As we wind down the celebrations for our own 125th anniversary this season, we are excited and proud to participate in marking significant anniversaries for two beloved partners this summer—the 50th anniversary of the Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts and the 60th anniversary of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC). The Philadelphia Orchestra was closely involved in the planning of both venues and helped open each of them. In addition, we continue to celebrate America’s 250th birthday this summer with some very special concerts.
We honor the Highmark Mann’s milestone with a commemorative 50th anniversary concert led by Principal Guest Conductor Marin Alsop, which will include some of the repertoire we performed on that very first concert during the nation’s Bicentennial. The Orchestra will also give the world premiere of A Hundred Years On, an oratorio by Peter Boyer and Mark Campbell about the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Fairmount Park, alongside Julia Wolfe’s Liberty Bell, both presented as part of America’s 250th celebrations.
Additional 250th repertoire includes Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto for Orchestra, Terence Blanchard’s Orchestral Suite from Fire Shut Up in My Bones, and John Adams’s The Rock You Stand On—all commissioned and premiered by the Orchestra—performed by the Philadelphians at the Bravo! Vail Music Festival in July.
Music and Artistic Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin headlines the Orchestra’s residency at SPAC, conducting a celebratory performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. He also leads that joyous piece at Bravo! Vail and on the opening concert of our own 127th season this September, creating a wonderful connection between our various homes. It is so meaningful having the continuity of spending our summer seasons away from the Kimmel Center in places that feel like home.
The Orchestra will also return to Marian Anderson Hall this summer for two special programs highlighting some of the best classical repertoire: an all-Mozart performance on July 31 and an allBeethoven performance on August 1.
There is still so much activity in our venues throughout the months ahead, including The Outsiders, The Notebook, Bluey’s Big Play, The Wizard of Oz in Concert, and jazz great Herbie Hancock. Please join us!
Best regards,
Ryan Fleur President and CEO
Jeff Fusco
THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA
2025–2026 Season
Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Music and Artistic Director
Walter and Leonore
Annenberg Chair
Marin Alsop
Principal Guest Conductor
Ralph and Beth Johnston
Muller Chair
Joe Hisaishi
Composer-in-Residence
Naomi Woo Assistant Conductor
Joseph Conyers
Education and Community Ambassador
Mark and Tobey Dichter Chair
Charlotte Blake Alston
Storyteller, Narrator, and Host
Osagie and Losenge
Imasogie Chair
First Violins
David Kim, Concertmaster
James and Agnes Kim Foundation Chair
Juliette Kang, First Associate Concertmaster
Joseph and Marie Field Chair
Christine Lim, Associate Concertmaster
Marc Rovetti, Assistant Concertmaster
Dr. James F. Dougherty Chair
Barbara Govatos
Robert E. Mortensen Chair
Jonathan Beiler
Hirono Oka
Richard Amoroso
Robert and Lynne Pollack Chair
Yayoi Numazawa
Jason DePue
Larry A. Grika Chair
Jennifer Haas
Miyo Curnow
Elina Kalendarova
Daniel Han
Julia Li
William Polk
Mei Ching Huang
Second Violins
Kimberly Fisher, Principal
Peter A. Benoliel Chair
Paul Roby, Associate Principal
Sandra and David
Marshall Chair
Dara Morales, Assistant Principal
Anne M. Buxton Chair
Philip Kates
Peter A. Benoliel Chair
Davyd Booth
Paul Arnold
Joseph Brodo Chair, given by Peter A.Benoliel
Amy Oshiro-Morales Volunteer Committees Chair
Yu-Ting Chen
Jeoung-Yin Kim
Willa Finck
John Bian
MuChen Hsieh
Eliot Heaton
Violas
Choong-Jin Chang, Principal
Ruth and A. Morris Williams, Jr., Chair
Kirsten Johnson, Associate Principal
Kerri Ryan, Assistant Principal
Burchard Tang
Renard Edwards
Anna Marie Ahn
Petersen
Piasecki Family Chair
David Nicastro
Che-Hung Chen
Rachel Ku
Marvin Moon Meng Wang
Hsiang-Hsin Ching
Cellos
Hai-Ye Ni, Principal
Priscilla Lee, Associate Principal
Yumi Kendall, Assistant Principal
Elaine Woo Camarda and A. Morris Williams, Jr., Chair
Richard Harlow
Kathryn Picht Read
John Koen
Derek Barnes
Alex Veltman
Jiayin He
Michael Katz
Eugene Lin
Basses
Joseph Conyers, Principal
Carole and Emilio Gravagno Chair
Gabriel Polinsky, Associate Principal
Tobias Vigneau, Assistant Principal
David Fay
Duane Rosengard
Nathaniel West
Michael Franz
Christian Gray
Some members of the string sections voluntarily rotate seating on a periodic basis.
Flutes
Jeffrey Khaner, Principal
Paul and Barbara Henkels Chair
Patrick Williams, Associate Principal
Rachelle and Ronald Kaiserman Chair
Olivia Staton
Erica Peel, Piccolo
Oboes
Philippe Tondre, Principal
Samuel S. Fels Chair
Peter Smith, Associate Principal
Jonathan Blumenfeld
Edwin Tuttle Chair
Elizabeth Starr
Masoudnia, English Horn
Joanne T. Greenspun Chair
Clarinets
Ricardo Morales, Principal
Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Chair
Samuel Caviezel, Associate Principal
Sarah and Frank Coulson Chair
Socrates Villegas
Paul R. Demers, Bass Clarinet
Peter M. Joseph and Susan Rittenhouse Joseph Chair
Bassoons
Daniel Matsukawa, Principal
Richard M. Klein Chair
Mark Gigliotti, Co-Principal
Angela Anderson Smith
Holly Blake, Contrabassoon
Horns
Jennifer Montone, Principal
Jeffrey Lang, Associate Principal
Hannah L. and J. Welles
Henderson Chair
Victoria Knudtson, Assistant Principal
Christopher Dwyer
Chelsea McFarland
Ernesto Tovar Torres
Trumpets (position vacant)
Principal
Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest Chair
Anthony Prisk
Sam Huss
Trombones
Nitzan Haroz, Principal
Neubauer Family Foundation Chair
Matthew Vaughn, Co-Principal
Jack Grimm
Blair Bollinger, Bass Trombone
Drs. Bong and Mi Wha Lee Chair
Tuba
Carol Jantsch, Principal
Lyn and George M. Ross Chair
Timpani
Don S. Liuzzi, Principal
Don S. Liuzzi Chair, given by Linda and David Glickstein
Angela Zator Nelson, Associate Principal
Percussion
Christopher Deviney, Principal
Charlie Rosmarin, Associate Principal
Angela Zator Nelson
Keyboards
Davyd Booth
Harp
Elizabeth Hainen, Principal
Librarians
Nicole Jordan, Principal
Holly Matthews
Stage Personnel
Dennis Moore, Jr., Manager
Francis “Chip” O’Shea III
Aaron Wilson
MUSIC AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Canadian-born conductor and pianist Yannick Nézet-Séguin is currently in his 14th season with The Philadelphia Orchestra, serving as music and artistic director. An inspired leader, Yannick is both an evolutionary and a revolutionary, developing the mighty “Philadelphia Sound” in new ways. His collaborative style, deeply rooted musical curiosity, and boundless enthusiasm have been heralded by critics and audiences alike. The Philadelphia Inquirer has said that under his baton the Orchestra is “at the top of its considerable form”; the Associated Press has called it “a premier orchestra at its peak”; and The New York Times wrote, “the ensemble, famous for its glowing strings and homogenous richness, has never sounded better.”
Yannick has established himself as a musical leader of the highest caliber and one of the most thrilling and sought-after talents of his generation. He became the third music director of New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 2018. In addition, he has been artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain since 2000. In 2017 he became the third-ever honorary member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. He served as music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic from 2008 to 2018 (he is now honorary conductor) and was principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic from 2008 to 2014. He has made wildly successful appearances with the world’s most revered ensembles and at many of the leading opera houses.
Yannick has shown a deep commitment to expanding the repertoire by embracing an evergrowing and diverse group of today’s composers and by performing and recording the music of underappreciated composers of the past, including Florence Price, Clara Schumann, William Dawson, Lili Boulanger, Louise Farrenc, and William Grant Still. In 2018 he signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon. Under his leadership The Philadelphia Orchestra returned to recording with 15 releases on that label, including Florence Price Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3, which won a GRAMMY® Award for Best Orchestral Performance in 2022.
A native of Montreal, Yannick studied piano, conducting, composition, and chamber music at Montreal’s Conservatory of Music and continued his studies with renowned conductors, most notably Carlo Maria Giulini; he also studied choral conducting with Joseph Flummerfelt at Westminster Choir College. Among Yannick’s honors are an appointment as Companion of the Order of Canada; Companion to the Order of Arts and Letters of Quebec; an Officer of the Order of Quebec; an Officer of the Order of Montreal; an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; Musical America’s 2016 Artist of the Year; ECHO KLASSIK’s 2014 Conductor of the Year; a Royal Philharmonic Society Award; Canada’s National Arts Centre Award; the Prix Denise-Pelletier; the Oskar Morawetz Award; and honorary doctorates from the University of Quebec, the Curtis Institute of Music, Westminster Choir College of Rider University, McGill University, the University of Montreal, the University of Pennsylvania, Laval University, and Drexel University.
To read Yannick’s full bio, please visit philorch.org/conductor.
MARIAN ANDERSON HALL
On June 8, 2024, Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts was officially rededicated as Marian Anderson Hall in honor of the legendary Black contralto, civil rights icon, and Philadelphian. The first major concert venue in the world to honor Marian Anderson—85 years after she was barred from performing at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., because of her race—the hall is a permanent monument to its namesake’s artistry and achievements, a reflection of the inclusive future she helped to engender, and an active testament to the intersection of music, art, and positive social impact. We look forward to honoring Marian Anderson in perpetuity with a venue that reflects the ideals by which she lived her life: equity, justice, freedom, and the belief that the arts are for everyone.
Marian Anderson Hall was named in her honor by a visionary $25-million philanthropic gift from Richard Worley and Leslie Miller. Worley has been a member of The Philadelphia Orchestra’s Board of Trustees since 1997 and served as board chair from 2009 to 2019. Miller is a former Kimmel Center trustee and previous acting president of the Kimmel Center. They are among the largest donors in Philadelphia Orchestra history. Additional generous support for Marian Anderson Hall was given by Sidney and Caroline Kimmel.
Marian Anderson with Music Director Eugene Ormandy during a Philadelphia Orchestra rehearsal at the Academy of Music in December 1938
Adrian Siegel Collection/Philadelphia Orchestra Archives
EXCLUSIVE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA MERCH
Celebrate your love of The Philadelphia Orchestra with exclusive apparel and souvenirs. From stylish T-shirts and cozy hoodies to mugs, totes, hats, and Yannick bobbleheads, the shop is your destination for keepsakes that celebrate the Orchestra’s 125th anniversary. In addition, you can find limited-edition items like Mozart Requiem and Mahler Symphony No. 2 T-shirts or a Mahler Symphony poster.
Shop online anytime (shop.philorch.org) or at our Pop-Up Shop, open during select Orchestra performances at the Kimmel Center—an ideal chance to browse, connect, and take home something unforgettable for you or as the perfect gift.
