The earliest roots of the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra, Tennessee's oldest continuing symphony, began in the autumn of 1943 when Waldo E. Cohn arrived in Oak Ridge to begin work at the National Laboratory. He organized a small group of musicians to play chamber music in his living room. Once the group had grown too large for Cohn's house they began to meet in a local high school auditorium. The Oak Ridge String Symphonette gave its first concert with Cohn as conductor on June 16, 1944. The Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra formed later that summer and the first full-fledged symphony concert was performed in November 1944. Cohn would serve as the Orchestra's conductor for eleven years.