The RCA Italiana Orchestra (RIO) was an orchestra formed by the American music label RCA Victor during the early 1960s. The orchestra was formed as a replacement for the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra (RVSO) for the purposes of saving money. Unlike the RVSO, the RIO was not a full-time orchestra which worked together year round. Instead, the orchestra, which was largely made up of players in the Rome Opera orchestra, only met during the opera's off-season. This arrangement enabled RCA to still have their own orchestra available for recordings without having to pay the expenses of a full-time orchestra. A number of the orchestra's recordings received Grammy Awards.
Famous quotes containing the word orchestra:
“As the artist
extends his world with
one gratuitous flourish—a stroke of white or
a run on the clarinet above the
bass tones of the orchestra ...”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)