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
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.
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
*On leave
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
MARIAN ANDERSON HALL
THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA
Thursday, May 14, at 6:30
Orchestra After 5
Noami Woo Conductor and Host
Bizet/arr. Hoffmann Suite No. 1 from Carmen
I. Prelude—
Ia. Aragonaise
II. Intermezzo
III. Seguidilla
IV. The Dragoons of Alcala
V. The Toreadors
Martines Sinfonia in C major
I. Allegro con spirito
II. Andante ma non troppo
III. Allegro spiritoso
First Philadelphia Orchestra performance
Falla Scenes and Dances from Part I of The Three-Cornered Hat (Suite No. 1)
I. Introduction: Afternoon—
II. Dance of the Miller’s Wife (Fandango)—
III. The Corregidor—The Miller’s Wife—
IV. The Grapes
Ravel Bolero
This program runs approximately one hour and will be performed without an intermission.
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 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. In June 2021 the Orchestra and its home, the Kimmel Center, united. Today, The Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts brings the greatest performances and most impactful education and community programs to audiences in Philadelphia and beyond.
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 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 award-winning 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.
Through concerts, tours, residencies, and recordings, the Orchestra is a global ambassador and one of our nation’s greatest exports. It performs annually at Carnegie Hall, the 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 WRTI-FM and SiriusXM. For more information, please visit www.philorch.org.
Jeff Fusco
CONDUCTOR AND HOST
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 debuts with the New York and BBC philharmonics, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, and the Royal Ballet and Opera, Covent Garden. She also returns 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 conducts the world premiere of Oliver Leith’s Garland at Bold Tendencies in London and leads 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
FRAMING THE PROGRAM
PARALLEL EVENTS
1770
Martines
Sinfonia in C
major
1873
Bizet
Carmen
1916
Falla
The ThreeCornered Hat
Music
Mozart
Symphony No. 10
Literature
Beaumarchais
Les Deux amis
Art
West
The Oath of
Hannibal
History
The Boston
Massacre
Music
Tchaikovsky
The Tempest
Literature
Rimbaud
A Season in Hell
Art
Cézanne
View of Auvers
History
Color photos first developed
Music
Respighi
The Fountains of Rome
Literature
Joyce
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Art Matisse
The Three Sisters
History
National Park Service established
This concert of music with connections to Spain opens with an orchestral Suite drawn from Georges Bizet’s Carmen , one of the most popular operas ever composed. It had a stormy premiere, however, just three months before the composer died of a heart attack at age 36. The initial failure was largely due to the risqué plot and its scandalous title character, who is brutally murdered by her lover at the end. A musical theme associated with “Fate” opens the Suite, which then moves on to some of the best-loved parts of the opera including the brilliant march of the toreadors.
Marianne Martines was a Viennese composer, pianist, and singer of Spanish heritage who studied with Joseph Haydn and played piano duets with Mozart. Her compact threemovement Sinfonia in C major may be the first surviving work in the genre composed by a woman.
After spending nearly a decade in Paris, the great Spanish composer Manuel de Falla completed The Three-Cornered Hat for the famous Ballets Russes in 1919. The story concerns the comeuppance of a lecherous village sheriff, proud wearer of a three-cornered hat. Falla crafted two orchestral suites from the ballet of which we hear the first this evening.
The concert concludes with Maurice Ravel’s evocative Bolero , a glorious crescendo for orchestra. Ravel was born to a Basque mother in the French Pyrenees, not far from the Spanish border, and Bolero is just one of many pieces that testify to his enduring fascination with Spain.
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.
Photo: PeteChecchia
THE MUSIC
Suite No. 1 from Carmen (arranged by Fritz Hoffmann)
Georges Bizet
Born in Paris, October 25, 1838
Died in Bougival, June 3, 1875
While few rarely go so far as to say that it killed him, a slew of problems and harsh criticism arose surrounding the 1875 premiere of Georges Bizet’s Carmen, three months before his death of a heart attack at age 36. What is now one of the most popular operas ever written did not take long to become beloved, but the composer was no longer alive to enjoy his triumph.
