Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra based in the Center City district of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, the orchestra is based at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where it performs its subscription concerts, numbering over 130 annually, at Marian Anderson Hall.
From its founding until 2001, the Philadelphia Orchestra gave its concerts at the Academy of Music. The orchestra continues to own the academy, and returns there one week per year for the Academy of Music's annual gala concert and concerts for school children. The Philadelphia Orchestra's summer home is the Mann Center for the Performing Arts. It also has summer residencies at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and since July 2007 at the Bravo! Vail Valley Festival in Vail, Colorado. The orchestra also performs an annual series of concerts at Carnegie Hall. From its earliest days the orchestra has been active in the recording studio, primarily for RCA Victor and Columbia Records.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin has been serving as the orchestra's music director since 2012. Matías Tarnopolsky was appointed president and CEO in August 2018.
History
20th century
The Philadelphia Orchestra was founded in 1900 by Fritz Scheel, who also acted as its first conductor. The orchestra had its beginnings with a small group of musicians led by the pianist F. Cresson Schell. In 1904, Richard Strauss guest conducted the orchestra in a program of his compositions, and in 1906 the Polish pianist Arthur Rubinstein made his American debut with the orchestra. Additionally in 1906, the orchestra traveled to the White House to perform in a concert.In February 1907, Leandro Campanari took over and served as interim conductor for a short time during Scheel's illness and after his death. A flutist in the orchestra, August Rodemann, stood in before Campanari's arrival. He started sabotaging the performances and Campanari was obliged to remove himself from a bad situation.
In 1907, Karl Pohlig became music director and served until 1912. New music he programmed was unpopular with audiences, and revelations that he had an extra-marital affair with his secretary caused outrage. The orchestra cancelled his contract and gave him a year's salary in severance to avoid a suit from Pohlig alleging a conspiracy to oust him.
Leopold Stokowski became music director in 1912, and brought the orchestra to national prominence. Before Stokowski's arrival, the orchestra was modeled after European standards, much like other major United States orchestras at the time. Stokowski and the orchestra were one of the first to break free from this, and together they created a new sound that is still respected and mimicked today. Under his guidance, the orchestra gained a reputation for their richness, strength, virtuosity, and blend, particularly in the strings. Stokowski was able to achieve this through free bowing along with his unique baton-less conducting style. He was also the first to implement the seating plan used by the majority of orchestras today. These characteristics became known as the "Philadelphia Sound." Stokowski left the orchestra in 1941, and did not return as a guest conductor for nearly 20 years.
In 1936, Eugene Ormandy joined the organization, and jointly held the post of principal conductor with Stokowski until 1938 when he became its sole music director. He remained as music director until 1980, after which he became Conductor Laureate. Ormandy conducted many of the orchestra's best-known recordings and took the orchestra on its historic 1973 tour of the People's Republic of China, making it the first Western orchestra to visit the country. The tour was highly successful and it has since returned for thirteen additional successful tours.
Riccardo Muti became principal guest conductor of the orchestra in the 1970s, and assumed the role as Music Director from Ormandy in 1980, serving through 1992. His recordings with the orchestra included the symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, and Alexander Scriabin, for the EMI and Philips labels.
Wolfgang Sawallisch succeeded Muti as music director from 1993 to 2003. He made a number of recordings with the orchestra of music of Robert Schumann, Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner, among other composers, for the EMI label. However, the orchestra lost its recording contract with EMI during this time, which led to a musicians' strike for 64 days in 1996. Near the end of Sawallisch's tenure, the orchestra released a self-produced set of recordings of the Schumann symphonies with Sawallisch conducting. In 2003, Sawallisch was named Conductor Laureate, and held the title until his death in 2013.
21st century
In 2003, Christoph Eschenbach succeeded Sawallisch as music director. This appointment was controversial because Eschenbach had not conducted the orchestra in over four years and there was a perceived lack of personal chemistry between him and the musicians prior to the appointment. At least one early report tried to downplay this concern. The orchestra returned to commercial recordings with Eschenbach, on the Ondine label. However, in October 2006, Eschenbach and the orchestra announced the conclusion of his tenure as music director in 2008, for a total of five years, the shortest tenure as music director in the history of the Philadelphia Orchestra, along with Pohlig.After Eschenbach's departure, the Philadelphia Orchestra was without a music director for four years. In February 2007, Charles Dutoit was appointed chief conductor and artistic adviser for four seasons, starting in the fall of 2008 and running through the 2011–2012 season. This move was made to provide an "artistic bridge" while the orchestra searched for its eighth music director. According to news articles from August 2007, the orchestra had now devised a search process in which each musician in the orchestra would have a say in the choice of the next Music Director.
