Brooklyn Philharmonic
Encyclopedia
The Brooklyn Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, commonly known as the Brooklyn Philharmonic, is an American orchestra
based in the borough of Brooklyn
, in New York City
. It has been called "groundbreaking" and “one of the most innovative and respected symphony orchestras of modern times.”
Like the London Symphony Orchestra
and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
, the Brooklyn Philharmonic is considered "freelance" in that its musicians are not employed full-time, but rather are paid on a per-performance basis. The Philharmonic has long enjoyed a reputation for championing new music
and for ambitious, innovative programming.
In addition to performing the so-called classical
“standards,” the Brooklyn Philharmonic has commissioned an impressive 65 new works from living composers as well, and has debuted 166 world premiers.
The orchestra’s administrative offices are located in the artistic enclave of Dumbo
in downtown Brooklyn.
, who served as its inaugural conductor until 1861. The Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn held concerts at the Athenaeum in Brooklyn Heights, then the largest concert venue in the borough, until it moved to the newly opened Brooklyn Academy of Music
in 1861, where it remained until 1891. The Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn was the driving force in the establishment of BAM. in 1861 the orchestra was conducted once by Johann Strauss II
in 1861 who is said to have impulsively snatched a violin from one of the other players to join in during The Blue Danube
.
After the departure of Eisfeld, Theodore Thomas served as conductor until 1891, a celebrated tenure. After the departure of Thomas, the Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn no longer sponsored its own orchestra, choosing instead to sponsor the Boston Symphony at BAM, which it did from 1891 onwards and from 1895 in conjunction with the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. After the first BAM burned down on November 30, 1903, the Boston Symphony series was held at the Baptist Hall of the Pilgrim church until the new BAM opened in 1908. After 1938 the Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn was "almost nonexistent" and the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences continued to present the Boston Symphony by itself through the 1972-73 season, although the Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn continued to sponsor modest chamber music concerts at BAM and elsewhere until the early 1980s.
and arts impressario Marks Levin. Landau gave the orchestra a focus on contemporary and infrequently performed classical music.
Lukas Foss
, who was well-noted for his "Meet the Moderns" series, having received permission to adopt the name from the then still extant but much diminished Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn. Foss’s successor, Dennis Russell Davies
, expanded the orchestra’s programming to encompass festival-themed weekend programs.
Robert Spano
, the orchestra's next music director is credited with markedly improving the sound of the group while continuing its focus on unique programming. Spano’s successor, Michael Christie
, added the concept of thematic programming to the orchestra's schedule. Christie's first Brooklyn Philharmonic concert as music director was in February 2006. In September 2007, the Brooklyn Philharmonic announced the extension of Christie's contract with the orchestra through the 2009-2010 season, with an evergreen clause to allow for yearly renewal. His contract with the Brooklyn Philharmonic expired in June 2010.
Finally, in 2011 the Brooklyn Philharmonic announced the appointment of conductor Alan Pierson
, founder of the highly regarded ensemble Alarm Will Sound
. Pierson is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
as well as of the Eastman School of Music
.
, Aaron Copland
, Leonard Bernstein
, Itzhak Perlman
, Loren Maazel, Peter Serkin
, Michael Tilson Thomas
, Jessye Norman
, Robert Merrill
, Alicia de Larrocha
, James Galway
, Victoria de Los Angeles
, Roberta Peters
, Claudio Arrau
, Richard Stolzman, Leonard Rose
, Byron Janis
, Laurie Anderson
, Elvis Costello
, Lynn Harrell
, Tania León
and Andre Watts
.
The Brooklyn Philharmonic has also appeared multiple times on the television show Late Night with David Letterman
. And Brooklyn Philharmonic recordings are widely available for download on iTunes
, among other places.
In 1990 this relationship was formalized to a greater degree, and the Brooklyn Philharmonic served as resident orchestra for the Brooklyn Academy of Music
(BAM) from then until 2005, performing frequently in BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House with 2,109 seats as well as in the same institution’s Harvey Lichtenstein Theater with 874 seats. A 1998 article in the New York Times observed, "the association with BAM has been a mixed blessing. It has helped define the orchestra's artistic personality, but it is also the root of several current problems." The president of the Philharmonic's board at the time remarked, "our relationship with BAM has gone through its ups and downs. There is confusion among the public as to whether we are part of BAM, or independent, and over time we've tried closer and looser affiliations. We find that decentralization works better. But the orchestra also likes the alignment with BAM and its image of being willing to try new things." Harvey Lichtenstein, then director of BAM and the driving force in the 1990 agreement, asserted, "basically, I think the institution has to stand on its own two feet, artistically, financially and administratively."
