Philadelphia Orchestra

The Philadelphia Orchestra was founded in 1900 and quickly rose to join the league of the world’s finest orchestras. Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy had a formative influence, each leading the orchestra for nearly four decades. Since 1980, Riccardo Muti, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Christoph Eschenbach, and Charles Dutoit, respectively, took over the reins before Yannick Nézet-Séguin began his tenure as Music Director in 2012; Nathalie Stutzmann has been Principal Guest Conductor since 2021. The orchestra’s home since 2001 has been the Kimmel Cultural Campus, where concerts are held in Verizon Hall; during the summer season, the orchestra performs at the Mann Center (Fairmount Park), Penn’s Landing (Longwood Gardens), and the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Annual residencies take it to New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and the Bravo! Vail Music Festival in Colorado. The Philadelphia Orchestra is deeply committed to social and educational causes. Through its popular PlayIN events and pop-up, neighborhood, and school concerts, it reaches 50,000 students and families each year. In 2020, during the Covid pandemic, the orchestra launched the Virtual Philadelphia Orchestra digital platform with free online offerings, and its HearTOGETHER series advocates for social justice and against racism. The Philadelphia Orchestra regularly tours internationally. In the summer of 2022, in addition to its concerts in Lucerne, it is performing at the Edinburgh Festival and the BBC Proms, as well as in Paris, Dresden,
Berlin, and Hamburg.

Lucerne Festival (IMF) debut on 26 August 1982 in Schumann’s Fourth and Mahler’s First Symphony conducted by Riccardo Muti.

August 2022