RENARD EDWARDS AND THE JOY OF BEING AT HOME
Part of a season-long series of oral histories
By Judith Kurnick
Have you ever felt something completely unexpected that you knew in that moment was a kind of destiny? We’re lucky to experience one of these. Yet not one, but several such moments have brought Philadelphia Orchestra violist Renard Edwards to a life he could scarcely have imagined as a young boy. It all happened right here in Philadelphia.
The first occasion occurred when he was in middle school, watching television with his parents in West Philadelphia. “I saw an orchestra,” he recounts, “and a violinist. I had never heard classical music. But the piece was so beautiful, and I wanted to play it. I thought if I could just get a violin, I could do it.”
A few weeks later, after a Philadelphia Orchestra string quintet came to the school, there was an announcement that anyone who wanted to learn to play should come get an instrument. “I was just waiting until the end of the day so I could run to the music room to get a violin,” Edwards continues. “When I got there, the violins were all gone. But they had a viola. When I opened the case, it looked like a violin, so I said, ‘I’ll take it.’”
This was Edwards’s second transformative moment. “I got the viola, and the only thing that mattered to me was that I had a short period of time before I was going to graduate high school. And since I had somehow decided that I was going to try to make a career playing this music, I wanted to gain as much experience on the instrument as I could. Starting on viola helped me, because there was always a need for violists.”
After a year with a local teacher, the 13-year-old was told to go to Settlement Music School, in South Philadelphia, where he studied with Philadelphia Orchestra violist Leonard Mogill. One day the chamber music teacher told Mogill that a group of older musicians needed a replacement second violist to play the Scherzo from Mendelssohn’s String Octet. Could young Renard manage the part? Mogill said yes, and Edwards was thrilled to be rehearsing with upperclassmen. Jessica Griffin
Joan Stern
Renard Edwards
When he got to school—an hour early—on the morning of the performance, “I realized I had left my music at home,” Edwards recalls. “The principal called me into her office. I told her I could go home and get it. But that meant taking the trolley, and she knew I wouldn’t make it in time. She told me, ‘There are seven people who won’t get to play because of you. I’m afraid you’ll have to leave the school.’”
Without thinking, Edwards made a split-second decision. “I said I could play it from memory. I had never memorized anything, but I just felt as if I could do it. When we went out on the stage, they all had a thin sheet of music, and I brought my etude book. I look back on it and think ‘What chutzpah!’ But I did it, no memory slip.”
Will Figg Jan Regan
Edwards (back row, fourth from left) during a welcome ceremony in Shanghai in May 2013 at the start of the Orchestra’s 40th Anniversary Tour of China with other musicians who had been part of the historic 1973 China Tour
Edwards passes on his expertise to the next generation during a side-by-side concert in July 2016 with NYO2, a youth orchestra and sister ensemble to the National Youth Orchestra (NYO).
With that incident, Edwards had both surprised and proven himself. His chamber music teacher said, “I’ve changed my opinion of you.” Edwards explains, “Back in the ’50s, seeing a Black kid playing chamber music people thought, ‘That’s nice, but really?’ He later learned that some Black friends who went to Central High School were told, “Orchestras like The Philadelphia Orchestra will never hire you. You should change your major.” They did. He notes, “I didn’t hear about that until we were all adults, and it shocked me.” At his own Overbrook High School, “while my music teacher wasn’t enthusiastic for me to become a classical musician, he didn’t tell me that. I kept doing the plus/minus percentages,” Edwards says, “weighing the social, economic, artistic reasons to go on. And it seemed like the pluses always won out, so I kept at it, no matter what the minuses.”
After graduation, Edwards had to give his instrument back to the school. To buy one of his own, he had to get a job. He spent a year sweeping up in a TV appliance store, a year of not playing viola. “I didn’t have any guidance,” he recalls.” I just had the will to keep trying.” Fortunately, his brother was able to pitch in with the rest of the funds. Mogill, Edwards’s teacher, took him to pick out a viola and bow. “I had to learn how to play again.”
Edwards auditioned for Indiana University, which has a very large music department with multiple orchestras. Academic institutions wanted to encourage young Black high school students to continue their studies, and he was offered a full scholarship. “But after I came home, I didn’t hear anything from them,” he remembers. “I thought maybe things had changed.”
And then he encountered another of those transformative moments. A friend told him about the New School of Music and its professional training orchestra. The school was founded by Max Aronoff, the violist of the Curtis String Quartet, and the faculty included the members of the quartet and members of The Philadelphia Orchestra. “When I found out the teachers were the same teachers who taught at Curtis, and it was right here in Philadelphia, I thought ‘I’m a Philadelphian. It would be beneficial for me to stay and be in the music
atmosphere at home, rather than the campus of a large university. I’d be crazy to go to Indiana.’”
Edwards studied for four years with Aronoff on a full scholarship. He soon put together a string quartet that played concerts in the Delaware Valley and beyond. “I was living the life I’d dreamed of.”
But lightning struck, yet again. Aronoff told Edwards there was a viola opening in The Philadelphia Orchestra and that he should take the audition. Thanks to the Orchestra’s Friday afternoon free ticket program for high school students and his membership in the Columbia Record Club, Edwards was very familiar with the Orchestra’s style and sound. “I just did it. It was music I had heard so many times. After the audition, I packed up my viola and walked the few blocks home from the Academy of Music. Ten minutes later I got a phone call from the Orchestra’s personnel manager, Mason Jones. He said, ‘Why aren’t you here? Come back, you’re in the second round.’ So, I went back and played again. We were all asked to wait in the Green Room. Mason came out and told me, ‘You’ve been accepted.’ I just blinked and said, ‘You mean in the Orchestra?’ He said, ‘Yes, you are now going to be a member of The Philadelphia Orchestra.’ And I was home.”
The announcement of Edwards’s hiring spread to newspapers across the United States and as far as Europe. After getting over his initial shock, he remembers being surprised that it was such a big deal. “It’s like a young tennis player winning his first big tournament and thinking, I just hit forehand and backhand, and I won,” he says. But this was 1970, and Edwards was the first Black member in the Orchestra’s history, one of very few Black musicians in major American orchestras.
Did he face racism? Edwards found the Orchestra members “very kind, on the whole.” There have been small issues from time to time, he notes, but nothing overt. “It’s difficult to have overt negativity and then walk out and play Brahms or Mozart,” he says.
And today, after more than five decades in the Orchestra, Edwards notes, “When I look out and see people who love this music sitting there by the thousands, it’s a vindication of anything that could be negative socially. We play music by composers—men and women of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. It is the
Edwards performs at the Marian Anderson Hall rededication ceremony in June 2024 with First Associate Concertmaster Juliette Kang and Assistant Principal Cello Yumi Kendall.
manifestation of the creativity of humanity. We have so many examples of that all over the world. And we can celebrate it.”
Edwards is one of the last remaining Orchestra members who went on the historic 1973 Tour of China, the first by an American orchestra (“I remember I was sick there, and the Chinese gave me some kind of potion that tasted like Ovaltine. It seemed to work.”) He is also one of the few members who can say they have played for every music director except the first two. Wait, how is that possible? Ormandy already was music director then and Stokowski, the third music director, did not return after 1969, one year before Edwards became a member.
“My last year in high school, I was rehearsing in the All City Orchestra,” recalls Edwards. “Our music director said that Stokowski was going to show up. Right, we thought. Then a door at the back of the auditorium opened, and who should come down the aisle but the man we all saw shake Mickey Mouse’s hand? We were speechless. We revered this man. We had all seen Fantasia and dreamed of playing that music one day. When he asked for an A [to tune the orchestra], it was the most beautiful A I ever heard. He was a very old man with a wizened look and beautiful hands. He had a presence that seemed to embody the music.”
Over his time in the Orchestra, Edwards has appreciated how each music director kept the beauty of the sound while shaping the music according to their interpretations. Some of his fondest memories are of accompanying great singers, like Leontyne Price, Beverly Sills, George Shirley, and Shirley Verrett. But he singles out one experience during a performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, when the Christ figure sings, “My God, why has Thou created me?” “I was reading a book called The Murder of Christ,” Edwards recalls, “and suddenly I was overwhelmed, crying, and I couldn’t control it. My stand partner, Irving Segall, said, ‘Don’t be embarrassed. That’s what this is all about.’”
“I’ve been moved many times in performances, sitting among the sound of this orchestra,” Edwards muses. “And I’m at home. I’m still at home.”
Judith Kurnick has written about music for The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and media outlets in Europe. She was The Philadelphia Orchestra’s vice president for communications from 1983 to 1989 and 2000 to 2005, and held the same role at the League of American Orchestras from 2008 to 2013.
Scan the QR code to visit the Orchestra’s special 125th anniversary website, including more oral histories.
Former Music Director
Leopold Stokowski
2025–2026 | 126TH SEASON
MARIAN ANDERSON HALL
THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA
Saturday, August 1, at 2:00
Naomi Woo Conductor
Aristo Sham Piano
Beethoven Coriolan Overture, Op. 62
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15
I. Allegro con brio
II. Largo
III. Rondo: Allegro
Intermission
Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67
I. Allegro con brio
II. Andante con moto
III. Allegro—
IV. Allegro
This program runs approximately 2 hours.
Philadelphia Orchestra concerts are broadcast on WRTI 90.1 FM on Sunday afternoons at 1 PM and are repeated on Monday evenings at 7 PM on WRTI HD 2. Visit www.wrti.org to listen live or for more details.
THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA
THE
The world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra strives to share the transformative power of music with the widest possible audience, and to create joy, connection, and excitement through music in the Philadelphia region, across the country, and around the world. Through innovative programming, robust education initiatives, a commitment to its diverse communities, and the embrace of digital outreach, the ensemble is creating an expansive and inclusive future for classical music.
The Philadelphia Orchestra takes great pride in its hometown, performing for the people of Philadelphia year-round, at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, throughout the community, over the airwaves, and online. The Kimmel Center has been the ensemble’s home since 2001, and in 2024 Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center was officially rededicated as Marian Anderson Hall in honor of the legendary contralto, civil rights icon, and Philadelphian. The Orchestra’s awardwinning education and community programs connect, uplift, and celebrate nearly 40,000 Philadelphians and 250 schools from diverse communities annually, through inclusive arts education and vibrant engagement that reflect our city’s voices and expand access to creative opportunities. Students, families, and other community members can enjoy free and discounted experiences with The Philadelphia Orchestra through programs such as the Jane H. Kesson School Concerts, Family Concerts, Open Rehearsals, PlayINs, and Our City, Your Orchestra community concerts.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin is now in his 14th season with The Philadelphia Orchestra,
serving as music and artistic director. His connection to the ensemble’s musicians has been praised by both concertgoers and critics, and he is esteemed by the musicians of the Orchestra, audiences, and the community. In addition to expanding the repertoire by embracing an ever-growing and diverse group of today’s composers, Yannick and the Orchestra are committed to performing and recording the works of previously overlooked composers.
The Philadelphia Orchestra believes deeply in the power of music to connect people and the role cultural diplomacy can play in affecting change. Through concerts, national and international tours, residencies, and recordings, the Orchestra is a global ambassador and one of our nation’s greatest cultural exports. It performs annually at Carnegie Hall, the Highmark Mann Center, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and the Bravo! Vail Music Festival. The Orchestra also has a rich touring history, having first performed outside Philadelphia in its earliest days. In 1973 it became the first American orchestra to perform in the People’s Republic of China, launching a now-five-decade commitment of people-to-people exchange through music.