A Scandalous Opera Bizet’s remarkable musical gifts became apparent very early. At age nine he entered the Paris Conservatory, where he studied with Charles Gounod, whom he idealized. At 17 he wrote his charming Symphony in C and two years later won the prestigious Prix de Rome. Upon his return to Paris he became increasingly involved with theatrical music, although rarely with much success, and he left several operatic projects unfinished.
The initial problems with Carmen were largely due to its risqué subject matter. In 1873 the directors of the Opéra-Comique commissioned a three-act opera from Bizet to be written in collaboration with the seasoned librettists Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, best known for their words in operettas by Jacques Offenbach. It was the composer who proposed a treatment of Prosper Mérimée’s popular 1846 novella, which was loosely based on a real-life scandal. The name of the prominent commissioning theater in Paris is somewhat misleading as its repertory was not limited to comedies, but rather to presentations that had spoken dialogue, like most musicals today. The problem that emerged with Bizet’s opera was the scandalously sensuous nature of the title character and the realistic unfolding of events that culminated with her bloody murder at the hands of her jealous lover, Don José. This was hardly the family entertainment expected at the Opéra-Comique.
From Opera to Suite One can imagine that had Bizet lived he would have extracted orchestral excerpts from Carmen to fashion a concert suite—he had, after all, enjoyed unusual success a few years earlier with suites drawn from his incidental music for the play L’Arlésienne (The Girl from Arles) by Alphonse Daudet. But with his death it fell to the publisher to figure out how to repackage parts of Carmen.
The issue was complicated by different versions of the opera, which in Paris was performed with dialogue but elsewhere usually with recitatives so that it could be sung continuously.
After Bizet’s death his close friend Ernest Guiraud was enlisted to craft an alternative version and, in the process, changed the opera in other ways as well. He also assembled two suites that have long been concert favorites. Only in the early 1990s was the original version of Carmen reconstructed, and it is from this score that Fritz Hoffmann based the edition of the Suite we hear performed tonight. As is often the case with re-imaginings of an opera for an orchestral concert setting, the sequence of excerpts does not follow the dramatic order of the plot but rather what proves effective for musical contrast and flow.
A Closer Look The First Suite begins with a slow section that was originally part of the opera’s prelude presenting an eerie chromatic “Fate” motive with ominous drum strokes and pizzicato punctuation from the lower strings ( Prelude ); this leads directly into the Aragonaise, a fast interlude that introduces the final act of the opera with a distinctive Spanish dance flavor and exotic passages for woodwind instruments.
The following Intermezzo originally preceded Act III and projects a pastoral mood initiated by a lovely flute melody accompanied by harp. The third movement derives from one of the most famous arias in the opera: Carmen’s seductive Seguidilla, with the oboe at first taking over the original vocal line before passing it off to other instruments.
The Dragoons of Alcala, beginning with a march-like bassoon melody atop plucked strings, serves as the interlude between the first and second acts. The final movement, The Toreadors, had been the second part of the opera’s prelude. While much of the Suite to this point is intimately scored and spotlights individual instruments, this brilliant conclusion starts with an energetic march for full orchestra ushering in the smooth string melody that is sung by the bullfighter Escamillo in Act II as he prepares to vie for Carmen’s attention.
—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.
Bizet composed Carmen from 1873 to 1874.
Leopold Stokowski led the first Philadelphia Orchestra performances of the First Carmen Suite (arranged by Guiraud), on a Pops Concert on November 5, 1913. Most recently it was heard in the Hoffmann arrangement on subscription concerts in December 2015, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
The Orchestra has recorded the Carmen Suite twice: in 1958 with Eugene Ormandy for CBS and in 1975 with Ormandy for RCA. Stokowski recorded just the Prelude and the “Aragonaise” in 1927 for RCA, and Ormandy recorded just “The Toreadors” in 1972 for RCA. Other excerpts from the opera have also been recorded occasionally by the Orchestra.
The Suite is scored for two flutes (II doubling piccolo), two oboes (II doubling English horn), two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, percussion (bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, tambourine, triangle), harp, and strings.
Performance time is approximately 12 minutes.
