baptist […]

04/08/2026

Join the Marshall Symphony League for yet another fun way to support the MSO!

🪩 The Marshall Symphony League is turning back the clock for a Disco Bunco Night you won’t want to miss!

✨ Thursday, April 23
📍 Marshall Convention Center
🕡 6:30 PM

Break out your best disco threads or dress as your favorite 70s icon and get ready for a night of:
🎲 Bunco fun
🎟️ Raffles & door prizes
🎶 Music from DJ Miriam Black
🍽️ Dinner by Jose Tequila’s (BYOB!)

Grab your friends and hit the dance floor—it’s going to be a groovy night for a great cause! 💃

🎟️ $25 — Scan the QR code, purchase from a Symphony League member, or buy tickets at the door!

03/27/2026

Do you love the MSO? Leave us a review and some stars and help us reach more people with the gift of live symphonic music, right here in Marshall, Harrison County and East Texas!

03/26/2026

A huge thanks to Christus Health for partnering with the MSO to help sponsor our season finale concert this past weekend: Kermit Poling's Symphony #2 The Angels Gathered. Your sponsorship helped make this concert possible and to keep the symphonic tradition alive in Marshall, Texas!

03/25/2026

The MSO 2025-2026 Season was dedicated to Leonard " Lenny" Kacenjar.

Maestro Leonard “Lenny” Kacenjar, born in Lakewood, Ohio, began to play the violin at age 8 and graduated from Lakewood High School in 1960. He attended the Cleveland Institute of Music, and subsequently graduated (1960-1966) from The Juilliard School of Music in New York. He obtained his master’s degree in 1968 from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Lenny attended the Aspen Music Festival for 15 years beginning in 1966 where he studied with Sydney Harth. He was a Full Faculty Member for four years at Southeastern Louisiana University (1968-1971) in Hammond, Louisiana. Upon moving to Shreveport in 1971, he served as concertmaster of the Shreveport Symphony for seven seasons. He also taught violin at Centenary College.

In 1976, Lenny began conducting the MARSHALL SYMPHONY and did so for 39 years, retiring in 2015. If it were not for Lenny’s talent, persistence and the ability to make beautiful music while simultaneously exciting everyone that played a part in the making, the Marshall Symphony would not exist today. He spent his entire life sharing his gift of music and had an admirable enthusiasm for life. Lenny loved gardening and fi shing as well, but his greatest enthusiasm was in the creation of the SHREVEPORT SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL for which he served as Artistic Director for forty-eight seasons. His other great passion was teaching. He loved young people and worked until his passing with “PROJECT STRING POWER” and his beloved “SUPER GROUP” which he carried to Europe and throughout the United States on tour.

Lenny was so proud of his children, Rebecca Noel Dosé and Leonard “Leo” Anthony Kacenjar II, and his grandchildren, Rachel Kelly and Logan Kelly. He was blessed by his relationship with his life-long friend and former wife Mary Kacenjar. Lenny was loved by so many people throughout the Marshall, Carthage and Shreveport area. His beautiful violin playing and his deeply spiritual nature was admired by many. Lenny was loving, kind and patient, all attributes we should strive to have. Th e Marshall Symphony remained important to Lenny, and we are blessed that our fi nal concert of the season will be a concert that Lenny requested the Marshall Symphony to perform. Lenny commissioned Kermit Poling to compose “The Angels Gathered,” which is the remarkable story of five priests who gave their lives for strangers in the 1873 Yellow Fever Epidemic. Maestro Kermit Poling composed the symphony with soloists and chorus to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Yellow Fever Epidemic and the fi ve Catholic Martyrs who gave their lives to help the city of Shreveport at that time. It is fitting that this concert and The Marshall Symphony 2025-2026 Season is dedicated to our former Maestro, Friend and our own Angel, Leonard Kacenjar.

03/24/2026

Every concert you attend has so much behind the scenes support! The Marshall Symphony League provides dinners for our orchestra during their rehearsals at every single concert! And hosted our reception following our last concert as well.

The Marshall Symphony Jr. League members help greet our concert goers and hand out programs and are always a welcoming and cheerful presence!

We are so incredibly grateful for their support and hard work! For helping to, literally and figuratively, fuel so much of the work that the Symphony does! Our heartfelt thanks!!

03/24/2026

The MSO's season finale concert Kermit Poling's Symphony #2 The Angels Gathered was an incredible performance! We are immensely grateful to all of the talented musicians, choirs, and vocalists who made the Texas premier of Kermit's symphony such a success! It will be a concert that lives on in our memories for a long time!

And to our incredible audience, whether this was your first MSO concert or you are a seasoned patron, thank you for helping make this concert such a success and for supporting the symphonic tradition in Marshall!



Photo credits: M. Altnau