Under Yannick’s leadership, the Orchestra returned to recording with 15 celebrated releases on the Deutsche Grammophon label, including the GRAMMY® Award–winning Florence Price Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3. The Orchestra also reaches thousands of radio listeners with weekly broadcasts on WRTIFM and SiriusXM. For more information, please visit www.philorch.org.
Jeff Fusco
CONDUCTOR
Canadian conductor Naomi Woo is gaining worldwide attention for her spirited dynamism and infectious musicality. A widely sought-after symphonic and operatic conductor, she is currently in her second season as assistant conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra. This season, she debuted with the New York and BBC philharmonics, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, and the Royal Ballet and Opera, Covent Garden. She also returned to Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain, where she was artistic partner from 2023 to 2025, as well as to the Vancouver Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic, and the City of London Sinfonia. A renowned advocate for contemporary music, she conducted the world premiere of Oliver Leith’s Garland at Bold Tendencies in London and led a workshop for Huang Ruo’s upcoming opera The Wedding Banquet at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In previous seasons, Ms. Woo appeared with the Toronto, Baltimore, and Montreal symphonies; the National Arts Centre Orchestra; London’s Philharmonia; the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana; the Chamber Orchestra of Luxembourg; and at LSO St. Luke’s in London with Tangram Sound, an ensemble devoted to celebrating the vitality of Chinese cultures and producing new music by transnational Chinese creators.
On the opera stage, Ms. Woo has conducted the Canadian premiere of Du Yun’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Angel’s Bone in Vancouver, Puccini’s Edgar at Opera Holland Park, Rossini’s La Cenerentola with English Touring Opera, and the world premiere of Ellis LudwigLeone’s The Night Falls in New York City. Recognized for her collaborative approach and natural command for storytelling and language, Ms. Woo has conducted more than a dozen operas with students and young professionals in the United States and the United Kingdom, and collaboratively created new, genre-bending operatic works with Sasha Amaya and Catherine Kontz ( A Certain Sense of Order ), Sophie Seita ( Beethoven Was a Lesbian ), and Alex Ho/Julia Cheng. Ms. Woo was music director of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada for its 2024 and 2025 seasons and is the former music director of El Sistema Winnipeg. As a pianist, she has led performances from the keyboard with The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Winnipeg Symphony, and others.
Ms. Woo holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, where she was a Gates Cambridge Scholar. She has also studied mathematics, philosophy, and music at Yale College, the Yale School of Music, and the University of Montreal. The 2022 winner of the Canada Council’s prestigious Virginia Parker Prize, she is a member of Tapestry Opera’s Women in Musical Leadership program and was chosen by her mentor, Philadelphia Orchestra Music and Artistic Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, as a member of the Orchestre Métropolitain’s inaugural orchestral conducting academy. She acknowledges generous support over the years from the Manitoba Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, Help Musicians UK, and the BC Arts Council.
Christa Holka
SOLOIST
Pianist Aristo Sham made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in July at the Bravo! Vail Music Festival. In 2025 he was awarded both the Gold Medal and the Audience Prize at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He has dazzled audiences across five continents, appearing with the London Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Utah Symphony, and the Minnesota Orchestra. He has worked with conductors including Simon Rattle, Marin Alsop, Edo de Waart, and Raymond Leppard. His 2025–26 debut season as Cliburn winner included a major tour of Asia through South Korea and China and recitals in the United States at the Aspen Music Festival, La Jolla Music Society/The Conrad, UCSB Arts and Lectures, and the Skyline Piano Artist Series at Northwestern University.
In 2009 Mr. Sham was featured in the documentary The World’s Greatest Musical Prodigies, broadcast by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. He has also performed for royalty and dignitaries including King Charles of the United Kingdom and Queen Mathilde of the Belgians. In 2024 he recorded and hosted the complete Brahms solo piano music on RTHK Radio 4 in Hong Kong.
Mr. Sham first gained international recognition when he won First Prize in the Ettlingen International Piano Competition in Germany in 2006 and First Prize in the Gina Bachauer International Junior Piano Competition in 2008. He is the First Prize Winner of the 2018 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions. In 2023 he won the Grand Prix at the Monte-Carlo Music Masters. He is also the recipient of top prizes at the Casagrande, Dublin, Clara Haskil, New York, Saint-Priest, and Viotti international piano competitions, and the Vendome Prize at the Verbier Festival. Mr. Sham holds a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University and a Masters in Piano Performance from the New England Conservatory. He continued his studies at the Ingesund School of Music in Sweden with Julia Mustonen-Dahlkvist before returning to the United States to earn an artist diploma at the Juilliard School with Robert McDonald and Orli Shaham.
FRAMING THE PROGRAM
PARALLEL EVENTS
1795
Beethoven
Piano Concerto
No. 1
1807
Beethoven
Coriolan
Overture/ Symphony No. 5
Music
Salieri
Palmyra
Literature
Goethe
Wilhelm Meisters
Lehrjahre
Art
Goya
The Duchess of Alba
History
Bread riots and White Terror in Paris
Music
Spontini
La vestale
Literature
Byron
Hours of Idleness
Art
Turner
Sun Rising in a Mist
History
Britain abolishes slave trade
This all-Beethoven program opens with the Coriolan Overture. Beethoven was inspired to compose the piece by a play a friend of his had recently written. As with Shakespeare’s far more famous version, the story relates the heroic struggles of a Roman general. The Overture is in C minor—the key of the Fifth Symphony that concludes today’s concert.
Beethoven composed his First Piano Concerto (in fact, his second chronologically) over many years during which he refined it as a vehicle to display his impressive musical gifts. Mozart’s concertos served as the model for this sparkling work in which Beethoven attempted to make a name for himself both as a virtuoso pianist and a brilliant composer.
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony has been at the core of The Philadelphia Orchestra’s repertory ever since its inaugural concert in November 1900. In this landmark work, Beethoven experiments with symphonic form, motivic development, and instrumentation, which is more powerful than in any previous symphony. The composition traces an emotional arc from “fate knocking at the door” to a triumphant conclusion.
The Philadelphia Orchestra is the only orchestra in the world with three weekly broadcasts on SiriusXM’s Symphony Hall , Channel 76, on Mondays at 7 PM, Thursdays at 12 AM, and Saturdays at 4 PM.
THE MUSIC
Coriolan Overture
Ludwig van Beethoven
Born in Bonn, probably December 16, 1770
Died in Vienna, March 26, 1827
It is unclear whether Beethoven was inspired to compose his Coriolan Overture after reading the play of the same name by his friend Heinrich Joseph von Collin, or because he was more practically anticipating a new production of the drama. In any case, the composition itself is self-sufficient. Collin’s drama from 1802 had not sustained its initial success and fell out of the repertory within a couple of years. Beethoven composed his Overture early in 1807 and dedicated it to Collin, with whom he frequently discussed collaborating on an opera. The Overture was performed at one of Prince Lobkowitz’s palaces in March and used for a revival of the play in April.
Like Beethoven’s other famous tragic overture, Egmont , the work deals with a heroic figure whose struggles resonated with his own. The composer Johann Friedrich Reichardt, who heard an early performance of Coriolan , believed that Beethoven portrayed himself in the work. The story is best known through Shakespeare’s telling in his last tragedy. (Wagner believed the Overture was meant for the English play, a work Beethoven most likely also knew.) The Roman general Coriolan is overthrown and exiled by the people. Taken in by the Volscians, the vengeful Coriolan leads these enemy forces against his native Romans, who are forced to plead for mercy. They ultimately call upon Coriolan’s mother, wife, and children to appease his anger. He yields to their entreaties and eventually commits suicide.
A Closer Look The Overture begins with three resolute chords suggesting Coriolan’s power and resolve. The key is C minor—the same as the Fifth Symphony as well as some of Beethoven’s other most intense works. Although the tempo is marked Allegro con brio, extended note values make the opening sound as if it were written at a slower tempo. It is a cliché of 19th-century writing about music to talk of bold, loud, “masculine” first themes and softer, lyrical, “feminine” second ones. This gendered language has recently received a lot of critical attention from musicologists, but in the case of this piece it might be just what Beethoven had in mind. Commentators have long thought Beethoven was inspired by the scene in the play in which the women ask for Coriolan to exercise restraint. The opening theme, which returns at crucial structural points in the Overture, would therefore represent the hero, and the contrasting second theme, first presented by the strings, the women’s entreaties. A final plea is heard in the coda and Coriolan’s theme returns in an altogether more subdued and resigned mood.
—Christopher H. Gibbs
Christopher H. Gibbs is James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Music at Bard College and has been the program annotator for The Philadelphia Orchestra since 2000. He is the author of several books on Schubert and Liszt, and the co-author, with Richard Taruskin, of The Oxford History of Western Music, College Edition.
Beethoven composed his Coriolan Overture in 1807.
The Overture was first heard on a Philadelphia Orchestra concert on November 28, 1902, led by Fritz Scheel. It was heard about every other year until 1920 and then not again until 1944, when Eugene Ormandy conducted it in New York. David Afkham conducted the most recent subscription performances, in November 2018.
Coriolan was recorded by the Philadelphians in 1951 for CBS with Ormandy.
The work is scored for an orchestra of two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings.
The Coriolan Overture runs approximately eight minutes in performance.
THE MUSIC
Piano Concerto No. 1
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a heck of an improviser. From all accounts he sat for long stretches noodling on the keyboard and captivated listeners with spontaneous musical chattiness. Wenzel Johann Tomaschek, a prominent Czech musician, writes that in 1798 he heard Beethoven give a concert in Prague: “Beethoven’s magnificent playing and particularly daring flights of improvisation stirred me strangely to the depths of my soul.”
Improvisation in Compositions Although the word improvisation is most often associated with jazz, classical musicians worth their salt were well known for winging it. They improvised fugues and sonata forms, forms that appear to come to fruition only on paper, like a theory exercise. Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata, subtitled “Quasi un fantasia,” for example, is “like a fantasy,” notes floating in space captured in the mind and heart of the composer and then set to ink on paper. Even the Ninth Symphony, which seems as difficult to keep in one’s head as a mathematical theorem, appears to have evolved like a fantasy. Listen to each movement like jazz and you will hear Beethoven composing in real time. He even competed in an improvisation contest in 1800 in Vienna with Daniel Steibelt, a pianist from Berlin. Aristocrats sponsored each pianist, like betting on a racehorse, and a musical duel ensued: this won by Beethoven, who played circles around Steibelt’s four-note theme. As a result, Steibelt agreed never to return to Vienna.
One finds improvisation in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, namely in the cadenza. He premiered the work in Vienna in 1795 and evidently improvised the two cadenzas, since the original autograph score of the work, dated 1800, has the words “senza” (without) cadenza. In what the musicologist Geoffrey Block has coined his “cadenza year,” Beethoven, in a fit of artistic control, put to paper 11 cadenzas in 1809, including three for the first movement of the First Piano Concerto and even one for the Mozart D-minor Concerto, thus drafting a “substantial body of improvisations frozen in time.” While the C-major Concerto is listed as No. 1, it was actually composed after his Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major. The C-major is known as the First because it was published before the Second, in 1801.