THE MUSIC
Sinfonia in C major
Marianna Martines
Born in Vienna, May 4, 1744
Died there, December 13, 1812
The work we hear tonight by Marianna Martines, written in 1770, is sometimes referred to as the first symphony composed by a woman, which is possibly true. It is also possible that some had been written earlier but now are lost. More to the point: Symphonies by women were extremely rare at the time and continued to be for more than a century to follow. Why was Martines’s one of the lucky few to survive?
Help from a Powerful Patron The answer is a combination of talent, training, and opportunity. Martines was born in Vienna to a distinguished family of Spanish heritage. Her father, who hailed from Naples, was sent to the Austrian capital as part of the papal nuncio, the Pope’s embassy there. The family occupied a large apartment on the Michaelerplatz in the center of the city, near the imperial palace. The building housed prominent cultural figures, including Pietro Trapassi, remembered by his pen name Metastasio. He had known Marianna’s father in Italy and was called to Vienna in 1730 as the poet laureate (and was succeeded in 1783 by Lorenzo Da Ponte, Mozart’s great collaborator).
Metastasio was an enormously influential figure in opera at the time, indeed probably the most important because he was the librettist set most often by the leading composers of the day, including Mozart. The operatic food chain, so to speak, in the 18th century was quite different from what emerged later. Performers, specifically singers, more specifically the leading castratos, were at the summit. They got top billing and commanded the highest fees. Next came the librettist and among those at the time, Metastasio was preeminent.
One of his librettos would literally serve dozens of composers—a practical advantage in an age before supertitles in that audiences knew the plots and words from seeing them reused repeatedly. The composer was at the bottom of this hierarchy, having the least amount of clout even if they are now the ones most remembered.
Metastasio sponsored Martines's early career and arranged a superlative musical as well as general education. She studied piano with Joseph Haydn and took singing lessons from Nicola Porpora, both of whom lived in the building. She apparently studied composition with Johann Adolph Hasse, Antonio Salieri, and other prominent figures of the time. She wrote a Mass that premiered at age 17 in the court church. She excelled as a singer, pianist, and composer, and eventually as a vocal teacher and musical impresario. She wrote extensively in different genres, totaling some 200 pieces, many of which are now lost. In
1773 she became the first woman elected to the Accademia filarmonica in Bologna and the following year Empress Maria Theresia, who was charmed by her playing and singing, ennobled the family, hence permitting the addition of “von” to her name. (She signed her name Marianna von Martines, although some sources list her as Martinez.)
When Metastasio died in 1782 he left his estate to the six Martines children, raising them from comfortable to rich. Marianna hosted many celebrated musical soirees at the house and it was at such gatherings that she played piano four-hands with Mozart. By the 1790s she had started a singing school at her home, training many prominent figures.
A Closer Look Martines’s short three-movement Sinfonia is modestly scored for an ensemble of strings, oboes, horns, trumpets, and timpani and was no doubt performed at her home. In just some 12 minutes it displays many of the fingerprints of the Classical style in its sense of balance, courtly brilliance, galant charm, lyrical expression, and dance-like motion. The opening Allegro con spirito immediately grabs the listener’s attention with its festive quality. The contrasting second movement ( Andante ma non troppo ) shows her experience writing sacred and secular vocal music, at times highly ornamented. The lively dance finale ( Allegro spiritoso ) is in 3/8 meter and returns to the energy of the first movement.
—Christopher H. Gibbs
Marianna Martines composed her Sinfonia in C major in 1770.
This is the first Philadelphia Orchestra performance of the piece, and the first time anything by the composer has been played by the Orchestra.
The score calls for two oboes, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings.
The Sinfonia runs approximately 12 minutes in performance.
THE MUSIC
Scenes and Dances from Part I of The
Three-Cornered
Hat
Manuel de Falla
Born in Cádiz, Spain, November 23, 1876
Died in Alta Gracia, Argentina, November 14, 1946
When Manuel de Falla brought back to Madrid the musical techniques he had absorbed in Paris during the early years of the 20th century (he had lived there from 1907 to 1914), a cycle of Franco-Iberian “mutual influences” was complete. Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel had already manifested, in works such as the former’s Ibéria and the latter’s Rapsodie espagnole, how deeply their approach to rhythm and color had been affected by Spanish folk and dance styles. Now Falla, born in Andalusia of a Catalonian mother and a Valencian father, reassimilated this impressionist approach to form and technique into his own increasingly nationalist consciousness.