Image:yannick01.jpg|thumb|right|Yannick Nézet-Séguin, principal conductor from 2012.
In December 2008, at the invitation of Dutoit, Yannick Nézet-Séguin made his first guest-conducting appearance with the orchestra. He returned for a second series of concerts in December 2009. In June 2010, Nézet-Séguin was appointed music director designate, with a scheduled duration under that title from 2010 to 2012, with 2 weeks of scheduled appearances in the 2010–2011 season, and 5 weeks of scheduled appearances in the 2011–2012 season. Eventually, in 2012, he was appointed music director, succeeding Dutoit, who subsequently was named conductor laureate of the orchestra. Nézet-Séguin's initial contract as music director was for 5 seasons, with 7 weeks of scheduled concerts in the 2012–2012 season, 15 weeks in the next 2 seasons, and 16 weeks in the subsequent 2 seasons of his Philadelphia contract. In January 2015, the orchestra announced the extension of Nézet-Séguin's contract to the 2021–22 season. In June 2016, the orchestra announced a further extension of Nézet-Séguin's contract through the 2025–2026 season. In December 2017, the orchestra announced the discontinuation of its relationship with Dutoit and the revocation of his title as its conductor laureate, with immediate effect, in the wake of allegations against him of sexual assault.
File:Charles Dutoit and the Philadelphia Orchestra concert in Tianjin.jpg|thumb|Charles Dutoit and the Philadelphia Orchestra concert in Tianjin|left
The Philadelphia Orchestra's current concertmaster is David Kim. Past concertmasters have included Norman Carol and Erez Ofer. Past Associate Conductors of the orchestra have included William Smith, Luis Biava, and Rossen Milanov. In 2014, Stéphane Denève was appointed principal guest conductor, Cristian Măcelaru as conductor-in-residence, and Lio Kuokman as assistant conductor. In 2016, Kensho Watanabe succeeded Kuokman as assistant conductor. Erina Yashima has served as assistant conductor since 2019. Denève served as principal guest conductor from 2014 through 2020.
As of June 2016, the orchestra does not have its own chorus. The orchestra formerly worked with the Philadelphia Singers as its resident chorus until the Philadelphia Singers disbanded in May 2015.
Bankruptcy and industrial action
On April 16, 2011, the Philadelphia Orchestra's board of directors voted to file for Chapter 11 reorganization due to the organization's large operational deficit. This was the first time that a major U.S. orchestra had filed for bankruptcy. Amid mounting dissent from the musicians, Nézet-Séguin volunteered in August 2011 to add a week in his 2011–2012 season appearances. On July 30, 2012, the orchestra announced that it had officially emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, effective that day.On September 30, 2016, the orchestra's players went out on strike, one hour before its scheduled Opening Night Gala concert. The musicians issued a statement: 'We can no longer remain silent while we continue in a downward spiral.' The players rejected 1–2 percent per year increases offered by management. The base pay rate was noted as less than what other similar orchestras are offering. The strike was settled after three days when musicians approved a new contract on October 2, 2016. The new agreement is scheduled to raise the base salary to $137,800 and to increase the size of the orchestra to 97 over three years.
Recent history
In March 2018, the orchestra announced the appointment of Matías Tarnopolsky as its next president and chief executive officer, in succession to Allison Vulgamore, who held the posts from 2010 through December 2017. In December 2020, the orchestra announced the appointment of Nathalie Stutzmann as its next principal guest conductor, the first female conductor ever named to this Philadelphia post, effective with the 2021–2022 season, with a contract of 3 years. In February 2023, the orchestra announced a further extension of Nézet-Séguin's contract, through the 2029–2030 season, along with a change in his title to music and artistic director. In January 2024, the orchestra announced the appointment of Marin Alsop as its next principal guest conductor, effective with the 2024–2025 season, with an initial contract of 3 seasons. In December 2024, the orchestra announced that Tarnopolsky is to stand down as its president and chief executive officer at the close of 2024.In April 2025, the orchestra announced the appointment of Ryan Fleur as its new president and chief executive officer, with immediate effect. Fleur had served as the orchestra's interim president and CEO since the departure of Tarnopolsky.