A Closer Look The first movement ( Allegro con brio ) begins in diatonic C-major brilliance, like the last movement of his Fifth Symphony. Beethoven was riding a wave
of popularity in Vienna and was yet to express any foreboding of hearing loss. Chords announce scales, scales morph into themes, all of them not particularly tuneful, but utilitarian in their ability to easily move from first theme to bridge to second theme in a straightforward double exposition form. The second theme is predictably quiet, and the closing theme takes the listener hunting in the country outside Vienna. The piano starts on cue, no games, though it begins to joust with the orchestra fairly quickly with running scales. Beethoven’s feisty virtuosity jumps quickly into the foreground mixed with a kind of faux sensitivity. A brief return of the orchestra interrupts the preening and an echo of Mozart sneaks through before the improvised cadenza. Knowing Beethoven’s proclivity for long windedness one can imagine him going on for a while, to the delight of many, until the orchestra probably started squeaking on their violins, an indication that they had other things to do.
The second movement Largo is in a rather distant A-flat major key, a cheeky harmonic move that reappears in the first movement of Beethoven’s “Waldstein” Piano Sonata, another C-major gem. Beethoven is at home in slow movements despite his impetuosity. The piano is thoroughly in control with its spindly melody over an acquiescent orchestra. He does not skimp on the slow stuff here, as he does later in the slow movement of his Fourth Concerto, all of 72 measures.
Rondos are the ear worms of classical music. Just think of Mozart’s Rondo “Alla turca” or the final movement of the Horn Concerto No. 3. Beethoven’s third movement rondo theme ( Allegro ) will playfully rattle in your head for a while after the work is over. The pianist introduces the rollicking rondo, followed dutifully by the orchestra, which must keep up with the brisk tempo or risk getting lost in the circular work. The orchestra reasserts itself after the cadenza, otherwise playing second fiddle most of the time. But the piano quickly elbows its way back into the texture. In Beethoven’s early Concerto we see the seeds of assertiveness and improvisation that will mark so much of his music, even its most melancholic moments.
—Aaron Beck
Aaron Beck is a professor emeritus of musicology at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. He has published widely on the subject of Italian medieval and Renaissance music and art, including his latest book, Boccaccio and the Invention of Musical Narrative.
Beethoven composed the C-major Piano Concerto in 1795 and revised it from 1800 to 1801.
The work was first performed by The Philadelphia Orchestra in December 1918, with Alfred Cortot and conductor Leopold Stokowski. The most recent subscription performances were in January 2020, with Daniil Trifonov as soloist and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
The First Concerto was recorded twice by the Orchestra: in 1954 and 1965, both for the CBS label, and both with Rudolf Serkin and Eugene Ormandy.
The score calls for solo piano, flute, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings.
Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto runs approximately 35 minutes in performance.
THE MUSIC
Symphony No. 5
Ludwig van Beethoven
Every listener may feel free to interpret this immortal work in his or her own fashion. The idea that it represents the composer’s mighty but victorious struggle with destiny was put into circulation by Beethoven himself, or at least by his fantasy-spinning secretary, Anton Schindler, who reported the composer’s explanation of the opening motif as “So pocht das Schicksal an die Pforte” (Thus Fate knocks at the door). Perhaps Beethoven did say that, and it offers a vivid image for an extraordinarily unconventional opening for a Classical symphony. But there are so many other forces at work besides that of fate that we need to open our ears and minds to every signal it sends out. Most listeners agree that they may be different at every hearing.
A Profound Crisis Fate struck Beethoven most cruelly in about 1802 when, still in his early 30s he acknowledged the fact of his deafness and began the long process of coming to terms with a handicap that was less of a musical disability (it did not interfere with his ability to compose) than a social one. Up to that point his career as a musician was going swimmingly, with Vienna’s aristocrats lining up to engage him, refined ladies swooning whenever he played, and music of limpid beauty pouring from his pen. His standing as a virtuoso pianist with excellent connections at court was seriously threatened, and his relations with friends, especially with women, were now forever circumscribed.
We might think that as a composer his reactions were more violent than the situation warranted. The “Eroica” Symphony, the immediate product of that profound crisis, transformed the world of classical music forever. He did not stop there. The superhuman creative energy that produced the great heroic works of that decade had never been heard before in music. One colossal path-breaking composition followed another, combining unearthly beauty of invention, technical virtuosity, vastness of conception, and a radical freedom of expression and form.
Beethoven may have—privately—felt inordinately sorry for himself, but there is no self-pity in the music. Defiance, yes certainly, although the sense of triumph expressed in the conclusion of the Fifth Symphony is surely more than a tongue-sticking-out I-told-you-so addressed to Fate.
Beethoven’s triumph gloats not just over an unfair destiny cowering at his feet, but rather over all mankind, over all of us who have the misfortune not to measure up to his infinite creative spirit.
Photo: PeteChecchia
If Beethoven gave up the unequal struggle to take care of worldly and domestic concerns, if he lost control of his finances, if he quarreled with landlords and servants, if he felt robbed by publishers and creditors, if he lived in squalor, if he could not count on the affection and loyalty of friends, there always remained one domain in which he was the unchallenged master: music itself. He could change the world by scratching barely legible lines and dots on ruled paper, the physical manifestation of a cauldron of sound and pride that boiled in his brain.
A Closer Look The famous four-note motive that opens the Fifth Symphony is heard constantly in the first movement (Allegro con brio) and intermittently elsewhere, but it is far from being the all-pervading idea that many people suppose. The second movement, Andante con moto, deftly and curiously blends gorgeous cantilena with military trumpets, all wrapped in variation form. The third movement (Allegro) is full of mystery; not defiant, not triumphant, more humorous or spectral, and out of it grows the huge shout of triumph of the Allegro finale, as the trombones proclaim a new order of the universe, supported by piccolo, contrabassoon, and the full weight of C major, the key which Haydn had assigned to the completion of The Creation itself. Beethoven was so proud of the exciting passage at the end of the scherzo, where the approach of the finale is felt in the very bones of the music, that he felt impelled to repeat it. So the heavens open not once, but twice.
The disorder and confusion that reigned at the first performance of this Symphony in Vienna in December 1808 in a famously long concert that also included the first performances of the Fourth Piano Concerto, the Sixth Symphony, and the “Choral” Fantasy, perfectly illustrates the sorry mismatch between reality in Beethoven’s life, when a long difficult concert had to be rehearsed and performed, and the sublime quality of the music itself. No wonder Viennese audiences were confused by this giant in their midst.
—Hugh Macdonald
Hugh Macdonald is Avis H. Blewett Professor Emeritus of Music at Washington University, St. Louis. He has published books on Scriabin, Berlioz, Bizet, and Saint-Saëns. His Music in 1853: the Biography of a Year recounts the stimulating interactions of Berlioz, Liszt, Brahms, and Wagner. He has been a regular preconcert speaker for the St. Louis, Cleveland, and Boston symphonies and has provided singing translations of opera for companies in London, Leeds, Glasgow, Los Angeles, and St. Louis.
Beethoven composed his Symphony No. 5 from 1807 to 1808.
Fritz Scheel conducted the first Philadelphia Orchestra performances of the Fifth, in November 1900, as part of the Orchestra’s first concert. A series of eminent conductors have led the piece here over the years: Artur Rodzinski, Fritz Reiner, Otto Klemperer, José Iturbi, Erich Leinsdorf, Klaus Tennstedt, Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Michael Tilson Thomas, and, of course, Leopold Stokowski, Eugene Ormandy, Riccardo Muti, Wolfgang Sawallisch, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Most recently on subscription, Christoph Eschenbach led the work in February 2018.
The Philadelphia Orchestra has recorded the Symphony four times: in 1931 with Stokowski for RCA; in 1955 and 1966 with Ormandy for CBS; and in 1985 with Muti for EMI. A live performance from 2005 with Eschenbach is also currently available as a digital download.
The piece is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and strings.
The Fifth Symphony runs approximately 35 minutes in performance.
Cadenza: A passage or section in a style of brilliant improvisation, usually inserted near the end of a movement or composition
Cantilena: A particularly sustained or lyrical vocal line, or an instrumental passage with this lyrical and vocal quality
Chord: The simultaneous sounding of three or more tones
Chromatic: Relating to tones foreign to a given key (scale) or chord
Coda: A concluding section or passage added in order to confirm the impression of finality
Diatonic: Melody or harmony drawn primarily from the tones of the major or minor scale
Double exposition form: In the first movement of a concerto, the first section is played twice, first by the orchestra alone and the second time by the soloist accompanied by the orchestra. This became the norm in the Classical period.
Fantasy: A composition free in form and more or less fantastic in character
Fugue: A piece of music in which a short melody is stated by one voice and then imitated by the other voices in succession, reappearing throughout the entire piece in all the voices at different places
Harmonic: Pertaining to chords and to the theory and practice of harmony
Harmony: The combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce chords and chord progressions
Op.: Abbreviation for opus, a term used to indicate the chronological position of a composition within a composer’s output. Opus numbers are not always reliable because they are often applied in the order
of publication rather than composition.
Rondo: A form frequently used in symphonies and concertos for the final movement. It consists of a main section that alternates with a variety of contrasting sections (A-B-A-C-A etc.).
Scale: The series of tones which form (a) any major or minor key or (b) the chromatic scale of successive semi-tonic steps
Sonata: An instrumental composition in three or four extended movements contrasted in theme, tempo, and mood, usually for a solo instrument
Sonata form: The form in which the first movements (and sometimes others) of symphonies are usually cast. The sections are exposition, development, and recapitulation, the last sometimes followed by a coda. The exposition is the introduction of the musical ideas, which are then “developed.” In the recapitulation, the exposition is repeated with modifications.
Tonic: The keynote of a scale
Scherzo: Literally “a joke.” Usually the third movement of symphonies and quartets that was introduced by Beethoven to replace the minuet. The scherzo is followed by a gentler section called a trio, after which the scherzo is repeated. Its characteristics are a rapid tempo, vigorous rhythm, and humorous contrasts.
THE SPEED OF MUSIC (Tempo)
Allegro: Bright, fast
Andante: Walking speed
Con brio: Vigorously, with fire
Con moto: With motion
Largo: Broad
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BOARD OF TRUSTEES
The Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Ralph W. Muller, Chair
Ryan Fleur, President and Chief Executive Officer
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James P. Brandau
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Bin Zhang
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THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA AND ENSEMBLE ARTS
PRESIDENT’S LEADERSHIP COUNCIL
Robert Bogle
Sheldon M. Bonovitz
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As of March 2026
THEN: The Philadelphia Orchestra with Stokowski, 1936
MAKE A GIFT MAKE HISTORY
CELEBRATE 125 YEARS OF MUSIC
NOW: The Philadelphia Orchestra with Nézet-Séguin, 2024
Since 1900, The Philadelphia Orchestra has relied on support from patrons like you to create a legacy of exceptional music. The generosity of our donors makes it possible to present hundreds of performances each season, including free community and education events for audiences of all ages. Make a gift and be a part of the next 125 years of music history.
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Explore our membership levels, benefits, and flexible payment options at philorch.org/membership.
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ANNUAL FUND
Philanthropic support inspires and sustains Your Philadelphia Orchestra’s work on stage, in our local communities, and around the world. We are proud to recognize our generous Annual Fund donors by name on this and subsequent pages. We extend our deepest gratitude to every donor, including those listed anonymously and at levels not included in this program.
For more information about donating to the Annual Fund at any level, please contact us at 215.893.3151 or development@ philorch.org, or visit philorch.org/donate.
