 During the 1970s, the orchestra began collaboration with the Virginia Opera.During the US economic crisis and recession of the 1970s, the Virginia Symphony assumed its present form in 1979 with the merger of the Norfolk Symphony, Peninsula Symphony Orchestra, and the Virginia Beach Pops Symphony.In May 1991, JoAnn Falletta was appointed the orchestra's eleventh music director, the first female conductor to be named music director of the VSO.