Saratoga Performing Arts Center

The Philadelphia Orchestra August 04 - 12, 2021

THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA RETURNS

COLEMAN, BACH, & BRAHMS

YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN Conductor and Piano DAVID KIM Violin JULIETTE KANG Violin

COLEMAN Seven O’Clock Shout

BACH Concerto in D minor for Two Violins and String Orchestra, BWV 1043 I. Vivace II. Largo ma non tanto III. Allegro

BRAHMS Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 I. Un poco sostenuto—Allegro II. Andante sostenuto III. Un poco allegretto e grazioso IV. Adagio—Più andante—Allegro non troppo, ma con brio—Più allegro

Please turn off cell phones and disconnect electronic signals on watches or pagers before the start of the performance.

The Philadelphia Orchestra’s 2021 residency is supported, in part, by Lisa Kabnick and John McFadden in honor of SPAC staff and board for their heroic efforts to bring music back to the stage this summer.

ARTISTS AND COMPOSERS Saratoga Performing Arts Center

Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Music Director

Walter and Leonore Annenberg Chair

Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin will lead The Philadelphia Orchestra through at least the 2025–26 season, a significant long-term commitment. Additionally, he became the third music director of New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 2018. Yannick, who holds the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Chair, is an inspired leader of The Philadelphia Orchestra. His intensely collaborative style, deeply rooted musical curiosity, and boundless enthusiasm have been heralded by critics and audiences alike. The New York Times has called him “phenomenal,” adding that “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 talents of his generation. He has been artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain since 2000, and in 2017 he became an honorary member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. He was 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 signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon in 2018. Under his leadership The Philadelphia Orchestra returned to recording with nine releases on that label. His upcoming recordings will include projects with the Philadelphians, the Metropolitan Opera, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and the Orchestre Métropolitain, with which he will also continue to record for ATMA Classique.

A native of Montreal, Yannick studied piano, conducting, composition, and chamber music at Montreal’s Conservatory of Music and continued his studies with renowned conductor 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; an Officer of the Order of Montreal; Musical America’s 2016 Artist of the Year; 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, and the University of Pennsylvania.

David Kim

Violinist Violinist David Kim was named concertmaster of The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1999. Born in Carbondale, IL, in 1963, he started playing the violin at the age of three, began studies with the famed pedagogue Dorothy DeLay at the age of eight, and later received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School. Highlights of Mr. Kim’s 2020–21 season include appearing as soloist with The Philadelphia Orchestra; teaching/performance residencies and master classes at the Manhattan School of Music, Bob Jones University, the Prague Summer Nights Festival, the Taipei (Taiwan) Academy and Festival, and continued appearances as concertmaster of the All-Star Orchestra on PBS stations across the United States and online at the Kahn Academy, as well as recitals, speaking engagements, and appearances with orchestras across the United States.

Each season Mr. Kim appears as a guest in concert with the famed modern hymn writers Keith and Kristyn Getty at such venues as the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and Carnegie Hall. In August he returns to Nashville to perform at the Getty Music Worship Conference—Sing! 2021. Mr. Kim serves as Saratoga Performing Arts Center distinguished artist at the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University in Macon, GA. He frequently serves as an adjudicator at international violin competitions such as the Menuhin and Sarasate.

Mr. Kim has been awarded honorary doctorates from Eastern University in suburban Philadelphia, the University of Rhode Island, and Dickinson College. His instruments are a J.B. Guadagnini from Milan, ca. 1757, on loan from The Philadelphia Orchestra, and a Michael Angelo Bergonzi from Cremona, ca. 1754. Mr. Kim resides in a Philadelphia suburb with his wife, Jane, and daughters, Natalie and Maggie. He is an avid golfer and outdoorsman.

Juliette Kang

Violinist

Appointed first associate concertmaster of The Philadelphia Orchestra in 2005, Canadian violinist Juliette Kang, who holds the Joseph and Marie Field Chair, enjoys an active and varied career. Previously assistant concertmaster of the Boston Symphony and a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, she has performed solo engagements with the San Francisco, Baltimore, Omaha, and Syracuse symphonies; l’Orchestre National de France; the Boston Pops; and every major orchestra in Canada, among others. Internationally she has appeared with the Czech and Hong Kong philharmonics, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, and the Singapore and KBS (Seoul) symphonies. She has given recitals in Philadelphia, Paris, Tokyo, and Boston. In 1994 she won first prize at the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis and was presented at Carnegie Hall in a recital that was recorded live and released on CD. She has also recorded the Schumann and Wieniawski violin concertos with the Vancouver Symphony for CBC Records. In 2012 Ms. Kang was again a featured soloist at Carnegie Hall for the visit of her hometown orchestra, the Edmonton Symphony, and that season she made her Philadelphia Orchestra subscription solo debut with Gianandrea Noseda.

