On a mid-December night in 1949, a young banker named Charles Norton joined 13 other local musicians for the first rehearsal of the newly formed Butler County Symphony.

As the symphony gets ready to open its 60th Diamond Jubilee season Saturday, the 77-year-old clarinetist recalls how much has changed since that first year.

Back then, the symphony, which has about 60 members today, didn't have enough musicians to complete a full orchestra, Mr. Norton said.

"Parts would be missing and the conductor [the late Edward A. Roncone] would have to sing them or hum when we were rehearsing," he said.

When it came time for that first season's one and only concert on April 17, 1950, musicians from Pittsburgh were brought in to fill the gaps.

"All of a sudden to have all the parts there and played by such accomplished musicians ... it was challenging," he said.

The Butler County Symphony Orchestral Association, as it was known then, was formed to give local musicians the opportunity to perform classical music for Butler County audiences.

And now, after decades of growing, fundraising, weathering financial woes in the 1960s and '70s and reinventing itself to meet audiences' ever-changing expectations, the symphony is fulfilling its mission, Mr. Norton said.

Harry Savisky, marketing chairman of the Butler County Symphony Association, as it's now known, said keeping up with expenses and keeping up with the times have contributed to the symphony's longevity and success.

The symphony's budget for 2008 is $227,000, with less than half of the expenses covered by ticket sales, he said. So the symphony relies heavily on donations, fundraising and its supporters to help pay musicians, guest performers and the bills, Mr. Savisky said.

In addition to an endowment fund, the symphony sponsors an annual house tour, sells notepaper and bottles of water at concerts and this year will raffle off a $3,500 diamond bracelet.

Before tickets to performances can be sold, however, performers have to make sure they're giving the audience what it wants. And that means change.

The symphony Mr. Norton joined as a young man is not the symphony he plays for now.

Men attending the performances used to wear tuxedos, Mr. Norton recalled. Today, the performances staged in the Butler Intermediate School Auditorium are a much more casual affair.

Before, conductors rarely, if ever, interacted with the audience. Today, it's expected.

"Our conductor does a good job of explaining the music to the audience," Mr. Savisky said.

Elisabeth Heath-Charles has been with the symphony since 1997 and is its first female conductor.

Many changes over the years have been geared toward getting young people interested in and involved with the symphony, Mr. Savisky said.

"Our biggest challenge is gaining more audience, particularly young people," he said. "They really are our future."

The symphony sponsors educational outreach programs to schools and will host its 30th annual Young Artist Competition in January.

In alternating years, high school and college musicians compete for monetary awards and a chance to perform with the symphony, Mr. Savisky said. Through the Young Musicians of Note program, music teachers nominate school-age musicians for recognition.

In addition, built into the symphony's season are performances and pieces that are meant to show how fun going to the symphony can be, he added.

The family pops concert this year will feature Big Band and 1950s-era music as well as banjo, guitar and vocal performances.

The annual holiday concert almost always sells out. This year, a narrated version of the story, "Twas' Night Before Christmas," will be performed with an orchestral arrangement composed by Drew Fennell, of Freeport.

Mr. Fennell, a Ford City native, is the symphony's Composer of the Year.

The St. Mary's of Glenshaw Children's Chorus, led by Frieda Flaminio, is also slated to perform at the holiday concert.

The symphony has to adapt to its subscribers' needs, so a few changes have been made this season based on an audience survey.

All performances this year will start at 7:30 p.m. rather than 8 p.m., and the annual family pops concert is, for the first time, a part of the regular subscription series.

"Some people think classical music is old-fashioned," Mr. Savisky said. "But we try to mix programs so there's class and then we bring in the other extreme."