The year 1908 was when the Ford Motor Company introduced the world to the Model T. But in St. Joseph, 1908 was the year that something musical also got rolling.

For 100 years, the Saint Joseph Symphony orchestra has been bringing classical music to St. Joseph, and this Saturday, April 26, it will celebrate the occasion with the orchestra’s Centennial Celebration at the Missouri Theater.

The symphony put on its first-ever concert on May 5, 1908 at the Tootle Theatre. Throughout its long history, the group mainly performed as a community orchestra, but it gained professional status in the mid-1980s.

While it’s not possible to talk to those original symphony members from 1908, in recent years, the positive changes have been obvious.

“The quality of the music has improved significantly,” says Dr. Robert Spurgat, president of the Saint Joseph Symphony’s board of directors. “It’s enjoying a good regional reputation in the area as a good orchestra.”

The Centennial Celebration will be put on a little differently than other performances in the symphony’s season. Before the music starts, there will be a lecture detailing the symphony’s history. The audience then will be treated to a piece of music that you will not hear anywhere else. That’s because it was written specifically for this event.

The Saint Joseph Symphony commissioned James Funkhouser, a former French horn player in the orchestra and a retired member of the Kansas City Symphony, to write an energetic “Centennial Overture.”

“It’s a piece that symphony-goers will not want to miss,” says Brent Pettit, a Saint Joseph Symphony celloist. “It was written for this very occasion, and it’s got some surprising melody and harmony lines.”

Two more pieces also will be performed, including sections from the light-hearted fare of Claude DeBussy’s “Children’s Corner” and Anton Bruckner’s “Symphony No. 7 in E Major,” which will feature four Wagner tubas. These are instruments that the symphony’s interim executive director Michael Mathews thinks the audience will enjoy hearing.

“It’s just a whole different sound to the other brass instruments,” Mathews says. “It was as if an artist suddenly invented a new color to put on his palette as he’s painting a picture.”

The Bruckner piece the symphony will perform clocks in at around 65 minutes, and conductor Deborah Freedman admits that the concert may be a little lopsided as far as time is concerned. But Freedman has loved this piece ever since she performed it when she attended the University of Minnesota and is excited to play it in its entirety this weekend.

“It’s very powerful. It’s very complicated,” she says. “The first violin parts are in the stratosphere. It’s got great brass parts in it. It’s also emotionally diverse. It changes a lot.”

The Centennial Celebration also will be honoring a change at the conductor’s stand. After this concert, Freedman will step down after 20 years of conducting the Saint Joseph Symphony.

“I’m grateful and am happy that I’ve made it through 20 years. 20 great years,” she says.

Pettit has played under Freedman since she first became the symphony’s conductor in 1988, and he’s come to admire her abilities.

“She’s very knowledgeable. She knows what to tell the orchestra, usually before they ask,” Pettit says. “She is loved and respected by the orchestra.”

In honor of the symphony’s 100th anniversary and Freedman’s 20 years, there will be a reception immediately following the performance in the lobby and the mezzanine with a champagne toast and finger foods with no additional charge.

But until the last note is played, the Saint Joseph Symphony feels a special obligation to perform well, knowing occasions like this don’t happen often.

“I think the orchestra has a really good sense of this,” Mathews says. “They’re putting in that extra amount of hard work to make sure things come off right.”

Happy Hundred

Happy Hundred

What: The Saint Joseph Symphony presents their Centennial Celebration

When: 8 p.m. April 26

Where: Missouri Theater, 717 Edmond St.

Cost: Tickets range from $10 to $35

Info: Call 233-7701 or go to www.saintjosephsymphony.org

Lifestyles reporter Blake Hannon can be reached at blakehannon@npgco.com