Founded in 1900, The Philadelphia Orchestra has distinguished itself as one of the leading orchestras in the world through over a century of acclaimed performances, historic international tours, best-selling recordings, and its unprecedented record of innovation in recording technologies and outreach. The Orchestra has maintained an unparalleled unity in artistic leadership with only six music directors piloting its first century: Fritz Scheel (1900-07), Carl Pohlig (1907-12), Leopold Stokowski (1912-41), Eugene Ormandy (1936-80), Riccardo Muti (1980-92), and Wolfgang Sawallisch (1993-2003).
This rich tradition has been carried on by Christoph Eschenbach, who became the Orchestra’s seventh music director in September 2003. The Philadelphia Orchestra’s 2007-08 season focuses on monumental works of the symphonic repertoire, including Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 (“Symphony of a Thousand”), Orff’s Carmina burana, Richard Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony, and Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri, among many others. The season ends with a tour of Asia, marking the 35th anniversary of the Orchestra’s first visit to the People’s Republic of China in 1973. During his tenure, Mr. Eschenbach has conducted a cycle of all nine Beethoven symphonies paired with music of our time, including several world premieres; led a four-week Late Great Works Festival featuring late works by Mozart, Strauss, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, and Berio; launched the Orchestra’s first-ever multi-year cycle of Mahler’s complete symphonies; and led the Orchestra on tours of Europe (in 2004 and 2006), Asia (in 2005), Florida and Puerto Rico (in 2006), and the United States (in 2007). Under Mr. Eschenbach’s leadership, the Orchestra has undertaken an organization-wide initiative, called “Raising the Invisible Curtain,” to bring new audiences to classical music and to enhance the musical experience for its existing audiences.
Throughout its history, The Philadelphia Orchestra has introduced an unprecedented number of important works as world or American premieres, including Barber’s Violin Concerto, Mahler’s “Symphony of a Thousand,” Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Its illustrious tour history includes a number of landmarks events. In 1936 the Orchestra became the first American orchestra to undertake a transcontinental tour, in 1949 it toured Great Britain as the first American orchestra to cross the Atlantic after World War II, and in 1973 it became the first American orchestra to perform in the People’s Republic of China.
The Orchestra also boasts an extraordinary record of media firsts. It was the first symphonic orchestra to make electrical recordings (in 1925), the first to perform its own commercially sponsored radio broadcast (in 1929, on NBC), the first to perform on the soundtrack of a feature film (Paramount’s The Big Broadcast of 1937), the first to appear on a national television broadcast (in 1948, on CBS), and the first major orchestra to give a live cybercast of a concert on the Internet (in 1997).
Recent successes and innovations with electronic media carry on this legacy. During the 2006-07 season, the Orchestra became the first major orchestra to multi-cast a concert to large-screen venues through the Internet2 network. Further multi-casts are scheduled for the 2007-08 season. In September 2006, the Orchestra became the first major American orchestra to offer consumers the opportunity to download recent and archival music directly through its own Online Music Store, www.thephiladelphiaorchestra.com. The Orchestra is broadcast regularly on National Public Radio’s SymphonyCast and Performance Today, as part of an annual agreement with NPR announced in April 2006. In May 2005, Mr. Eschenbach and the Orchestra announced a three-year recording partnership with Ondine Records, the Orchestra’s first recording contract in 10 years. To date five critically acclaimed recordings taken from live concerts have been released.
Another highlight of the Orchestra’s recent past is a $125 million endowment campaign, A Sound, A City, A Civilization. Commitments to the campaign include a lead gift of $50 million from the Annenberg Foundation, along with other major leadership gifts that allowed the Orchestra to raise the original campaign goal from $75 million to $125 million. In January 2007, the Orchestra celebrated the Academy of Music’s 150th anniversary with Their Royal Highnesses, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, in attendance. The Orchestra’s 2002-03 season celebrated Wolfgang Sawallisch’s 10 highly acclaimed years at the Orchestra’s helm and paid tribute to his artistic achievements with the release of a Grammy-nominated three-disc set of Schumann recordings, the first recordings made in Verizon Hall at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. In 2000 the Orchestra celebrated its 100th Anniversary, and in the following year, moved to its new home in the Kimmel Center.
The Philadelphia Orchestra annually touches the lives of more than one million music lovers worldwide through its performances (more than 300 concerts and other presentations each year), publications, recordings, and broadcasts. A major winter subscription season is presented in Philadelphia each year from September to May, in addition to education and community partnership programs. The Orchestra presents a series of concerts each year at New York’s Carnegie Hall, performing encores of some of its acclaimed concerts from Philadelphia. Its summer schedule includes an outdoor season in Philadelphia at The Mann Center for the Performing Arts, free concerts in local neighborhoods, a three-week residency at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in upstate New York, and an annual residency at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival.
The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts hosts the Orchestra’s home subscription concerts. The Center includes two performance spaces, the 2500-seat Verizon Hall, designed and built especially for the Orchestra, and the 650-seat Perelman Theater for chamber music concerts. Designed by architect Rafael Viñoly along with acoustician Russell Johnson of Artec Consultants Inc., the Kimmel Center provides the Orchestra with a state-of-the-art facility for concerts, recordings, and education activities. The landmark building is named in honor of Philadelphia businessman and philanthropist Sidney Kimmel, who gave the largest individual gift toward its construction. Kimmel has served on the Board of Directors of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 1995.
The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (KCPA) and the historic Academy of Music (where the Orchestra performed for 101 seasons) are operated together as a single cultural facility by Kimmel Center, Inc. (KCI). A variety of Philadelphia’s other performing arts groups serve as resident companies for the two buildings. KCI owns, manages, supports, and maintains the KCPA. Kimmel Center, Inc., also manages the Academy of Music, owned by The Philadelphia Orchestra Association since 1957, and where the Orchestra continues to present the highly anticipated annual Academy Anniversary Concert and Ball.
For more information on The Philadelphia Orchestra, please visit www.philorch.org. |