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Jim and Janet Averill
Drs. Robert and Jean Belasco
Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz
Dr. and Mrs. Patrick J. Brennan
Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Broder
Judy and Mark Brodsky
James and Doris Brogan
Dr. Eugenio* and Giuliana Calabi
Dr. Rosemary Cook
John Cornell
Joyce Creamer
Richard and Patricia Cummines
Mr.* and Mrs. Edward C. Dearden
Edith R. Dixon
Alex J. Ettl Foundation
Eph and Pat Fithian
Mr. and Mrs. David M. Friedman
Donald Goldsmith
In memory of
Rena and Morton C. Grad and John de Lancie
Vivian and Mark Greenberg
Gni Grossman and Christopher Murray
Leon and Miriam Hamui
Fred and Michelle Harde
Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Harris
Katherine Hatton and Richard Bilotti
Hannah L. Henderson
Richard H. Holzer Memorial Foundation
Eric and Lenora Hume
Ms. Lisa R. Jacobs
Andrew Jacobson and Carol Overvold
Erika James
Lyn Kratz and Pamela French
Dr. Peter Langmuir and Dr. Colette Desrochers
Nestor Llorente and Don Jones
Sally and Tod MacKenzie
Nicholas Maiale*
Dr. Ann Elizabeth Mayer
Paul H. McKelvie
Estate of Mary and David Meese
Dr. Jill Mortensen
Alexander Nikas and Dr. Marianne Ruhl Nikas
Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Pierre Tourville
Mrs. Sarah Peterson
Mrs. Vivian W. Piasecki*
Dr. and Mrs. Joel and Bobbie Porter
Susan and David Rattner
Marney Roia
Dr. Marta Rozans and Prof. Ilan Peleg
Xiaomei Shao
Lee F. Shlifer
Edward and Shelley Sigman
Kathleen and Roger Smith
Richard and Amanda Smoot
Samuel and Rosanne Spear
Mary Ann Stehr
Mr. and Mrs. William Stone
Walter and Alice Strine, Esqs.
Charles and Suzanne Valutas
The Vert Charitable Trust
Peggy Wachs
Penelope and Thomas Watkins
Mary E. Webb
Carol A. Westfall
Martin Zeldin and Bill Brinkman
Walter A. Zanchuk and
Norma Milne Zanchuk
James W. and Debora C. Zug
Anonymous (5)
AMBASSADORS CIRCLE
$5,000 TO $9,999
Erika Aaron and Marc Fliegelman
Mrs. Neysa Adams
Peter J. Allen
Larry and Dr. Marcia Arem
Drs. Janine and Barry Arkles
Lynn Axelroth and Cricket Handsaker
Richard and Jane Baron
William And Sylvia Barone
Carol Beam
John D. Benson, Esq.
Isabelle Benton and Aileen White
Ms. Donna Brennan and Dr. James Bergey
Andrea Biondo and Kenneth Hartzell
Allen D. Black and R. Randolph Apgar
Jeff Benoliel and Amy Branch
Ms. Linda Bross
Alfred Anthony Brown and Hai-Ye Ni
Dr. and Mrs. I. Stephen Brown
Mr. and Mrs. James M. Buck III
Estate of James Buttenwieser
Malcolm and Carla Cain
Jennifer and David Cardy
Robert Carmichael
Kathleen and Nicholas Chimicles
Kristine Christensen
Celia Mendes Chumaceiro
Georgette P. Ciukurescu
Earl* and Margaret Clime
Mrs. Marlynne Clothier
Dr. Robert Cody
Stephen Cohen and John McNett
Ruth M. and Tristram* C. Colket, Jr.
Peggy Cooke
Jeffrey Cooper and Nancy Klaus
Kenneth and Nancy Davis
Stephen and Rhoda Davis
Evelyn S.* and Rodney D. Day III
Mr.* and Mrs. Willem K. Dikland
Dr. and Ms. James Doghramji
Cynthia Tehan and Ed Dougherty
Ellason Downs
Perpetual Charitable Trust
MaryAnn Edwards
Ms. Carol S. Eicher
Dr. Bruce Eisenstein, in memory of Dr. Toby Eisenstein
Audrey Escoll
Andrew E. Faust and Ann Russavage-Faust
$5,000 TO $9,999 CONT.
Mary Felley
Allen R. and Judy Brick Freedman
John R. and Karen S. Fulton III
John and Beth Gamel
The Gant Family Foundation
Patsy and Ed Garno
Jim and Kay Gately
Ms. Phyllis S. Gitlin
Howard and Norah Goldfine
Mary L. Goldman
David and Bonnie Goldmann
Charles and Alison Graham
Lyn and Harry Groome
Diana and Robert Harding
Hope and Stephen Heaney
Martin and Cynthia Heckscher
Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Henkels, in memory of Paul M. Henkels
Ms. Rhoda K. Herrold, in memory of Deenie and Yale Evelev
Maria Hoek-Smit
Stockton Illoway and Mac K. Griswold
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Jacovini
Mr. and Mrs. Scott M. Jenkins
Susan E. Kane
Arthur M. Kaplan and R. Duane Perry
Leroy E. Kean
Estate of Robert Michael Kelly
Dr. Stephanie and Mr. Andrew Kirk
Ms. Gabrielle Kissling
Dr. and Mrs. Anton J. Kleiner
Dr. Mel Kohn
William Lake Leonard
Jeff Lewis and Mary Ann Rossi
In memory of David W. Lindstrom
Mr. James P. MacElderry* and Ms. Marilyn S. Fishman
Drs. Leon and Elsa Malmud
Mary L.C. McAdoo
Susan and Graham McDonald
Mr. and Mrs. James M. McGrath
Robert and Claire McLear
Missy and Bob McQuiston
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Meacham
Mr. and Mrs. Marshall Meyer
Mr. and Mrs. Paul Meyer
Madelyn Mignatti
Mr. Mladen Milic and Dr. Barbara Wolf
Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Miller
Mr. and Mrs. H. Laddie Montague, Jr.
Virginia Montgomery
Mr. and Mrs. Rodman W. Moorhead III
Mr. and Mrs. David J. Morgan
Mrs. Robert Morris
Ms. Susan Mucciarone and Mr. David Moore
Dr. Robert and Carla Myerson
Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin R. Neilson
Dick and Mimi Nenno
Arthur E. Newbold IV
Marie O’Donnell and Bruce Satalof
Norman Olson
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Palmer
Lili Perski
Marjorie M. and Irwin Nat Pincus Fund
Susan C. Porcino and Peter R. Porcino
Dr. Carol A. Raviola
Nancy J. Remy
Maria and Eric Rieders
Mr.* and Mrs. Richard Rizzo
Sevgi B. Rodan, Ph.D.
Mrs. Debbie Rodgers
Mrs. Willa Rosenbloom
Dr. Louis and Mrs. Val Rossman
Linda S. Rothermel
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Schelke
Mrs. Carole L. Schultz
Valerie and Will Schwartz
Fredda L. Segal
Dr. and Mrs. Hass Shafia
Christine J. Shamborsky
Elizabeth Stokes and Lynne Brown
In memory of Sha Sung
Ms. Nancy L. Tindall
Rebecca Wells and John Tobias
Nancy and Bruce Urbschat
Mr. and Mrs. Archbold D. van Beuren
Richard and Carolyn Veith
Maria Parisi Vickers
Nina Robinson Vitow
Laurie Wagman
Dr. R.J. Wallner
Alan and Leni Windle
Mr. and Mrs. Harold L. Yoh III
Stephen Zeller
Anonymous (11)
AMBASSADORS CIRCLE
$3,500 TO $4,999
Amaranth Foundation, Joan M. Moran, Trustee
Gary and Mary Ammon
Dr. Ronald and Mrs. Catherine Anderson
Mary Jo Ashenfelter and Thomas S. Heckman
Myrna and Howard* Asher
Theodore H. Ashford
The Albert W. Bader Foundation
Sarah Batchelor and Kirk Schneider
Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Beier
Narinder and Tracy Bhalla
Jan R. Birsch
Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Bleyer
Samuel A. Bobrow and Maxine Blum
The Bohan and Fox Family
Ira Brind and Stacey Spector
Nancy Carey and DeWitt Brown
The Clarke Family Fund
Barbara R. Cobb for the Hamilton Family Foundation
Ms. Eileen Courtney
Ana V. Diez Roux and Jose Tapia
Ray Dombroski and Colleen DeMorat
Henry and Katherine Donner
Mr. Jay M. Donner
Dr. Andrew F. Drake
Stacy Maria Dutton and Charles McMahon
Barbara Eberlein and Jerry Wind
Dr. Pamela Edmonds and Mr. David Chianese
Mr. and Mrs. Spencer Ervin, Jr.
Helen and Phillip Escaravage
Nina Maria Fite
Debbie and Bob Fleischman
Ms. Jane Foster and Mr. Arthur Willson
Mr. and Mrs. William W. Fox, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Fridkis
Dr. Deborah Gaspar and Mr. Mark Gaspar
Robert Gelsher
Anna Marie and Michael Gewirtz
Eduardo Glandt and George Ritchie
Susan Kohn Gleeksman
Joseph and Jane Goldblum
Robert Graff
Rekha and Jon Hagen
Mrs. Jane M. Hastings
Mr. Charles Head, Jr., and Mr. John Faggotti
Archibald C. Hewes
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Jeffrey Pasek
Lois Horgan
Dr. and Mrs. Leonid Hrebien
Ralph Johanson
Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Jones
Clare Kahn
Donald and Dorothy Kardon
Dr. Maureen Kelly
Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Kline
Kenneth Klothen and Eve Biskind Klothen
Timothy E. Koehler
Mrs. Beth Ann Wahl Kolpen and Mr. Jack Kolpen
Shira Kramer and Leon Josowitz
Sanford and Carol Levy
Mrs. H. Gates Lloyd
William A. Loeb
Robert Logemann
Drs. W.B. and Sarah S. Long
Dr. and Mrs. Michael B. Love
Robert and Lynn V.D. Luft
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Lukens
Joseph Manko, Jr., and Jennifer Porges
Dr. Bernard A. Mason and Jane R. Mason
Denise McCleary and Paul von Behren
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph J. McLaughlin, Jr.
Russell L. McTague
Michael and Anna Minkovich
Margarita Montanaro
Mr. Edward A. Montgomery, Jr.
