Founded in 1919, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is one of Canada’s most successful performing arts institutions; the largest performing arts organization west of Ontario and the third largest symphony orchestra in the country. The VSO performs to an annual audience of more than 200,000 people and features more than fifty celebrated guest artists each season. Over 140 concerts are performed annually by the VSO in the Orpheum Theatre and numerous additional venues throughout Lower Mainland British Columbia. In addition to performing in British Columbia, the VSO undertook successful international tours to Korea, Macau and China in 2008 and Central Canada in 2009. The VSO’s recording of violin concertos by Barber, Korngold and Walton, with Bramwell Tovey and Canadian violinist James Ehnes won GRAMMY® and JUNO awards in 2008, and in 2010, billions of people around the world heard the VSO’s recordings of the national anthems of those countries awarded gold medals at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.