The BAM residency ended in 2005, and while the Brooklyn Philharmonic did continue to perform there on occasion, for the most part it "evaporated . . to a trickle of community-oriented chamber-music events" around Brooklyn. With the hiring of a new director, the Philharmonic "intends to establish enduring bases throughout the borough." The Philharmonic now performs at the Brooklyn Public Library
in the 189 seat Stevan Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture as well as in the Brooklyn Museum
in the 460 seat Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium. In 2010, it was "squeezed financially out of BAM" altogether. As of 2011, it has plans to focus on Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brighton Beach and Downtown Brooklyn. Pierson remarked, "We really want to go back to BAM. I know the orchestra players miss it terribly."
Starting in 1974 the Philharmonic began performing in Prospect Park
in the summer, and now performs annually at many of New York's longest running art festivals, including Celebrate Brooklyn
as well as at New York's largest church, Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The Brooklyn Philharmonic first performed at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
in 1964, just two years after the opening of 2,738 seat Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall
). The orchestra premiered in Carnegie Hall
in 1973 and has continued to appear in Carnegie Hall’s main Isaac Stern Auditorium with 2,804 seats periodically, its most recent such concert at Carnegie having occurred in 2011.
. The Philharmonic’s “Smart Arts Academy,” to cite one example, provides free daily music, arts, dance, theater, sports, movie making, and enrichment activities to about 250 students per school annually totaling some 6,000 students from New York’s most financially challenged public schools. The Philharmonic’s educational programs are supported by funds obtained by and for the orchestra.
And it is routinely reviewed by critics and journalists from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post
, the Brooklyn Eagle
, the Brooklyn Paper as well as radio stations WQXR
and WNYC
, among other media outlets.
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
based in the borough of Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. It has been called "groundbreaking" and “one of the most innovative and respected symphony orchestras of modern times.”
Like the London Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...
and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is a Grammy Award-winning classical music chamber orchestra based in New York City. It is known for its collaborative leadership style in which the musicians, not a conductor, interpret the score....
, the Brooklyn Philharmonic is considered "freelance" in that its musicians are not employed full-time, but rather are paid on a per-performance basis. The Philharmonic has long enjoyed a reputation for championing new music
20th century classical music
20th century classical music was without a dominant style and highly diverse.-Introduction:At the turn of the century, music was characteristically late Romantic in style. Composers such as Gustav Mahler and Jean Sibelius were pushing the bounds of Post-Romantic Symphonic writing...
and for ambitious, innovative programming.
In addition to performing the so-called classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
“standards,” the Brooklyn Philharmonic has commissioned an impressive 65 new works from living composers as well, and has debuted 166 world premiers.
The orchestra’s administrative offices are located in the artistic enclave of Dumbo
DUMBO, Brooklyn
Dumbo, an acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It encompasses two sections: one located between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges, which connect Brooklyn to Manhattan across the East River, and another that continues...
in downtown Brooklyn.
History
Although the present Brooklyn Philharmonic was founded in 1954, Brooklyn has hosted other notable orchestras in its history. The Brooklyn Philharmonic claims to be "one of the oldest living orchestras in the New World," but it has no organizational connection to the now-defunct Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn, with which it existed concurrently for almost thirty years.Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn
The Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn was formed in 1857 under Theodore EisfeldTheodore Eisfeld
Theodore Eisfeld was a conductor, most notably of the New York Philharmonic Society, which became the New York Philharmonic.-Biography:...
, who served as its inaugural conductor until 1861. The Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn held concerts at the Athenaeum in Brooklyn Heights, then the largest concert venue in the borough, until it moved to the newly opened Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....
in 1861, where it remained until 1891. The Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn was the driving force in the establishment of BAM. in 1861 the orchestra was conducted once by Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
in 1861 who is said to have impulsively snatched a violin from one of the other players to join in during The Blue Danube
The Blue Danube
The Blue Danube is the common English title of An der schönen blauen Donau, Op. 314 , a waltz by the Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, composed in 1866...
.
After the departure of Eisfeld, Theodore Thomas served as conductor until 1891, a celebrated tenure. After the departure of Thomas, the Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn no longer sponsored its own orchestra, choosing instead to sponsor the Boston Symphony at BAM, which it did from 1891 onwards and from 1895 in conjunction with the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. After the first BAM burned down on November 30, 1903, the Boston Symphony series was held at the Baptist Hall of the Pilgrim church until the new BAM opened in 1908. After 1938 the Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn was "almost nonexistent" and the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences continued to present the Boston Symphony by itself through the 1972-73 season, although the Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn continued to sponsor modest chamber music concerts at BAM and elsewhere until the early 1980s.