For Falla, as for many of his generation, a sense of ethnic or regional identity was central to one’s creative being. As a child he had been exposed to influences not only from traditional operatic and orchestral music he heard in Cádiz, but also from Andalusian and gypsy folk music he heard all around him.
A Fusion of High and Low Interestingly it was the music of Edvard Grieg, which the young composer discovered in the 1890s, that first revealed to him the possibilities of infusing traditional “cultivated” styles with the folk material of one’s own nation. Thereafter, Falla longed to achieve for Spain what Grieg had done for Norway, and this fusion of “high” and “low” characterizes nearly all of his music. In pieces such as The Three-Cornered Hat, the opera La vida breve, the “opera-ballet” El amor brujo, or the Nights in the Gardens of Spain, this quintessentially Iberian composer used newly composed melodies that sound nevertheless like folk tunes because they are based on an assiduous and lifelong study of genuine native materials.
Falla had long considered an operatic adaptation of the 1874 novel El sombrero de tres picos by the Spanish author Pedro de Alarcón (1833–91). While this project was stalled, he turned his operatic ambitions elsewhere first, composing La vida breve in 1904–05. Then in 1916, the impresario Sergei Diaghilev put forth the idea of a ballet on the subject, and Falla was persuaded to adapt his initial ideas to the dance. The first version was a pantomime with songs, which he called El corregidor y la molinera (The Sheriff and the Miller’s Wife), performed in Madrid in 1917; this was then expanded as the ballet that we know today,
which was premiered by the Ballets Russes in London on July 22, 1919, with Leonide Massine in the role of the miller and with sets and costumes by Pablo Picasso.
A Closer Look The story concerns a corregidor or village sheriff, whose three-cornered hat is the symbol of his officious authority. This particular sheriff has his eye on the miller’s wife, who becomes aware of his lecherous plans and proceeds to lay a trap for him. When the sheriff arranges to get the miller out of his house for a night, he comes to woo the wife; she flees the house and manages to push him into a stream. He returns to the miller’s house, alone, and leaves his clothes (including the three-cornered hat) on the line outside to dry. When the miller returns home and sees the clothes, he assumes the worst about the sheriff and his own wife. He seeks revenge by seducing the sheriff’s wife. But when he goes into town, he meets his own wife instead, and the two of them stir the whole village to rise up against the unscrupulous corregidor. The sheriff and his deputies are all denounced, and an effigy of the corregidor is beaten and thrown into the air.
—Paul J. Horsley
Paul J. Horsley is performing arts editor for The Independent in Kansas City. Previously he was program annotator and musicologist for The Philadelphia Orchestra and music and dance critic for The Kansas City Star .
Falla composed The Three-Cornered Hat from 1916 to 1919.
The Philadelphia Orchestra first presented music from The Three-Cornered Hat in October 1927 with conductor Fritz Reiner. The Scenes and Dances from Part I was last performed on subscription concerts in October 2008, with Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos on the podium.
The Scenes and Dances are scored for two flutes (II doubling piccolo), two oboes (II doubling English horn), two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, percussion (cymbals, glockenspiel, xylophone), harp, piano, and strings.
Performance time is approximately 12 minutes.
THE MUSIC
Bolero
Maurice Ravel
Born in Ciboure, Lower Pyrenees, March 7, 1875
Died in Paris, December 28, 1937
Deeply moved by works of Debussy from the 1890s, around 1900 Maurice Ravel began to find his own answers to the questions about harmony, color, and instrumental texture that the late 19th century had left unresolved. As a new century dawned, so did hopes of a “new music,” and this impulse found expression in the music of composers as diverse as Elgar and Schoenberg, Puccini and Debussy. At the beginning of the decade, Ravel’s music began to appear in print for the first time: The publisher Demets brought out elegiac pieces such as the Pavane pour une infante défunte (Pavane for a Dead Princess) and revolutionary works such as Jeux d’eau (Water Games). Buoyed by these successes, in 1904 the composer wrote Miroirs (Mirrors), a remarkable set of “impressionistic” piano pieces that some would later compare to the paintings of Monet or Van Gogh. After this he was destined to join Debussy in writing a new chapter in the history of French music.
