Mid-Columbia Symphony Society

In 1945, the “Richland Choral Society and Concert Orchestra” presented Handel’s Messiah at Columbia (now Richland) High School. The 80-member chorus and orchestra had been created by Sydney Irving, an imported scientist in the Hanford Project who had a passion for classical choral musical. Drawing on the incidental musical training and talents of other project people and their spouses, he was determined to bring culture to what seemed to many imported scientists to be a “cultural wasteland.” Their audience was mainly people working on the vast government project, which for the sake of secrecy (few people on the project knew its wartime purpose) was scarcely connected to the tiny farming towns to the south. The only significant town was Pasco, being on a rail line and having the region s only airport (Pasco was a pioneer in air mail).