Richard Pennycuick wrote:

>Denis Fodor:
>
>>The U.S.  Army actually ran a symphony orchestra in Germany after
>>the war.  If memory serves, it was sustained well into the fifties.
>
>Was this the forerunner of what I first encountered as the Berlin RIAS
>Symphony Orchestra with Ferenc Fricsay conducting many of its records?

No.  There was an actual symphony orchestra under U.S.  Army auspices.  A
few years ago I heard a gentleman named Canarina, whose name I don't recall
hearing before or since being interviewed on public radio's "Fresh Air".
I believe he led an organization called the 7th Army Symphony after WWII.
Here's what I posted about his interview on another list at the time:

   Canarina was interviewed on a broadcast of "Fresh Air" that I
   heard a few days ago.  (Would you be able to identify his accent?
   I couldn't, except that it didn't sound as though spoken by a person
   born in the USA.)  He had a few ancecdotes of his own.  The best/worst
   one that I recall is about the powers that be not letting Szeryng
   solo with them because he had become a Mexican national and had played
   for the Soviets.  There was also an army rule against dogs in the
   barracks so all the soldier/musicians got stuffed bears on wheels to
   flaunt at the authorities.  Canarina commented that, at its best,
   the orchestra (whose personnel was of course constantly in flux) was
   as good as the best in Germany, where the orchestras admittedly were
   still recovering from the war's devastations.

Walter Meyer