Founded in 1986, the SSO has provided the Delmarva Peninsula with live orchestral music for over two decades. A partnership comprised of university students and dedicated community members and professionals, the SSO prides itself on serving a community that would otherwise not be able to experience local orchestral performances. With the support of Salisbury University, dedicated community musicians and volunteers, and the financial generosity of residents of the Eastern Shore, the SSO continues to thrive.

Since 2006, the SSO concert season consists of four concerts each year, all performed in Holloway Hall Auditorium on the campus of Salisbury University. Our Children's Concert, now a regular part of our concert season, is held each October and most recently featured comedian and mime, Dan Kamin, in a performance of The Haunted Orchestra. Our December, February/March, and May concerts include standard classical repertoire as well as occasional contemporary, popular, and jazz selections. In recent years, guest soloists have included legendary jazz artists, Mundell Lowe and Jim Ferguson, renowned vocalists Charlotte Paulsen and John Wesley Wright, and a nationally recognized roster of instrumentalists including saxophonist Gary Louie, trumpeter James Bean, pianists Ernest Beretta and Eric Street, violinist Kia-Hui Tan, among others.

The SSO's current conductor, Dr. Jeffrey Schoyen, has held the position since 2005. Prior to Dr. Schoyen's appointment, Dr. Thomas G. Elliott was Music Director for 18 years and was the orchestra's founder. Interim conductors have included Dr. Charles F. Smith, Jr. and Mr. Lawrence Knier.