A Conservatory Drop Out Three times Ravel had entered the competition for the Prix de Rome—1901, 1902, and 1903—and three times he had failed, achieving in his last year only Third Prize. Finally he dropped out of the Paris Conservatory altogether, and instead became involved in “Les Apaches,” an informal, vaguely disreputable collection of Parisian aesthetes who met to discuss art, literature, painting, music, history, and any other topic that might arise. It was at meetings of Les Apaches that Ravel tried out some of his more daring new works, often for audiences that included such musicians as Manuel de Falla, M.D. Calvocoressi, and Florent Schmitt. Their unconventional tastes gave Ravel just the creative encouragement he needed to continue on the path that he had set for himself. Ironically, despite early rejections by the musical establishment of his native country, as he matured Ravel found his iconoclastic tendencies becoming tempered by a growing reverence for the past—and especially the music of French masters. Eventually, in the 1930s, he would assimilate jazz as well, and its rhythms and harmonies would imbue his music with unique “popular” inflections that would give courage to later generations of composers compelled to lace their scores with elements of mass culture.
A Closer Look Composed in 1928 for Ida Rubinstein’s Parisian dance troupe, Bolero is one of the most subversive orchestral scores of the 20th century. Ravel said later that he wanted to write a piece that had “no form, properly speaking, and no modulation, or almost none—just rhythm and orchestra.” The ballet caused a stir at its premiere that November,
and many decades later the music continues to draw a crowd. Each repetition of the bolero tune presents a new and intriguing combination of instruments, both in the melody and in the accompaniment. The initial strophes, for instance, explore the soloistic qualities of various wind instruments; the sixth combines muted trumpet and flute to produce a tone that sounds like neither. By the end, we are so entrenched in the key of C that the effect of the brief, shocking swerve into E major in the 18th and final strain is way out of proportion to its actual harmonic significance.
In 1979 the piece was used in Blake Edwards’s film 10, as the accompaniment to Dudley Moore’s bumbling lovemaking to bombshell Bo Derek—and for this reason it remains indelibly fixed in the mind, for many listeners, as a sexual metaphor. While such a blatant connection might indeed have been in the back of Ravel’s mind, it should not limit us to thinking about the piece only in these terms. Bolero is, in the composer’s straightforward and no-nonsense description, “a piece lasting 17 minutes and consisting wholly of orchestral effects without music—one long and very gradual crescendo.”
—Paul J. Horsley
Bolero was composed in 1928.
The Orchestra’s “unofficial” premiere of Bolero is of special interest. On December 20, 1929, after a concert of music by Wagner, Leopold Stokowski turned to the audience in the Academy of Music and made the following announcement: “We are receiving much interesting modern music from the publishers. Perhaps you would like to hear some. It may be that you will not like this piece. It is very modern.” And with that Stokowski and The Philadelphia Orchestra performed the local premiere of Bolero. Its most recent appearance on subscription concerts was last month, with Marin Alsop.
The Philadelphia Orchestra has recorded the work five times: in 1953, 1960, and 1968 for CBS with Eugene Ormandy; in 1973 for RCA with Ormandy; and in 1982 for EMI with Riccardo Muti.
The score calls for piccolo, two flutes (II doubling piccolo), two oboes (II doubling oboe d’amore), English horn, two clarinets (II doubling E-flat clarinet), bass clarinet (doubling soprano saxophone), tenor saxophone, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, piccolo trumpet, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, cymbals, snare drums, tam-tam), harp, celesta, and strings.
Bolero runs approximately 15 minutes in performance.