Ms. Kang has been involved with chamber music since studying at the Curtis Institute of Music. Festivals she has participated in include Bravo! Vail, Bridgehampton, Kingston, Marlboro, Moab, Skaneateles, and Spoleto USA. In New York she has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; at the Mostly Mozart Festival with her husband, cellist Thomas Kraines; and at the Bard Music Festival. With Philadelphia Orchestra violist Che Hung Chen, pianist Natalie Zhu, and cellist Clancy Newman she is a member of the Clarosa Quartet.

After receiving a Bachelor of Music degree at age 15 from Curtis as a student of Jascha Brodsky, Ms. Kang earned a master’s degree at the Juilliard School under the tutelage of Dorothy DeLay and Robert Mann. She was a winner of the 1989 Young Concert Artists Auditions and subsequently received first prize at the Menuhin Violin Competition of Paris in 1992. She serves on the Central Board of Trustees at Philadelphia's Settlement Music School, one of the oldest and largest community schools of the arts in the country.

Orchestra

The Philadelphia Orchestra

2020–2021 Season

Yannick Nézet-Séguin Music Director Walter and Leonore Annenberg Chair

Nathalie Stutzmann Principal Guest Conductor Designate

Saratoga Performing Arts Center

Gabriela Lena Frank Composer-in-Residence

Erina Yashima Assistant Conductor Lina Gonzalez-Granados Conducting Fellow

Charlotte Blake Alston Storyteller, Narrator, and Host

Frederick R. Haas Artistic Advisor Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ Experience

First Violins David Kim, Concertmaster Juliette Kang, First Associate Concertmaster Joseph and Marie Field Chair Marc Rovetti, Assistant Concertmaster 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 Davyd Booth Paul Arnold Joseph Brodo Chair, given by Peter A. Benoliel Dmitri Levin Boris Balter Amy Oshiro-Morales Yu-Ting Chen Jeoung-Yin Kim Christine Lim

Violas Choong-Jin Chang, Principal Ruth and A. Morris Williams Chair Saratoga Performing Arts Center

Kirsten Johnson, Associate Principal Kerri Ryan, Assistant Principal Judy Geist Renard Edwards Anna Marie Ahn Petersen Piasecki Family Chair David Nicastro Burchard Tang Che-Hung Chen Rachel Ku Marvin Moon Meng Wang

Cellos Hai-Ye Ni, Principal Priscilla Lee, Associate Principal Yumi Kendall, Assistant Principal Richard Harlow Gloria dePasquale Orton P. and Noël S. Jackson Chair Kathryn Picht Read Robert Cafaro Volunteer Committees Chair Ohad Bar-David John Koen Derek Barnes Alex Veltman

Basses Harold Robinson, Principal Carole and Emilio Gravagno Chair Joseph Conyers, Acting Associate Principal Tobey and Mark Dichter Chair Nathaniel West, Acting Assistant Principal David Fay Duane Rosengard

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

Saratoga Performing Arts Center

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 Gray Charitable Trust Chair Jeffrey Lang, Associate Principal Hannah L. and J. Welles Henderson Chair Christopher Dwyer Jeffry Kirschen Ernesto Tovar Torres Shelley Showers

Trumpets David Bilger, Principal Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest Chair Jeffrey Curnow, Associate Principal Gary and Ruthanne Schlarbaum Chair Anthony Prisk

Trombones Nitzan Haroz, Principal Neubauer Family Foundation Chair Matthew Vaughn, Co-Principal 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 Dwight V. Dowley Chair Angela Zator Nelson, Associate Principal

Percussion Christopher Deviney, Principal Angela Zator Nelson

Piano and Celesta Kiyoko Takeuti

Keyboards Davyd Booth Saratoga Performing Arts Center

Harp Elizabeth Hainen, Principal

Librarians Nicole Jordan, Principal Steven K. Glanzmann

Stage Personnel James J. Sweeney, Jr., Manager Dennis Moore, Jr.

