PACO History

PACO Through The Years

1966 was quite a year: Ronald Reagan was elected governor of California, gas was 32 cents a gallon, Star Trek premiered on television, and in the living room of William Whitson, a well-known teacher and avid chamber musician, the seeds of the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra were sown.     

At PACO, budding string players could make music in a small ensemble setting where cooperation was essential, listening skills were honed, and each voice played an important part.  Taking root in our fertile musical community, PACO blossomed over the decades, now an internationally lauded collective of five strings-only chamber orchestras, drawing exceptional young musicians grades 3 through 12 from every corner of the Bay Area to our SuperStrings, Preparatory, Debut, Sinfonia, and Senior PACO ensembles.       

William Whitson led PACO until 2002, when violist and conductor Benjamin Simon became the second Music Director in PACO’s history. Then in 2023, Scott Krijnen was appointed Music Director. 

Originally, the orchestras concentrated on Baroque music. Now, PACO performs masterworks for string orchestra from all periods, as well as major concertos and symphonies. Within the organization’s current five levels, training continues to focus entirely on strings, with each orchestra maintaining an average of 25 members. Experienced wind, brass and percussion guest musicians are added when required by the repertoire.    

In 2026 PACO will be celebrating its 60th anniversary which will include a series of events focusing on the PACO of today and yesterday. 

William Whitson, 1966-2002

William Whitson -- founder, conductor, and music director of the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra for its first thirty-seven years -- was also a respected violinist and teacher. He studied with the late Boris Sirpo of Portland, Naoum Blinder of San Francisco and Louis Persinger of New York, and developed his chamber music repertoire and style under the influence of the late Adolph Baller. In addition to conducting, he coached and taught a full private studio in Palo Alto.   

Mr. Whitson established and was violinist of several chamber ensembles beginning as early as high school. His first chamber orchestra with adult musicians premiered in Palo Alto, August 1959. During military service, Mr. Whitson headed the string section of the U.S. Army Continental Command Band, performed in numerous orchestras and studied at The Julliard School of Music. As founder and violinist of the Whitson, Bell’ Arte and Nohant Trios, he performed throughout the U.S., Canada and the West Indies.   

In 1966, Mr. Whitson founded the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, and the following year initiated the Palo Alto Twilight Concerts, an outdoor chamber music series that ran for 24 seasons. He conducted Junior and Training PACO orchestras in their own separate concert seasons. Dating back to 1980, a series of recordings, which he began, have professionally preserved many of PACO orchestras’ top quality performances. A Bach Celebration! founded by Mr. Whitson, premiered in 1985 as an annual chamber music series of Bach’s works which were performed by talented PACO musicians and graduates as well as guest artists.   

Mr. Whitson led the orchestra on numerous tours, both nationally and internationally, over the three and a half decades of his PACO career. He conducted PACO on twelve international tours to over fifteen countries on four continents. As an innovative musician and teacher, Mr. Whitson’s commitment to musical excellence and outstanding work with young musicians spanned 35 years. He received many awards and citations, the D.A.R. Medal of Honor, and personal congratulations from Itzhak Perlman, the U.S. Congress, and the President of the United States.

Related:

• PACO Albums & Concert Recordings - 1966 to 2001

• A Legacy of Music and Musicians - Palo Alto Online (1999)

• A Musical Philosopher - Palo Alto Online (2001)

Ben Simon, 2002-2023

Ben Simon successfully made the transition to conductor following twenty-five years as a violist performing in several of the United States’ most elite ensembles, including the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Naumburg Award-winning New World String Quartet, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. In 2002 he was appointed Music Director of the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra and has transformed that organization into one of the premiere professional ensembles in northern California. The same year, he was appointed Music Director of the award-winning youth orchestra Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra.   

A native of San Francisco, Mr. Simon began his musical studies on the violin at the age of 6. His first violin teacher was Manfred Karasik, a violist in the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Simon moved to New York City when he was 8 years old, continuing his studies at the Mannes College of Music, the Julliard School Preparatory Division, and the High School of Music and Art. Returning to the Bay Area in 1970, he was the concertmaster of the Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra under Denis DeCouteau and studied violin with Daniel Kobialka. He began his conducting studies with Dr. DeCouteau at the time. After graduating Berkeley High School in 1972, Simon delayed matriculation at Yale College and took his first professional work as last-stand second violinist with the Oakland Symphony, under Harold Faberman. He made the switch from violin to viola while an undergraduate at Yale, studying viola and chamber music with Raphael Hillyer. Simon continued his conducting studies with Otto-Werner Mueller at Yale and Denis Russel Davis at the Aspen Music Festival. After graduating Yale College magna cum laude in 1977, Simon was a scholarship student of Lillian Fuchs at the Julliard School, where he was awarded the Machlis Prize for “an outstanding instramentalist on the graduate level.”   

Following his graduation from Juilliard, Simon played with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for one year, and also participated in three of their successive international tours. Simon became Principal violist of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in 1980, a position he held for eight years. He was a frequent soloist with the orchestra, conducted small ensembles on occasion, and spent three summers at the Marlboro Music Festival. Simon was also featured in the 25th Anniversary Music from Marlboro concert in New York City, which included Murray Perahia and Felix Galimir. In 1988 he joined the Naumburg-Award winning New Word String Quartet, performing over eighty concerts a year in major venues and summer festivals in the United States, Europe, and Asia. The quartet recorded extensively for MCA Classics; they won a 1991 Grand Prix du Disque for their recording of the string quartets of Debussy, Ravel, and Henri Dutilleux. The New World SQ was quartet-in-residence at Harard University and performed with artists David Soyer, Raphael Hillyer, Ursula Oppens, Gilbert Kalish, Donald McInnes, Joel Krosnick, Harold Wright, David Shifrin, Carol Wincenc, Christopher O’Riley, John Perry, and James Tocco. Following four seasons with the New World SQ, Simon joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in 1992 and was an active studio musician in LA as well. He has performed on the sound tracks of over eighty major motion pictures. In 1993, Simon joined the Stanford String Quartet, the ensemble-in-residence at Stanford University, replacing Bernard Zaslav. For the next five years he taught viola and chamber music at Stanford, lectured on music in the Department of Continuing Studies, and concertized with the quartet. Simon was also Principal Violist of the New Century Chamber Orchestra for three seasons, 1994-’97.  

He taught at Harvard and Stanford Universities and has been a member of the music faculty at UC Berkeley since 1998. Although conducting takes the lion’s share of Ben’s time and energy, he can still be heard performing onstage at the SFCO’s Classical at the Freight and around the Bay Area with various friends and colleagues.

Related:

• Interview with Ben Simon - Insight (2012)