Aragonaise: A lively Spanish dance in triple meter originating from Aragon, often featuring guitars, castanets, and castanetaccented rhythms
Castrato: A male singer castrated before puberty to preserve a high soprano or contralto vocal range while developing the lung power and chest capacity of a man
Chord: The simultaneous sounding of three or more tones
Fandango: A lively Spanish folk dance in 3/4 or 6/8 time, primarily danced by couples and combining rhythmic, intricate footwork with expressive arm movements
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
Intermezzo: A short connecting instrumental movement in an opera or other musical work
Legato: Smooth, even, without any break between notes
Meter: The symmetrical grouping of musical rhythms
Mute: A mechanical device used on musical instruments to muffle the tone
Polyphony: A term used to designate music in more than one part and the style in which all or several of the musical parts move to some extent independently
Seguidilla: A lively Spanish folk courtship dance and song form originating from Castille, usually performed in 3/4 or 3/8 time and featuring rapid, small steps and castanets
Sinfonia: A short introductory instrumental piece
Suite: During the Baroque period, an instrumental genre consisting of several movements in the same key, some or all of which were based on the forms and styles of dance music. Later, a group of pieces extracted from a larger work, especially an opera or ballet.
Tempo: The speed of music
Timbre: Tone color or tone quality
Tonality: The orientation of melodies and harmonies toward a specific pitch or pitches
THE SPEED OF MUSIC (Tempo)
Allegro: Bright, fast
Andante: Walking speed
Con spirito: Spirited, lively
Spiritoso: Spirited, lively
TEMPO MODIFIERS
Ma non troppo: But not too much
DYNAMIC MARKS
Crescendo: Increasing volume
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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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Amy Gutmann and Michael O’Doyle
Julia A. Haller, M.D.
Nancy S. Halpern
Ed and Ellen Hanway
Ann S. and Steven B. Hutton
Patricia and John Imbesi
Rachelle and Ronald Kaiserman
Gay and Donald Kimelman
In honor of Katherine O. Leone
Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Leto
Chris and Jeffrey Libson
Mrs. Catharine Maxey
Susan and Frank Mechura
Dr. and Mrs. John L. Neigh
Miriam Ort and Lawrence Hirsch
Estates of Adolf and Geraldine Paier
Ameline Pappas*
Claudio Pasquinelli and Kyong-Mi Chang
Robert and Lynne Pollack
Robert L. Pratter
Red Moose Charitable Trust
Jon and Karen Richter
Beth L. Rogers
Lyn Ross
Vincent N. and Lila Russo
Allan Schimmel and Reid Reames*
Kate Groark Shields
Constance Smukler, Trustee, Smukler-Lasch Family Trust
Mr. Wayne Titerence and Ms. Vicki Mechner
Michael and Renee Vennera
Thomas and Patricia Vernon
Jennifer and Ralph Watts
Zisman Family Foundation
Anonymous
PRESENTERS CIRCLE
$15,000 TO $24,999
M. Therese and Barry Bentley
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Bickford
Estate of Mark J. Bojanowski
Carol W. Buettger
Drew Camarda
Alice Chen-Plotkin and Joshua Plotkin
Mr. and Mrs. David L. Cohen, Esq.
Joslyn G. Ewart
Mr. and Mrs. Moses Feldman
Claudia and Richard Fischer
Ryan Fleur and Laura Banchero
Drs. Peter and Pamela Freyd
Ken and Sue Greathouse
Peter Grove and Nancy Greene
Joseph and Bette Hirsch
Terry and Ann Marie Horner
Toba and Lawrence Kerson
Mr. Kevin King and Mrs. Susan West King
Drs. Joan and Brook Lau
Lurie Family Foundation
Tom and Linda McCarthy
Mr. and Mrs. Bruce McKittrick
Jane G. Pepper
Jeffrey and Deborah Pierce
The Estate of Miss E. Irene Reymann
Dianne and Jeffrey Rotwitt
Mr. Richard J. Shaginaw
Joan N. Stern
Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon Lee Thompson
Dr. Bettyruth Walter
Judith Whellan
Steve and Mary Beth Young
Anonymous (7)
PRESENTERS CIRCLE
$10,000 TO $14,999
John R. Alchin and Hal Marryatt
Mr. and Mrs. James Allison
Charles Arnao and Rosemary Watt
Barbara B. and Theodore R. Aronson
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:
Helen Escaravage
Managing Director of Philanthropic Engagement hesca@philorch.org 215.893.1819
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