Dr. and Mrs. A.H. Nishikawa
Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Ockman
Ellen J. Odoner and Edward W. Kerson
Mr. Frederick Oster and Ms. Catherine Jacobs
Linda and David Paskin
Barbara L. Phillips
Mrs. Vivian W. Piasecki*
Dr. Leo Podolsky and Ms. Debra Ross
Anonymous in memory of Jan Popper
Allan Rayfield
David Rhody
David Richman and Janet Perry
Dr. Elizabeth and Mr. Hershel Richman
Gretchen and Jay Riley
Pamela and Gresham Riley
Mr. and Mrs. Mark E. Rubenstein
John Salveson
Marilyn C. Sanborne and Richard J. Labowskie
William and Klare Scarborough
David Seidman
Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. Seminack
Dr. M. Lana Sheer, in memory of Dr. J. Peter Jesson
Janet A. Simon and Georg U. Simon
Joseph Sinkus and Christopher Labonte
Drs. Kobie A. Smith and Vincent H. Harris
Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Stevens
Stacy Stone and Stephen McMillan
Mr. Brian A. Stumm
Dr. Norman L. Sykes and Mrs. Gabriella Sykes
Jack and Ramona Vosbikian
Daniel V. Walls
Julie D. Williams
Ursule Phaeton Yates
Dr. Daniel Yoshor
James W. and Debora C. Zug
John Zurlo and Margaret Kreher
Anonymous (5)
FRIENDS CIRCLE
$2,500 TO $3,499
Dr. Janice Asher
Ellen W. Baxter and Robert W. Kavash
Joel D. Beaver
Cathy and Saul Behar
Diane Bernoff
Howard Blumstein
Drs. Bruce and Carole Bogdanoff
Richard A. Brand
Ms. Marilyn A. Brown
Mrs. Linda Burke
Estate of Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. Butler
Mark and Cindy Butler
Selden Cooper and Paige Edwards
Alice B. Cullen
Karen and John Cunningham
Dr. H.T. Dombrowski
Dr. and Mrs. William L. Elkins
Robert N. and Doris D. Fanelli
Paul and Judith Farber
Ellen W. Freeman
Charles and Judith Freyer
Michael Gealt and Maryjanet McNamara
Glazer Family Foundation
Marybeth Henry
Mark and Sally Hurwitz
Eva R. Jackson
Richard and Gail Johnson
Lori Julian
Denise and Robert Keyser
David and Jane Kim
Mrs. Sylvia Kreithen
Dr. Leona Laskin
Sheila Leith
Sylvia and Norman Lieberman
Jay Lippincott
Lawrence and Nancy Ludgus
Elizabeth M. Mahoney
Dwight and Christina McCawley
Elizabeth McLean
Janet and Howard Mendel
Dr. Margaret Motl
Charles and Etta Nissman
Dr. and Mrs. R. Barrett Noone
Kay and Jerry* O’Grady
Mr. and Mrs. Lanny R. Patten
Jonathan Pearce
Judy and Jim Pohlman
Ms. Nancy Pontone
Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Rauch, Jr.
John and Claire Rodgers
David and Rowena Rosenbaum
Ms. Ann Rosewater and Mr. Robert Kronley
Joyce Seewald Sando
Catherine and Stephan Schifter
John Schueler and Karen Warner
Henry and Yumi* Scott
Howard J. Sedran and Martha Levine
Irene Shabel
Paul and Susan Shaman
Marla Share
Ms. Katharine Sokoloff and William B. McLaughlin III
Dr. Christina A. Stasiuk and Mr. George M. Farion
Dr. Mary K. Stom and Ms. Dru E. Hammell
Dr. Alan E. Tasoff and Jacalyn Shelley-Tasoff
Mr. and Mrs. Luciano Virgili
Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas W. Wanck
Mr. and Mrs.* David R. Wilmerding, Jr.
Barbara Duby Wilson
Earl and Jackie Wolf
Anne Jeffrey Wright
Sherley Young
Ms. Margaret G. Zehner
Benjamin E. Zuckerman and Marian Robinson
Anonymous (3)
We are proud to recognize the following musicians, retired musicians, and staff who have generously contributed to the Annual Fund.
Davyd Booth and Carlos Perez*
Joseph H. Conyers
Helen and Phillip Escaravage
Ryan Fleur and Laura Banchero
Mr. and Ms. Randy Gardner
Andrea Gartner and Lee Clements
Anna Marie and Michael Gewirtz
Barbara S. Govatos
Ms. Jennifer Pratt Johnson and Dr. Fred Johnson
Ruth Kasow
Thomas Kerrigan
David and Jane Kim
Marjorie and Nolan* Miller
Kathleen Moran and Nicholas Smith
Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Pierre Tourville
Hai-Ye Ni and Alfred Anthony Brown
Samantha Noll
April and Brendan O’Brien
Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Orlando
Ms. Catherine A. Pappas
Doris Parent
William B. and Anna Marie Ahn
Petersen
Harold Hall Robinson
Joseph Sinkus and Christopher Labonte
Drs. Kobie A. Smith and Vincent H. Harris
Tubas for Good, Inc.,
Carol Jantsch, President and Founder
Anonymous
*Deceased
INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT
Generous support from corporations, foundations, and government agencies sustains
The Philadelphia Orchestra with vital funding for performances, education programs, and a variety of innovative projects. We are proud to acknowledge our current institutional donors.
For more information about institutional support for The Philadelphia Orchestra, please contact Ruth Auslander, managing director of institutional giving at 215.790.5829 or rauslander@ ensembleartsphilly.org.
Contributions listed were received between August 1, 2024, and February 28, 2026. Please contact us if your name has been omitted in error or if you would like to update your recognition name.
$500,000 AND ABOVE
City of Philadelphia
Ford Foundation
The Hess Foundation
The Knight Foundation
William Penn Foundation
Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development
The Presser Foundation
$100,000 TO $499,999
Bank of China
Casamigos Tequila
CHG Charitable Trust
China National Tourist Office, New York
Jessie Ball duPont Fund
The Hearst Foundation
The History Channel
Independence Blue Cross
Merck & Co. Incorporated
MKM Foundation
PECO
The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage
PNC Arts Alive
TD Bank
U.S. Department of State
Wyncote Foundation
$50,000 TO $99,999
Paul M. Angell Family Foundation
Chubb
KeyBank
Bells Grocery Stores
Kind Insurance
KPK Development Co. LP
US-China Cultural Institute
Vault Communications
TN Ward Company Builders
Anonymous
$25,000 TO $49,999
Abington Neurological Associates
Action Karate
Brotherston Homecare, Inc.
The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia
China Center for International Communication Development
John Ciccone Playhouse
Comcast NBCUniversal
Eagles Autism Foundation
Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
Amy P. Goldman Foundation
Gray Charitable Trust
Hamilton Family Charitable Trust
The Christian Humann Foundation
JKG Florida Business Corp.
Katznelson Associates LP
Ninja Transfers, LLC
Ollin, LLC
PHLCVB
Raynier Institute & Foundation
Rhubarb Hospitality Collection
Rush Order Tees
Sun Cruiser
$15,000 TO $24,999
Julius and Ray Charlestein Foundation in memory of Malvina and Morton Charlestein
The Connelly Foundation
Cozen O’Connor
Drexel University
Duane Morris LLP
Essential Utilities
The Anne M. and Philip H. Glatfelter III
Family Foundation
Independence Foundation
The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation
Lyft
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Philadelphia International Airport
Mrs. Ressler’s Food Products
SpotHero
Tito’s Handmade Vodka
Universal Health Services, Inc.
$10,000 TO $14,999
Always Best Care Senior Services
Ardmore Toyota
Elliot’s Vending Company
Elliott-Lewis Corporation
The Hassel Foundation
HUB International
Laudenbach Periodontics and Dental Implants
Law Office of Ana Ferriera
The Lincoln Financial Group Foundation
The McLean Contributionship
One Source Reps
Origlio Beverage
Power Marketing Group
Qlik
The H. Glenn Sample, Jr., M.D., Memorial Fund through the PNC Charitable Trusts Grant Review Committee
MJ Settelen Construction, LLC
Subbio Center for Plastic Surgery
Team Clean
Truist
White and Williams
$5,000 TO $9,999
Corinne R. and Henry Bower
Memorial Trust
The Capital Grille
Dorothy V. Cassard Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation
The Aaron Copland Fund for Music
Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation
Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia at Comcast Center
The Gitlin Family Foundation
Grant Thornton, LLP
Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation
M&T Charitable Foundation
M3 Printing
The McCausland Foundation
Leo Niessen, Jr., Charitable Trust
Sarah West Real Estate PC
WSFS Bank
Wyatt Elevator Company
THE VOLUNTEER COMMITTEES FOR THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA
The Volunteer Committees for The Philadelphia Orchestra are dedicated to supporting the Orchestra through audience development, educational programs, fundraising, community relations, and special events. The Committees were first formed in 1904 and have the distinction of being the oldest auxiliary volunteer organization associated with an orchestra in the United States. We are profoundly grateful for the Volunteers’ leadership and support throughout the years.
For more information about the Volunteer Committees for The Philadelphia Orchestra, please contact Samantha Noll, assistant director of development events and volunteer relations, at 215.893.1956 or snoll@philorch.org.
List complete as of March 19, 2026
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OFFICERS
Richelle Rabenou, President
Sara Cerato, Immediate Past President
Deborah Ledley, Vice President
Mrs. Diane Larzelere, Treasurer
Sheila Cox, Secretary
GOVERNING BOARD CHAIRS
Central: Jean Park
Main Line: Jill Acker
New Jersey: Mrs. Diane Larzelere
Rittenhouse Square: Marlena Kleit and Fran Schwartz
Starlight Circle: Mrs. Anna Minkovich
STANDING COMMITTEE CHAIRS
Annual Giving: Nancy Galloway
Education: Deborah Ledley*
Marketing: Kelsey Larzelere
Special Functions: Jennifer Porges
Volunteer Archives: Elizabeth A. Crowell
VOLUNTEER COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Dennis Adams
Dr. Susan C. Aldridge
Pam Alles
Barbara A. Alleva
Rosana Anchondo-Issak
Mrs. Betsy Anderson
Dr. Marilyn H. Appel
Mrs. Mercer B. Barrows
Mrs. Thomas E. Beach
Mrs. H. Binney Beale
Ms. Sandra Blumberg Beatty
Mrs. Nancy Belber
Isabelle Benton
Susan Segal Berrigan
Charlotte H. Biddle
Mrs. Thomas H. Bliss
Ann Young Bloom
Mrs. Peter Bodenheimer
Mrs. Eugene T. Borish, Jr.
Lois Boyce
Judith Bradley
Sibby Brasler
Anna Breyman
Leo Breyman
Mrs. Leanore Brookman
Judith Broudy
Ms. Carol Melman Brown
Mrs. Roland K. Bullard II
Mrs. Howard Butcher IV
Mrs. John P. Butler III
Mrs. Donald F. Cafiero
Mrs. Alfred M. Campbell III
Beverly Caplan-Freeman
Lorin Carlson-Healy
Nicole A. Cashman
Mrs. Thomas A.V. Cassel
Mrs. Kristine Christensen
DeAnn P. Clancy
Rebecca Clement
Marsha Cohen
Frances Connolly
Peggy Cooke
Sarah Miller Coulson
Mrs. James E. Crutchfield
Alice B. Cullen
Karen Cunningham
Chris D’Ascenzo
Mrs. J. David Davis
James F. Davis*
Mrs. Gerard de Lisser
Colleen DeMorat
Mimi Dimeling
Denise Dolan
Katherine Donner
Mrs. Virginia Dowd
Mrs. John G. Drosdick
Duc Duclos
Lynn Duclos
Roberta Epstein*
Mrs. Charles B. Fancher
Mrs. C. Richard Farmer
Kathleen Fitzgerald
Mrs. Timothy E. Foster
Mrs. Richard Freed
Katherine Garber
Ms. Janine Gardner
Judi Garst
Nancy J. Gellman
Robert Gelsher
Mrs. Kimberly Gerson
Mrs. Micki Ginsberg
Mrs. Jean Givey
Judy Glick
Paula Goldstein
Dr. Janice Taylor Gordon
Dr. Thelma B. Gosfield
Mrs. Richard B. Gould
Carole H. Gravagno
Grete Greenacre
Ms. Nancy V. Gulick
Kate Hall
Noel Butcher Hanley
Fred Harde
Michelle Harde*
Mrs. John S.C. Harvey III
Mrs. Jane M. Hastings
Mrs. Patricia Heidler
Marybeth Henry
Mrs. Frances Herr
Eileen Higgins
Mrs. Robert B. Hobbs, Jr.