Brooklyn Philharmonia
Between 1941 and 1943 a new orchestra was formed called the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra, an offshoot of the earlier Brooklyn Civic Orchestra, but it was not able to sustain itself and expired after 1943. In 1954, the Director of BAM, Julius Bloom, led the incorporation of a another new orchestra known as the "Brooklyn Philharmonia" in concert with noted conductor Siegfried LandauSiegfried Landau
Siegfried Landau was a German-born American conductor and composer.He was born in Berlin, the son of Ezekiel Landau, an Orthodox rabbi, and Helen Landau. He was a music student at the Stern and Klindworth-Scarwenka Conservatories in Germany. His family emigrated to London in 1939...
and arts impressario Marks Levin. Landau gave the orchestra a focus on contemporary and infrequently performed classical music.
Brooklyn Philharmonic
In 1982, the Brooklyn Philharmonia changed its name to the “Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra” while under the direction of American composerComposer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
Lukas Foss
Lukas Foss
Lukas Foss was a German-born American composer, conductor, and pianist.-Music career:He was born Lukas Fuchs in Berlin, Germany in 1922. His father was the philosopher and scholar Martin Fuchs...
, who was well-noted for his "Meet the Moderns" series, having received permission to adopt the name from the then still extant but much diminished Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn. Foss’s successor, Dennis Russell Davies
Dennis Russell Davies
Dennis Russell Davies is an American conductor and pianist. He studied piano and conducting at the Juilliard School where he received his doctorate...
, expanded the orchestra’s programming to encompass festival-themed weekend programs.
Robert Spano
Robert Spano
Robert Spano is an American conductor and pianist. Since 2001 he has been Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra , and he served as Music Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic from 1996 to 2004...
, the orchestra's next music director is credited with markedly improving the sound of the group while continuing its focus on unique programming. Spano’s successor, Michael Christie
Michael Christie (conductor)
Michael Christie is an American conductor. He graduated from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music with a bachelor’s degree in trumpet performance...
, added the concept of thematic programming to the orchestra's schedule. Christie's first Brooklyn Philharmonic concert as music director was in February 2006. In September 2007, the Brooklyn Philharmonic announced the extension of Christie's contract with the orchestra through the 2009-2010 season, with an evergreen clause to allow for yearly renewal. His contract with the Brooklyn Philharmonic expired in June 2010.
Finally, in 2011 the Brooklyn Philharmonic announced the appointment of conductor Alan Pierson
Alan Pierson
Alan Pierson is an American conductor. He is the conductor of Alarm Will Sound, Crash Ensemble, and the Brooklyn Philharmonic....
, founder of the highly regarded ensemble Alarm Will Sound
Alarm Will Sound
Alarm Will Sound is a 20-member chamber orchestra that focuses on recordings and performances of contemporary music. Its performances have been described as "equal parts exuberance, nonchalance, and virtuosity" by the Financial Times and as "a triumph of ensemble playing" by the San Francisco...
. Pierson is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
as well as of the Eastman School of Music
Eastman School of Music
The Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...
.
Guests Performers
Guest performers with the Brooklyn Philharmonic have, among others, included Yehudi MenuhinYehudi Menuhin
Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a Russian Jewish American violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Russian Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985...
, Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
, Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
, Itzhak Perlman
Itzhak Perlman
Itzhak Perlman is an Israeli-born violinist, conductor, and instructor of master classes. He is regarded as one of the pre-eminent violinists of the 20th and early-21st centuries.-Early life:...
, Loren Maazel, Peter Serkin
Peter Serkin
-Biography:He was born in New York City and is the son of pianist Rudolf Serkin, and grandson of the influential violinist Adolf Busch, whose daughter Irene had married Rudolf Serkin...
, Michael Tilson Thomas
Michael Tilson Thomas
Michael Tilson Thomas is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is currently music director of the San Francisco Symphony, and artistic director of the New World Symphony Orchestra.-Early years:...
, Jessye Norman
Jessye Norman
Jessye Norman is an American opera singer. Norman is a well-known contemporary opera singer and recitalist, and is one of the highest paid performers in classical music...
, Robert Merrill
Robert Merrill
Robert Merrill was an American operatic baritone.-Early life:Merrill was born Moishe Miller, later known as Morris Miller, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York, to tailor Abraham Miller, originally Milstein, and his wife Lillian, née Balaban, immigrants from Warsaw, Poland.His mother...