Valerie Coleman

Composer

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1970

Now living in Miami

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Composer

Born in Eisenach, March 21, 1685

Died in Leipzig, July 28, 1750

JOHANNES BRAHMS

Composer

Born in Hamburg, May 7, 1833

Died in Vienna, April 3, 1897 Saratoga Performing Arts Center

PROGRAM NOTES

SEVEN O’CLOCK SHOUT Composed in 2020

VALERIE COLEMAN Born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1970 Now living in Miami

Written in the mid-14th century, Boccaccio’s Decameron contains a harrowing description of the devastation brought about by a plague. Corpses lie in the streets and citizens flee terrified into nature. In the midst of the pandemic, people play and sing soothing songs, aiding in their survival. Boccaccio compares living during a plague to climbing a steep mountain where the summit is not clear—and imagines that when people get to the top they will see a nature more beautiful than they have ever seen before.

Valerie Coleman’s Seven O’Clock Shout is that lush vista. She explains:

The work begins with a distant and solitary solo between two trumpets in fanfare fashion to commemorate the isolation forced upon humankind, and the need to reach out to one another. The fanfare blossoms into a lushly dense landscape of nature, symbolizing both the caregiving acts of nurses and doctors as they try to save lives, while nature is transforming and healing herself during a time of self-isolation.

The Philadelphia Orchestra commissioned Seven O’Clock Shout in the spring of 2020, and it was premiered on a digital gala in June. Coleman wrote the piece for musicians to record their parts separately at home and a producer assembled the parts. In this new rendition the Orchestra will be together during its performance. It has become the Orchestra’s unofficial anthem, “inspired by the tireless frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the heartwarming ritual of evening serenades that brings people together amidst isolation to celebrate life and the sacrifices of heroes,” says Coleman.

Coleman was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1970. She says about where she was raised, “You know, I grew up in Muhammad Ali's neighborhood, the west end of Louisville. And that is about as inner-city as any inner-city can get.” Her mother introduced her to classical music while she was still in the womb. Coleman recounts, “She would play Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, the ‘Pastoral’ Symphony, to me all the time. And so, that's how it all began.” A precocious child, Coleman started notating music in elementary school. She began formal musical studies at the age of 11 and by the age of 14 had already composed three complete symphonies. In high school she earned the opportunity to study flute and composition at Tanglewood, later receiving a double degree in composition/theory and flute performance at Boston University.

Coleman moved to New York City, where she founded the Imani Winds for which she has composed many works, including her Afro-Cuban Concerto for wind quintet and orchestra, encore pieces, and arrangements of spirituals. In 2002 Chamber Music America selected Umoja, whose full orchestral version The Philadelphia Orchestra commissioned and premiered last season, as one of its “Top 101 Great American Works” and in 2005 she was nominated with Imani Winds for a Grammy® Award for Best Classical Crossover Album. A sought-after teacher, she is currently assistant professor of performance, chamber music, and entrepreneurship at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.

Coleman describes her compositional process as a “very intuitive one,” though “never an easy one,” which requires “digging deep.” Sometimes she begins with a poem, a painting, or a biography of a unique, great person. For instance, her Portraits of Josephine, a ballet suite in eight movements for chamber ensemble, celebrates the life of entertainer Josephine Baker. Coleman is inspired by the creativity of Wayne Shorter’s improvisations and Mozart’s flute concertos. The poetry of Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou have led her to compose. She has a love for Paris and mentions the paintings of Matisse as revelatory backdrops. Her compositional process begins with what she calls a “kernel,” a topic that is “impactful,” and she strives to “listen for the soul” of her idea. She uses the metaphor of cooking to describe how composing for the Imani Winds was like being a “cook in the kitchen.” One of her goals in composing is to create a shared experience.

To create the shared experience during a time of isolation, Coleman used a technique called ostinato in Seven O’Clock Shout. She explains that an ostinato is Saratoga Performing Arts Center

a rhythmic motif that repeats itself to generate forward motion and, in this case, groove. The ostinato patterns here are laid down by the bass section, allowing the English horn and strings to float over it, gradually building up to that moment at 7 PM, when cheers, claps, clanging of pots and pans, and shouts ring through the air of cities around the world! The trumpets drive an infectious rhythm, layered with a traditional son clave rhythm, while solo trombone boldly rings out an anthem within a traditional African call-and-response style. The entire orchestra “shouts” back in response and the entire ensemble rallies into an anthem that embodies the struggles and triumph of humanity. The work ends in a proud anthem moment where we all come together with grateful hearts to acknowledge that we have survived yet another day.

