Sherman Symphony Orchestra

Celebrating its 60th anniversary season this year, the Sherman Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is a vital part of the Sherman community and has been dedicated to making music accessible to everyone since it was founded in 1966 under Cecil Isaac.

The SSO creates a collective civic identity by presenting live concerts and serving as a primary resource for music education. In 1992, Maestro Daniel Dominick became the music director. Ten years later, the SSO began performing in the 1,300-seat Kidd-Key Auditorium, which is located in the Sherman Cultural District.

During the 2026-2027 season the Sherman Symphony Orchestra will perform its 25th annual Children’s Educational Concerts. These free concerts take place each November, and reach over 3,000 local fifth-graders each year. In 2012, the SSO began broadcasting its classical concerts monthly on CBS-12 KXII in order to reach a greater audience, including those who are unable to attend. The Sherman Symphony Orchestra offers free student tickets to all of its Classical Series Concerts, making live classical music accessible and affordable to students of all ages. In 2019 the SSO implemented a string instrument coaching program at Sherman ISD called SSO Scholars in which SSO musicians teach specialized classes for violin, viola, cello, and bass students, and the SSO expanded this program in 2024 to include high school wind, brass, and percussion classes.  In 2022, the SSO launched Musical Chairs, an interactive, in-school presentation for elementary and preschool students in Sherman and Denison; this program now reaches up to 1,000 children each year. Also in 2022, the Symphony partnered with Austin College to establish Austin College Summer Music Camp (ACSMC), an intensive five-day program for middle and high school band, orchestra, and choir students. The only summer music program of its kind in Texoma, in 2026, ACSMC celebrates its 5th year in operation.

The Sherman Symphony Orchestra’s more than 80 musicians perform seven concerts per year. Kidd-Key Auditorium is home to the Classical Series Concerts, and Austin College hosts the annual Christmas Pops concerts. Since 2015, the SSO has expanded its reach even further with periodic concerts in Ardmore, OK and Greenville, TX. When the pandemic interrupted the 2020-2021 season, the SSO released free online concerts each month.