Joan R. Holmes
Mrs. Stephen R. Holstad
Eric Hume
Lenora Hume
Ms. Adrienne Jacoby
Yardly R. Jenkins
Jamie Joffe
Karen Jones
Mrs. Mary Anne Dutt Justice
Mrs. Wilma C. Katz
Ms. Phyllis Kauffman
Marie Kenkelen
Kris Kent
Gina Kernicky
John Kernicky
Liz Knudsen*
Ms. Ellen G. Kopeland
Mrs. Bernice J. Koplin
Laura Bender Koropey
Mrs. Anthony Lame
Mrs. MaryAnn Landmesser
Molly Lawrence
Matthew Ledley*
Sheila Leith
Mrs. Dana Thompson Lerch
Mrs. Roy Lerman
Anita Leto
Mrs. Bruce Leto
Mrs. Stephen Levin
Sofia Leybin
Liddy Lindsay
Ric Lipman
Mrs. Rosemary Livingston
Miss Phoebe Loh
Carol Love, M.D.
Mrs. Robert S. Lovett II
Robin Lowey
Rochelle Magarick
Elizabeth Mahoney
Joseph Manko, Sr.
Sandy Marshall
Linda Massey
Mary MacGregor Mather
Mrs. James McAdam
Susan McChesney
Mrs. Stella McSparran
Ms. Peg Mertz
Mrs. Barbara G. Miller
Mrs. Keiko Miller
Leslie A. Miller
Mrs. Philippus Miller, Jr.
Michael Minkovich
Mrs. Robert F. Morris, Jr.
Ingrid Morsman
Ms. Cathy Moss*
Joanne Muhr
Linda Mui
Mrs. J. Brien Murphy
Mrs. Albert B. Murphy III
Chuck Nagele
Patricia Nagele
Lana Nania
Carol Neiman*
Mrs. John J. Nesbitt III
Mrs. Patricia Ann Nogar
Mrs. R. Barrett Noone
Terry Norton-Wright
Mrs. Wilber W. Oaks, Jr.
Kay O’Grady
Diane Oliva
Mrs. Mimi O’Malley
Mrs. Eleanor Oxman*
Alice Pakman*
Mrs. Regina H. Pakradooni
Mrs. Sandra Pfaff
Mrs. John W. Piasecki
Linda Pizzi*
Elizabeth Pontillo
Mrs. Malcolm D. Pryor
Michelle Fella Przybylowski*
Mr. Kameron Rabenou
Mrs. Ellen Ragone
Jill Raich*
Mrs. Alfred Rauch, Jr.
Kate Brady Rauscher
Josephine Rees
Caroline B. Rogers
Mrs. Randy S. Ronning
Dr. Lucy B. Rorke-Adams
Miriam Rosenwasser
Mrs. Dianne Rotwitt
Mrs. John E. Royer, Jr.
Lynn Salvo
Joyce Seewald Sando
Mrs. Harold F. Scattergood, Jr.
Jason Schupback
Mrs. Michael P. Schwartz
Faye Senneca
Linda A. Serotta
Marla Share
Carol C. Sherman
Ms. Irina Sipe
Theresa Slater
Mrs. Carol Smith
Cyndee Solomon
Ann Sorgenti
Carol Spinelli
Joyce Stein
Robin Bender Stevens
Lois Stick*
Danielle Stoler
Mrs. Kathleen Stone
Stacy Stone
Dr. Judith Sills Swartz
Roberta R. Tanenbaum
Ms. Faith Tarangelo
Ms. Mary Tattersfield
Barbara Taylor
Ling Tran
Kathryn E. Tusler*
Mrs. Hope Ulrich
Mrs. Annegret Voparil
Mrs. Ramona Vosbikian
Mrs. Nancy Weiss
Janine Weller
Dr. Erlis Wickersham
Mrs. Brooke N. Williams
Julie D. Williams
Mr. Alan Windle
Ms. Marian Wissman
Lisa Yakulis
Selina Yang
Bonnie Young
Mrs. Gilbert G. Young
Anonymous (5)
*Denotes current members of the Philadelphia Orchestra Docent Program
The Volunteer Committees for The Philadelphia Orchestra gratefully acknowledge the following benefactors for their generous support of the Main Line Committee’s 2025 Notable Kitchen Tour:
Bluebell Fine Cabinetry & Design
Devon Tile & Design Studio
Ferguson Home
High Swartz Attorneys at Law
Kountry Kraft
Main Line Kitchen Design
Period Architecture
Pinemar
The Hope and Tim Ulrich Fund
Lisa Yakulis Properties
ENDOWMENT
We proudly recognize our generous donors to The Philadelphia Orchestra’s endowment. Their leadership gifts support the Orchestra and its programs in perpetuity, helping to ensure the legacy of the ensemble for the next generation.
To learn how you and your family can be permanently associated with The Philadelphia Orchestra through an endowment gift, please contact Helen Escaravage, managing director of philanthropic engagement, at 215.893.1819 or hesca@philorch.org.
List complete as of March 19, 2026
TRANSFORMATIONAL GIFTS
The Annenberg Foundation
Silicon Valley Community Foundation
$10,000,000
Leslie A. Miller and Richard B. Worley
The Neubauer Family Foundation
$1,000,000 TO $9,999,999
The Acadia Fund
Peter A. Benoliel* and Willo Carey
Mr.* and Mrs.* J. Mahlon Buck, Jr.
Estate of Anne M. Buxton
Elaine Woo Camarda and A. Morris Williams, Jr.
Sarah and Frank* Coulson
Mark S. and Tobey Dichter
Dr. James F. Dougherty
Estate of Dwight V. Dowley
Samuel S. Fels Fund
Joseph and Marie Field
Linda and David Glickstein
Carole and Emilio* Gravagno
Joanne T. Greenspun*
Otto Haas Charitable Trust
Phoebe W. Haas Charitable Trust “A” as recommended by Carole Haas Gravagno
Phoebe W. Haas Charitable Trust “B”
Robert Heim and Eileen Kennedy
Hannah L. and J. Welles* Henderson
Mr. Paul M.* and Mrs. Barbara B.* Henkels
Hess Foundation
Osagie and Losenge Imasogie
The Kaiserman Family
The James and Agnes Kim Foundation
Dr. Richard M. Klein
Drs. Bong and Mi-Wha* Lee
The Lenfest Foundation
Sandra and David Marshall
Robert E. Mortensen*
Ralph and Beth Johnston Muller
Caroline B. Rogers
Estate of Mary R. Romig-DeYoung
Constance and Joseph* Smukler
Estate of Edwin E. Tuttle
Raymond H.* and Joanne T. Welsh
Constance H. and Sankey Williams
Ruth W.* and A. Morris Williams, Jr.
Richard B. Worley Tribute Fund
Zisman Family Foundation
Anonymous (3)
$500,000 TO $999,999
Lois G. and Julian A. Brodsky Foundation
J. Alexis* and Patricia M.* Burland
T. Norwood* and Doreene* Collins
Evelyn S.* and Rodney D. Day III
Mrs. F. Eugene Dixon, Jr.*
The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation
Gray Charitable Trust
The Hamilton Family Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. John C. Imbesi
Orton P.* and Noël* Jackson
Billy Joel Fund for Music Education
Peter M. Joseph* and Susan Rittenhouse Joseph*
Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation
Estate of Katharine S. Matthews
Vivian W. Piasecki*
Lyn and George* Ross
Gary and Ruthanne Schlarbaum
Scott and Cynthia Schumacker
Charlotte and Bob Watts
Anonymous (3)
$250,000 TO $499,999
Mr. and Mrs. James M. Buck III
Peter Buttenwieser* and Terry Marek
Ruth M. and Tristram C.* Colket, Jr.
Michael and Constance Cone
Kenneth Conners*
L. Patrick Gage
Toni and Bob Garrison
Ed and Ellen Hanway
Mrs. Winnifred Howard*
Mr. and Mrs. Berton E. Korman
William A. Loeb*
Mr.* and Mrs. A. Bruce Mainwaring
Winifred Mayes*
Estate of Joseph F. McCrindle
Mrs. J. Maxwell Moran*
Mitchell and Hilarie Morgan
Wendy and Derek Pew Foundation
Robert and Lynne Pollack
Lorraine* and David* Popowich
Mrs. Eleanor K. Read*
Ronald* and Marcia Rubin
Peter and Mari Shaw
Mr. and Mrs. Frank P. Slattery, Jr.
Ann and Harold* Sorgenti
Mr.* and Mrs. Bernard Spain
Mr. and Mrs. Wilson H. Taylor
The Wahl Endowment Fund for Music Education, established by Beth Ann Wahl Kolpen
Donors to the Allison Vulgamore Legacy Endowment Fund
Anonymous (4)
$100,000 TO $249,999
Mr. and Mrs.* Leonard Abramson
Lorraine and Ben* Alexander
Mr. and Mrs. Sid R. Bass
Donna and Jon Boscia
Mr. Theodore A. Burtis*
Donald R. Caldwell
William B.* and Elizabeth* Chamberlin
Catherine R. and Anthony A. Clifton
Marie* and Peter* Dooner
Michael and Joan Emmi
Peter and Catherine Ernster
The Moses Feldman Family Foundation
Dr. Betty Gottlieb*
The Frederick and Colette B. Heldring Charitable Fund
Hirschberg-Goodfriend Fund established by Juliet J. Goodfriend
Lynn and Tony* Hitschler
David and Gale Hoffman
Estate of Howard Hornstein
The Hovey Foundation
Joseph and Ann Jacovini
Estate of Jane Kesson
Joseph K.* and Bernice J. Koplin
Neal W. Krouse
Elena and Frederick Kyle
Joanna M. Lewis
Lomax Family Foundation
Trust of Helen T. Madeira
Joseph and Lynn* Manko
Donors to the Lynn K. Manko Volunteer Endowment Fund
Gene and Linda Massey
The McCausland Foundation
Stephanie and Michael Naidoff
Jeffrey P. Orleans
Estates of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Ormandy
Francis H. Rasmus
Harold* and Frances* Rosenbluth
Dr. Harry Rosenthal
Frank Joseph Saul and Joseph Donald O’Keefe Endowment
Christa and Calvin Schmidt
Mr.* and Mrs.* John J.F. Sherrerd
Richard and Amanda Smoot
John and Sandra Stouffer
Sunoco
Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Sylk
Robbi and Bruce Toll
Mrs. Joseph B. Townsend*
Mr. and Mrs. Archbold D. van Beuren
James W. and Debora C. Zug
Anonymous (4)
$50,000 TO $99,999
Estate of Phyllis H. Bernstein
Mr. Frank Boni and Mrs. Julia Ann Gehman*
Richard P. Brown, Jr.*
Mr. and Mrs. William C. Buck
Mr. and Mrs. Roland K. Bullard II
John* and Helen* Christy
D. Walter Cohen* and Family
Stacy Maria Dutton
Deborah E. Glass
Mrs. William Gerstley II*
Martin A. and Cynthia P. Heckscher
Richard B. Kent, M.D.