, Alicia de Larrocha
Alicia de Larrocha
Alicia de Larrocha y de la Calle was a Spanish pianist from Catalonia. One of the great piano legends of the 20th century, Reuters called her "the greatest Spanish pianist in history", Time "one of the world's most outstanding pianists" and The Guardian "the leading Spanish pianist of her...
, James Galway
James Galway
- External links : IMGArtists.com 15 September 2008. AllAboutJazz.com 5 August 2008.*...
, Victoria de Los Angeles
Victoria de los Ángeles
Victoria de los Ángeles was a Spanish Catalan operatic soprano and recitalist whose career began in the early 1940s and reached its height in the years from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. Her obituary in The Times noted that she must be counted “among the finest singers of the second half...
, Roberta Peters
Roberta Peters
Roberta Peters is an American coloratura soprano.One of the most prominent American singers to achieve lasting fame and success in opera, Peters is noted for her 35-year association with the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York...
, Claudio Arrau
Claudio Arrau
Claudio Arrau León was a Chilean pianist known for his interpretations of a vast repertoire spanning from the baroque to 20th-century composers, especially Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Brahms and Debussy...
, Richard Stolzman, Leonard Rose
Leonard Rose
Leonard Rose was an American cellist and pedagogue.Rose was born in Washington, D.C., his parents were immigrants from Kiev, Ukraine...
, Byron Janis
Byron Janis
Byron Janis is an American classical pianist.-Life:He made several recordings for RCA Victor and Mercury Records, and occupies two volumes of the Philips Great Pianists series. His discography covers repertoire from Beethoven to David Guion and includes renditions of major piano concertos from...
, Laurie Anderson
Laurie Anderson
Laura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson is an American experimental performance artist, composer and musician who plays violin and keyboards and sings in a variety of experimental music and art rock styles. Initially trained as a sculptor, Anderson did her first performance-art piece in the late 1960s...
, Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
, Lynn Harrell
Lynn Harrell
Lynn Harrell is an American classical cellist.-Biography:Harrell was born in New York City of musician parents; his father was the baritone Mack Harrell and his mother, Marjorie Fulton, was a violinist. At the age of eight he decided to learn to play the cello. When Lynn was 12, his family moved...
, Tania León
Tania Leon
Tania León is a Cuban composer and conductor who has been recognized as an educator and advisor to arts organizations.-León's Music:...
and Andre Watts
André Watts
André Watts is a classical pianist and professor at the Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University.-Life and early performances:...
.
The Brooklyn Philharmonic has also appeared multiple times on the television show Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
. And Brooklyn Philharmonic recordings are widely available for download on iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
, among other places.
Concert Halls
Whereas the earlier Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn was one of the principal founders of BAM, the present Brooklyn Philharmonic (then the Brooklyn Philharmonia) was in turn founded under the auspices of BAM in 1954, where it had its first home. The two institutions were not legally separated until 1971, although the Philharmonia/Philharmonic continued to perform at BAM. Over time the relationship between the Brooklyn Philharmonic and BAM was sufficiently intertwined that it had once again become "practically speaking a subdepartment of BAM."In 1990 this relationship was formalized to a greater degree, and the Brooklyn Philharmonic served as resident orchestra for the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....
(BAM) from then until 2005, performing frequently in BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House with 2,109 seats as well as in the same institution’s Harvey Lichtenstein Theater with 874 seats. A 1998 article in the New York Times observed, "the association with BAM has been a mixed blessing. It has helped define the orchestra's artistic personality, but it is also the root of several current problems." The president of the Philharmonic's board at the time remarked, "our relationship with BAM has gone through its ups and downs. There is confusion among the public as to whether we are part of BAM, or independent, and over time we've tried closer and looser affiliations. We find that decentralization works better. But the orchestra also likes the alignment with BAM and its image of being willing to try new things." Harvey Lichtenstein, then director of BAM and the driving force in the 1990 agreement, asserted, "basically, I think the institution has to stand on its own two feet, artistically, financially and administratively."