Seven O’Clock Shout is a breathtaking pastoral tone poem, in the tradition of Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, as Coleman says, “turning from a ballad to a celebration.”

—Eleonora M. Beck

CONCERTO IN D MINOR FOR TWO VIOLINS AND STRING ORCHESTRA, BWV 1043 Probably composed around 1730

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Born in Eisenach, March 21, 1685 Died in Leipzig, July 28, 1750

Bach’s preeminence as a composer of sacred music has long invited mystified accounts of his musical career. He has often been cast as a “Fifth Evangelist,” taking divine dictation from God. Notwithstanding his deep faith, Bach was a practical, practicing musician, who hailed from a long line of musicians. He had to please both secular and religious employers at different phases of his life. Most of his organ music, for example, came early in his career, when he was employed as a church organist in Weimar. Beginning in 1717, when he was appointed Kapellmeister (court conductor) in Cöthen, he created a large quantity of instrumental music, including his famous Brandenburg Concertos.

Bach moved in 1723 to Leipzig, where his principal duties shifted once again to producing religious music, although he continued composing a great amount of secular works. Many instrumental pieces were written for the Collegium Musicum, a group Georg Philipp Telemann had founded in 1702 and which Bach took over in 1729. Throughout his maturity he wrote keyboard pieces for his many children and also explored more purely compositional issues in large-scale projects such as the two books of the Well-Tempered Clavier, A Musical Offering, and The Art of the Fugue.

Despite his commanding position in music history since the 19th century, Bach was relatively unrecognized in his own time and for more than a half century after his death. It is not surprising therefore that many of his works were lost, and that little background information is known about many of his surviving pieces. Dating his output has proved a formidable problem that has occupied generations of scholars. Although the Concerto performed on tonight’s concert is traditionally viewed as dating from Bach’s Cöthen years, musicologist Christoph Wolff has recently made a compelling case, based both on manuscript evidence and stylistic considerations, that the work was in fact written in Leipzig, perhaps around 1730.

One of the ways that Bach arrived at the forms and styles for his concertos was by looking to earlier models, mainly Italian and specifically those by the celebrated Venetian Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741). Indeed, some of Bach’s concertos were arrangements of pieces by Vivaldi that he adapted for different instruments. Likewise, Bach on occasion transformed his own violin concertos into ones for keyboard. He arranged the Concerto we hear tonight for two harpsichords, transposing the piece down a whole-step (Concerto in C minor, BWV 1062).

The work is popularly known as the “Double Violin Concerto,” although Bach’s own title page reads “Concerto à 6, 2 Violini Concertini, 2 Violini e 1 Viola Ripieni, Violoncello e Continuo.” This is, in fact, chamber music, most likely originally performed by just eight musicians, with two of the four violins featured with and against the rest of the ensemble.

Baroque concertos are typically based on so-called ritornello form. As the name suggests—“a little thing that Saratoga Performing Arts Center returns”— relatively short passages of music played by the entire ensemble alternate with sections dominated by the soloists. Bach particularly admired Vivaldi’s handling of this form and learned from the older Italian composer. The Double Concerto is in three movements, with a lyrical slow movement framed by two fast ones.

As befits a double concerto pairing the same instrument, the opening movement Vivace begins fugally and sustains its relentless energy throughout. The heart-rending Largo ma non tanto is in a contrasting major key and 12/8 meter, featuring the two violin soloists in continuing dialog. The Concerto concludes with an intense Allegro, somewhat different from Bach’s usual approach in that it does not have a dance-like character.

—Christopher H. Gibbs

SYMPHONY NO. 1 IN C MINOR, OP. 68 Composed from 1862 to 1876

JOHANNES BRAHMS Born in Hamburg, May 7, 1833 Died in Vienna, April 3, 1897

As a young composer, Johannes Brahms enjoyed the close friendship and enthusiastic support of Robert and Clara Schumann, two of the most influential musical figures of their day. In 1853, when Brahms was only 20 years old (and with merely a handful of songs, piano solos, and chamber pieces under his belt), Robert Schumann proclaimed to the world that his young friend’s piano sonatas were “veiled symphonies,” and that this composer was the rightful heir to Beethoven’s stupendous musical legacy.