Ken and Molly Lawrence
Doris and Joseph Levine
Mrs. Elsie H. Lisovitch*
The Malmud-Kravitz Foundation/ The Henrietta Varbalow Kravitz Fund
John H. McFadden and Lisa D. Kabnick
Frances C. Middleton*
The Helen Sewall Minton Memorial Fund
Janneke Seton Neilson*
Mr. and Mrs. Jeremiah O’Grady
Louise and Alan* Reed
Mr.* and Mrs. Norman P. Robinson
Dr. and Mrs. Francis Schumann
Carol C. Sherman
Mr. Oliver I. Shoemaker*
The Sidewater Family Foundation
Mr.* and Mrs.* Lewis S. Somers III
Joseph and Joyce Stein— The Philibosian Foundation
Karen and Shel Thompson
James and Wendy Undercofler
Mrs. Francis L. Van Dusen*
Jack and Ramona Vosbikian
Anonymous (2)
$25,000 TO $49,999
The Reba Bacharach Trust
Helen and Jack* Bershad
Stephen Breman
David E. Brinson*
Estate of Harold W. Brown
In memory of Richard P. Brown
Kathleen “Kit” Cafaro
Mr. Joseph L. Castle*
Cordelia E. Clement
Don* and Viki Denny
Charley* and Rogie Dickey
In memory of David P. Eastburn
Mr. David B. Ford
Joanne B. and Arthur Frank
Charles* and Beatriz Furr
The Eugene Garfield Foundation
Peter G. Gould and Robin M. Potter
Mr. and Mrs.* J. Barton Harrison
Joseph Kluger and Susan Lewis
In memory of John B. Leake
William Lake Leonard
Mrs. Anna Hayward Lisle*
Mr. and Mrs. David S. Loeb, Jr.
Dr.* and Mrs.* Francis R. Manlove
Charles and Etta Nissman
R. Steward Rauch*
Mr.* and Mrs. Richard Ravenscroft
Lois and Gerald Renthal
Dr. and Mrs. Yale Richmond
Robert and Caro Rock
The Rubenstein Foundation
Mr.* and Mrs. Samuel J. Savitz
Mr. Nathan Snader*
Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Stevens
Harue and Gaisi Takeuti Memorial Fund
Bradford Wm. Voigt
Allison Vulgamore
Mary E. Webb
Elizabeth C. Wiegers
Richard C. Woodhams and Kiyoko Takeuti
Anonymous (5)
*Deceased
ACADEMY OF MUSIC
Restoration & Preservation Fund
We gratefully acknowledge the following individuals, foundations, and corporations for their generous support of the Academy of Music Restoration Fund. We extend our gratitude to all supporters of the Academy of Music, including those not listed below and event sponsors.
For more information about making a gift to the Academy Restoration Fund, please contact the Annual Fund office at 215.893.3151 or AcademyofMusic@philorch.org.
Gifts received between between September 1, 2024, and March 19, 2026
PROSCENIUM CIRCLE
$25,000 AND ABOVE
Joanna McNeil Lewis
Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development
Caroline B. Rogers
Mrs. Adele K. Schaeffer
Twenty Fifth Century Foundation
Anonymous
DIRECTORS CIRCLE
$10,000 TO $24,999
Mr. and Mrs. S. Matthews V. Hamilton, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Harry Edward Hill III
Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Leto
Ms. Jacqueline Badger Mars
Sandra and David Marshall
PRESIDENTS CIRCLE
$5,000 TO $9,999
Lois and Julian Brodsky
Gay and Donald Kimelman
Robert and Betsy Legnini
The Philadelphia Contributionship
Mr.* and Mrs. Bernard Spain
Penelope and Thomas Watkins
BENEFACTORS AND PATRONS
$1,500 TO $4,999
Barb and Clarke Blynn
Mr. and Mrs. James M. Buck III
Barbara R. Cobb
Ian and Marci Comisky
Penelope P. Harris
Robert and Margo Keith
The McCausland Foundation
Susan and Frank Mechura
John and Tammy Murabito
Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin R. Neilson
Harold A.* and Ann R. Sorgenti
Mr. and Mrs. Archbold D. van Beuren
Janice and Jeff Yass
FRIENDS
$1,000 TO $1,499
Frank and Sandra Baldino
Sibby Brasler
Bob and Cheryl Carfagno
Dr. Joe and Yolanda Costabile
Ryan Fleur and Laura Banchero
Peter G. Gould and Robin M. Potter
Gail Howard
Ms. Rita W. Ingersoll
Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth E. Jones
Maxine de S. Lewis
William A. Loeb*
Ms. Stefanie W. Lucas and Mr. Christopher Thompson
Asuka and Karen Nakahara
Mrs. Bonnie Rocap, in memory of Richard S. Rocap
Catherine A. Worrall
*Deceased
THE FRANCES ANNE WISTER SOCIETY
Individuals who have included The Philadelphia Orchestra in their estate plans are recognized through membership in the Frances Anne Wister Society. Miss Wister made a long-lasting mark on the Orchestra through decades of volunteerism and by leaving a major portion of her estate in support of its continued excellence. We gratefully acknowledge the generosity and foresight of those who have joined the Wister Society, and we welcome others to follow their example and make the Orchestra the beneficiary of a bequest or other form of planned gift.
If you would like more information about how to make a planned gift to the Orchestra, please contact Natalie Sandstrom, philanthropic engagement and legacy giving officer, at 215.790.5867 or nsandstrom@philorch.org.
List complete as of March 19, 2026
Hon. Lynne Abraham
Vijay and Susan Aggarwal
Joseph and Julia Anisko
Mr. and Mrs. Robert S. Balter
Dr. F. Joshua Barnett* and Dr. Heidi Kolberg
Mr. and Mrs. Clifford W. Baumbach, Jr.
Joel D. Beaver
Peter A. Benoliel* and Willo Carey
Ms. Jane Berryman
Jan R. Birsch
Wilson H. Black
Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz
Mrs. Frances Brenner
Dr. Nancy Broz
Beth* and Edward B. Brunswick
Dr. Robert A. Bubeck
Carol W. Buettger
Peter L. Buttenwieser* and Terry A. Marek
Ms. Kathleen Cafaro
Mr. Donald R. Caldwell
Mr. and Mrs. Frank J. Campbell III
Beverly Caplan-Freeman
Lawrence Chanen
William Clemens* and Robert Leis
Mr. and Mrs. Anthony A. Clifton
Dr. Alan R. Cohen
Gianne Conard
Mrs. M. Todd Cooke
Joyce J. Creamer
Ann Csink
Malcolm and Seta Demurjian
Tobey and Mark Dichter
Lisa and Peter DiLullo
Norman E. Donoghue, Esq.
Mrs. Anne Dooley
Dr. James F. Dougherty
MaryAnn Edwards
Dr. David J. Eschelman
Dr. and Mrs. John Farmer
Gilbert Feinberg and Nadeen Van Tuyle
Anne S. Foote
George and Joan Forde
Mr. and Mrs. William W. Fox, Jr.
Joanne B. and Arthur Frank
Mr. Charles* and Mrs. Beatriz Furr
Rosalie K. Gerson
Howard and Norah Goldfine
Dr. Alfred E. and Adele* Goldman
Betty and Gary Grunder
Nancy S. Halpern
Donna K. Hammaker, Esq., and Dr. Thomas M. Knadig
Nimmi Harisinghani
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Hauptfuhrer
Martin A. Heckscher, Esq.
Robert Heim and Eileen Kennedy
Mrs. Rhoda Hershman
Dr. Archibald C. Hewes
Kris and Dick Hughey
Michele G. Hyk-Farlow
Linda R. Jacobs
Jerome Kaplan, Esq.
Dr. Richard B. Kent
Robert E. Keppler
Carolyn Kidder
William E. Kindley
Dr. Richard M. Klein
Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Kline
Dr. Charles L. Knecht III
Dr. Deborah Komins
Bernice J. Koplin and Joseph K. Koplin*
Ms. Deborah Krauss
Drs. Bong and Mi-Wha* Lee
Dr. Sherman Leis
William L. Leonard, Esq.
Doris and Joseph Levine
Judith Morgan Lloyd
Denis Lohman and Ellen Feldman Lohman
Mrs. Robert S. Lovett II
Mr.* and Mrs. A. Bruce Mainwaring
Mr. Donald Malpass, Jr.
Dr. and Mrs. Robert L. Meckelnburg
Carol R. Meister
Mrs. Philippus Miller, Jr.
Arlene Notoro Morgan
Ms. Fran D. Moskovitz
Stephanie and Michael Naidoff
Dr. and Mrs. John L. Neigh
Charles and Etta Nissman
Hon. Joseph D. O’Keefe
Mrs. Frank J. O’Malley
Mrs. Peter B. Pakradooni
John N. Park, Jr.
Claudio Pasquinelli and Kyong-Mi Chang
B.J. Phillips and Kath Howarth
Barbara L. Phillips
Robert and Lynne Pollack
Nancy D. Pontone
Roger T. Prichard and Astrid M. Caruso
Janet T. and Frank P.* Reiche
Mr. David Rhody
Dr. and Mrs. Yale Richmond
James. M. Roland
Mr. Edward Rorer
Dr. Harry Rosenthal
Lyn and George* Ross
Mr. and Mrs. Richard L. Rothermel
Harold and Marianne* Sacks
Jeffrey and Kendell Saunders
Catherine and Steve Schifter
Allan Schimmel
Mr. and Mrs. Gary G. Schlarbaum
Dr. and Mrs. William Schwartz
Robert and Joan Shaffer
Mr. Richard J. Shaginaw
Edward and Shelley Sigman
Mr. and Mrs. Richard L. Smoot
Yara Snylyk and Christina Snylyk
Dr. Norman Solomon and Dr. Merwin Geffen
Mr. and Mrs. Harold* A. Sorgenti
Marilyn and Dean R. Staats
Alyce and Howard F. Stick
John and Sandra Stouffer
Dr. Norman L. Sykes
Leonard and Barbara Sylk
Andrew J. Szabo
Peter H. and Elizabeth V. Talbot, in memory of Peter H. Talbot, Jr., and Frank A. Talbot
Dr. Cecilia Segawa Seigle Tannenbaum
Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon L. Thompson
John and Gina Torzolini
Mrs. Herman B. Wagner
Nicholas A. Walls
Ruth W.* and A. Morris Williams, Jr.
Jackie and Earl L. Wolf
Dr. and Mrs. Theodore V. Yuhas
Walter Zanchuk
Benjamin Zuckerman, Esq., and Marian Robinson
Anonymous (10)
*Deceased
MAKE A PLANNED GIFT to The Philadelphia Orchestra
Ensure your legacy, benefit your loved ones, and support The Philadelphia Orchestra—today and for years to come—with a planned gift.
Planned giving can include a variety of deferred donations, such as bequests, IRA rollovers, and charitable gift annuities. Consider including The Philadelphia Orchestra in your estate plans.
To learn more about planned giving, or if you’ve already arranged for a legacy gift, visit philorchlegacy.org or contact:
Natalie Sandstrom
Philanthropic Engagement and Legacy Giving Officer nsandstrom@philorch.org 215.790.5867
I included The Philadelphia Orchestra in my estate plans because it is the cultural gem of Philadelphia, and I want to assure that future generations enjoy what I have been privileged to enjoy.”
— Joel Beaver, Wister Society member
Photo:
ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF
The Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts
EXECUTIVE OFFICE
Ryan Fleur, President and Chief Executive Officer
Crystal Brewe, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Doris Parent, Chief People and Culture Officer
Kristen Chun, Director, International Engagement
Colleen Coffey-Snyder, Manager, Office of the President and Chief Executive Officer
