The Boston Pops Orchestra was founded in July 1885 by Henry Lee Higginson , who in 1881 had started the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Higginson wished to establish summer concerts of a lighter type of music, after the style of the Austrian concert gardens in Vienna. Billed as Promenade Concerts, the Boston series combined light classical music, tunes from the musical theater and humorous novelty numbers.
Almost all of the early conductors were selected from the membership of the Boston Symphony...