The BAM residency ended in 2005, and while the Brooklyn Philharmonic did continue to perform there on occasion, for the most part it "evaporated . . to a trickle of community-oriented chamber-music events" around Brooklyn. With the hiring of a new director, the Philharmonic "intends to establish enduring bases throughout the borough." The Philharmonic now performs at the Brooklyn Public Library
Brooklyn Public Library
The Brooklyn Public Library is the public library system of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. It is the fifth largest public library system in the United States. Like the two other public library systems in New York City, it is an independent nonprofit organization that is funded by the...
in the 189 seat Stevan Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture as well as in the Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....
in the 460 seat Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium. In 2010, it was "squeezed financially out of BAM" altogether. As of 2011, it has plans to focus on Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brighton Beach and Downtown Brooklyn. Pierson remarked, "We really want to go back to BAM. I know the orchestra players miss it terribly."
Starting in 1974 the Philharmonic began performing in Prospect Park
Prospect Park
Prospect Park may refer to:* Prospect Park , a park in Brooklyn, New York, United States* Prospect Park , a park in Troy, New York, United States...
in the summer, and now performs annually at many of New York's longest running art festivals, including Celebrate Brooklyn
Celebrate Brooklyn
Celebrate Brooklyn is one of New York City’s longest running, free, outdoor performing arts festivals. Launched in 1979, as a catalyst for Brooklyn’s performing arts scene and to bring people back into Prospect Park after years of neglect, Celebrate Brooklyn has been an anchor in the park’s...
as well as at New York's largest church, Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The Brooklyn Philharmonic first performed at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of New York City's Upper West Side. Reynold Levy has been its president since 2002.-History and facilities:...
in 1964, just two years after the opening of 2,738 seat Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall
Avery Fisher Hall
Avery Fisher Hall is a concert hall, in New York City and is part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex. It is the home of the New York Philharmonic, with a capacity of 2,738 seats.-History:...
). The orchestra premiered in Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
in 1973 and has continued to appear in Carnegie Hall’s main Isaac Stern Auditorium with 2,804 seats periodically, its most recent such concert at Carnegie having occurred in 2011.
Artistic Directors
- Siegfried LandauSiegfried LandauSiegfried Landau was a German-born American conductor and composer.He was born in Berlin, the son of Ezekiel Landau, an Orthodox rabbi, and Helen Landau. He was a music student at the Stern and Klindworth-Scarwenka Conservatories in Germany. His family emigrated to London in 1939...
(1954–1971) - Lukas FossLukas FossLukas Foss was a German-born American composer, conductor, and pianist.-Music career:He was born Lukas Fuchs in Berlin, Germany in 1922. His father was the philosopher and scholar Martin Fuchs...
(1971–1988) - Dennis Russell DaviesDennis Russell DaviesDennis Russell Davies is an American conductor and pianist. He studied piano and conducting at the Juilliard School where he received his doctorate...
(1991–1996) - Robert SpanoRobert SpanoRobert Spano is an American conductor and pianist. Since 2001 he has been Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra , and he served as Music Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic from 1996 to 2004...
(1996–2004) - Michael ChristieMichael Christie (conductor)Michael Christie is an American conductor. He graduated from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music with a bachelor’s degree in trumpet performance...
(2005–2010) - Alan PiersonAlan PiersonAlan Pierson is an American conductor. He is the conductor of Alarm Will Sound, Crash Ensemble, and the Brooklyn Philharmonic....
(2011–present)
Educational Work
The Brooklyn Philharmonic develops, financially supports and staffs some of the largest educational programs specifically aimed at financially disadvantaged children in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. The Philharmonic’s “Smart Arts Academy,” to cite one example, provides free daily music, arts, dance, theater, sports, movie making, and enrichment activities to about 250 students per school annually totaling some 6,000 students from New York’s most financially challenged public schools. The Philharmonic’s educational programs are supported by funds obtained by and for the orchestra.
Honors and Awards
The Philharmonic has garnered 21 ASCAP awards for innovative programing.And it is routinely reviewed by critics and journalists from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
, the Brooklyn Eagle
Brooklyn Eagle
The Brooklyn Daily Bulletin began publishing when the original Eagle folded in 1955. In 1996 it merged with a newly revived Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and now publishes a morning paper five days a week under the Brooklyn Daily Eagle name...
, the Brooklyn Paper as well as radio stations WQXR
WQXR-FM
WQXR-FM is an American classical radio station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, and serving the New York City metropolitan area. It is the most-listened-to classical-music station in the United States, with an average quarter-hour audience of 63,000...
and WNYC
WNYC
WNYC is a set of call letters shared by a pair of co-owned, non-profit, public radio stations located in New York City.WNYC broadcasts on the AM band at 820 kHz, and WNYC-FM is at 93.9 MHz. Both stations are members of National Public Radio and carry distinct, but similar news/talk programs...
, among other media outlets.