Schumann’s enthusiastic promotion of Brahms was a double-edged sword. While it was flattering to be regarded as the savior of German music, Brahms was intimidated by the pressure to write symphonies worthy of the standard Beethoven had established. It would take him another 23 anxious years, and several abandoned attempts, before he could bring himself to tackle a symphony “after Beethoven,” as he put it. And even then he worried it would not be good enough.

Brahms began sketches for a first symphony as early as 1854, though subsequent progress was slow and sporadic. In 1862 he showed the first movement of a proposed symphony in C minor to some friends. Then, six years later, he sent to Clara Schumann a copy of the alphorn melody that would eventually find its way into the finale of his Symphony No. 1 in C minor. But by the early 1870s Brahms despaired of completing the work, lamenting to a friend, “I shall never write a symphony! You have no idea how it feels for someone like me always to hear the footsteps of such a giant as Beethoven marching along behind me!”

Still, the specter of a first symphony didn’t prevent Brahms from writing other orchestral works in the meantime. He produced two orchestral serenades, a piano concerto, and the masterly German Requiem, all of which had started out with symphonic aspirations. And in 1873 his orchestral Variations on a Theme of Haydn enjoyed enough success to convince him that perhaps a real symphony was not as impossible as it had once seemed. So by 1876 Brahms had completed his Symphony No. 1, at the relatively advanced age of 43.

Brahms tackled the looming shadow of Beethoven by making his own symphony an homage to the master. While Wagner claimed that the only possible path after Beethoven was the music drama and the single-movement symphonic poem, Brahms attempted to show that the four-movement model of the Classical symphony was still ripe for development, and he used Beethoven’s own symphonies as a springboard. Indeed, Brahms’s First Symphony has frequently been referred to as “Beethoven’s Tenth.”

A primary inspiration for Brahms’s First Symphony was Beethoven’s legendary Fifth. Brahms chose the same key, C minor, and used both the rhythm of its famous “fate” motif and the final apotheosis into C major at the conclusion of his own symphony. The main theme in the finale of Brahms’s First bears a striking resemblance, however, to the “Ode to Joy” theme from Beethoven’s Ninth. Brahms meant for these references to be overt—when it was mentioned to him that this work shared some resemblances to Beethoven, he reportedly shot back with indignation, “Well, of course! Any idiot can see that!”

The Symphony’s first movement opens with ominous drum beats (Un poco sostenuto), over which chromatic Saratoga Performing Arts Center lines in the strings and woodwinds weave an anxious tapestry. The drumbeat echoes continue throughout the slow introduction before giving way to the dramatically agitated Allegro. A gentler second theme adds the contrast that provides the musical light and shadow in this movement.

Brahms’s natural gift for lyrical melody and rich harmonizations are evident in the opening of the second movement (Andante sostenuto), which then proceeds through a restless middle section before reprising the sumptuous melody in a new scoring for oboe, horn, and solo violin. The brief third movement (Un poco allegretto e grazioso) functions as a kind of intermezzo, with a rustic freshness that recalls some of Brahms’s earlier orchestral serenades.

The final movement begins like the first, with a slow introduction (Adagio) that reintroduces the portentous timpani drumbeats and sinuous chromaticism. But the “alphorn” theme soon clears away the lingering melancholy, turning the harmony toward a triumphant C major (Più andante). The strings then present a stately hymn (Allegro non troppo, ma con brio) that, together with a majestic trombone chorale, forms the basis for a variety of thematic iterations before reaching a glorious, even euphoric coda (Più allegro).

—Luke Howard

Program notes © 2021. All rights reserved. Program notes may not be reprinted without written permission from The Philadelphia Orchestra Association and/or Eleonora M. Beck.

ABOUT THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA

The Philadelphia Orchestra is one of the world’s preeminent orchestras. It 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 educational initiatives, and an ongoing commitment to the communities that it serves, the ensemble is on a path to create an expansive future for classical music, and to further the place of the arts in an open and democratic society.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin is now in his ninth season as the eighth music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra. His connection to the ensemble’s musicians has been praised by both concertgoers and critics, and he is embraced by the musicians of the Orchestra, audiences, and the community.

