In 1953, the Abi­lene Junior Ser­vice League was orga­nized with15 ladies work­ing together to form the Sym­phony League. The pur­pose was to sup­port the Sym­phony Orches­tra; annual dues were $3.00. The Abi­lene Phil­har­monic Guild was for­mally orga­nized in 1954 and the mem­ber­ship had grown to 75. In 1961, the first Phil­har­monic Ball was held at the ele­gant Abi­lene Coun­try Club; the Ball con­tin­ues as the annual major fundraiser.

In 1969, the “Tem­po­et­tes’ (high school ladies) were orga­nized. These young women have had out­stand­ing qual­i­fi­ca­tions in aca­d­e­mics, school and com­mu­nity ser­vice projects, sports, music and have proven to be highly accom­plished. They serve as ush­erettes for the con­certs and have assisted with other events for the Guild. In 1955, Patty Tal­i­a­ferro cre­ated the annual Dis­cover Music stu­dent con­certs. The con­certs were attended by stu­dents who were in in the third grade and have now expanded to include stu­dents in grades three through five as well as spe­cial edu­ca­tion and home school stu­dents. These stu­dents come from the city of Abi­lene and the sur­round­ing big country.

The annual Ball was moved to the Abi­lene Civic Cen­ter in 1971 along with the intro­duc­tion of the after­noon teas, for those who were unable to attend the ball and wanted to enjoy the atmos­phere cre­ated by the dec­o­ra­tion com­mit­tee. The Guild has always taken great pride in being known as cre­at­ing the most ele­gant fundrais­ing decor of all city events. In 1973, the first Silent Auc­tion was intro­duced at the annual ball. This year also intro­duced the mem­bers to the first Guild newslet­ter, The Tempo.

The year 2005 brought many “firsts.” The Tem­po­ette name was changed to Belles and Beaus. This allowed young men of high school age to take part in the pro­gram. With struc­tured require­ments in place, equally high stan­dards and expec­ta­tions were expected. the Gold Medal­lion Ball I was inau­gu­rated. Two schol­ar­ships, the Gold and Sil­ver Medal­lions, begin to be awarded to two senior Belle and/or Beau.

With the cre­ativ­ity of the Guild mem­bers, the inno­va­tions and devo­tion will con­tinue through­out future . Dur­ing the last fifty –seven years, many extra­or­di­nary women in and around Abi­lene have worked to ful­fill the mis­sion of those first fif­teen women. These enthu­si­as­tic and ded­i­cated vol­un­teers, along with the sup­port of busi­nesses, orga­ni­za­tions and the peo­ple of the com­mu­nity gen­er­ously con­tribute to the Phil­har­monic and stim­u­late inter­est and appre­ci­a­tion for sym­phonic music.

poin­set­tias order form