Your Philadelphia Orchestra takes great pride in its hometown, performing for the people of Philadelphia year- round, from Verizon Hall to community centers, the Mann Center to Penn’s Landing, classrooms to hospitals, and over the airwaves and online. The Orchestra continues to discover new and inventive ways to nurture its relationship with loyal patrons.

In March 2020, in response to the cancellation of concerts due the COVID-19 pandemic, the Orchestra launched the Virtual Philadelphia Orchestra, a portal hosting video and audio of performances, free, on its website and social media platforms. In September 2020 the Orchestra announced Our World NOW, its reimagined season of concerts filmed without audiences and presented on its Digital Stage. Our World NOW also includes free offerings: HearTOGETHER, a series on racial and social justice; educational activities; and Our City, Your Orchestra, small ensemble performances from locations throughout the Philadelphia region.

The Philadelphia Orchestra continues the tradition of educational and community engagement for listeners of all ages. It launched its HEAR initiative in 2016 to become a major force for good in every community that it serves. HEAR is a portfolio of integrated initiatives that promotes Health, champions music Education, enables broad Access to Orchestra performances, and maximizes impact through Research. The Orchestra’s award-winning education and community initiatives engage over 50,000 students, families, and community members through programs such as PlayINs, side-by-sides, PopUP concerts, Free Neighborhood Concerts, School Concerts, sensory- friendly concerts, the School Partnership Program and School Ensemble Program, and All City Orchestra Fellowships.

Through concerts, tours, residencies, and recordings, the Orchestra is a global ambassador. It performs annually at Carnegie Hall, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and the Bravo! Vail Music Festival. The Orchestra also has a Saratoga Performing Arts Center rich history of touring, having first performed outside Philadelphia in the earliest days of its founding. It was the first American orchestra to perform in the People’s Republic of China in 1973, launching a now-five-decade commitment of people-to-people exchange.

The Orchestra also makes live recordings available on popular digital music services and as part of the Orchestra on Demand section of its website. Under Yannick’s leadership, the Orchestra returned to recording, with nine celebrated releases on the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label. The Orchestra also reaches thousands of radio listeners with weekly broadcasts on WRTI-FM and SiriusXM. For more information, please visit www.philorch.org.

THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION

Board of Directors Ralph W. Muller Chair Matías Tarnopolsky President and Chief Executive Officer Yannick Nézet-Séguin Music Director Caroline B. Rogers Chair, Academy of Music Board of Trustees Sarah Miller Coulson Secretary Mario Mestichelli Treasurer

Holly Blake* James P. Brandau Patrick J. Brennan Elaine Woo Camarda Michael M. Cone Sarah Miller Coulson Kenneth E. Davis Mark S. Dichter Elise du Pont Alexandra T. Victor Edsall David B. Fay* Joseph M. Field Mark J. Foley Lauren Gilchrist Judith F. Glick Donald A. Goldsmith Juliet J. Goodfriend Julia A. Haller Harry R. Halloran, Jr. Lauren Hart Robert C. Heim Osagie O. Imasogie Patricia Harron Imbesi Ronald L. Kaiserman Bennett Keiser Christopher M. Keith Michael Kihn* David Kim* Neal W. Krouse Jeffrey Lang* Kelly Lee* Saratoga Performing Arts Center

Bruce G. Leto Tod J. MacKenzie Joseph M. Manko, Sr. John H. McFadden Dara Morales* Robert E. Mortensen Ralph W. Muller Yannick Nézet-Séguin* Jon Michael Richter Caroline B. Rogers Dianne A. Rotwitt* Charles E. Ryan Adele K. Schaeffer Peter L. Shaw Adrienne Simpson Lindy Snider Matías Tarnopolsky* Fabio Terlevich Ramona Vosbikian Richard B. Worley Alison T. Young Bin Zhang James W. Zug*

*Ex-officio

Administration Matías Tarnopolsky, President and Chief Executive Officer Ryan Fleur, Executive Director Mitch Bassion, Vice President, Development Ashley Berke, Vice President, Communications Tanya Derksen, Vice President, Artistic Production Mario Mestichelli, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Doris Parent, Vice President, Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access Strategies (IDEAS) and Strategic Partnerships Jeremy Rothman, Vice President, Artistic Planning Charlie Wade, Vice President, Marketing