Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads the Philadelphia Orchestra during its annual residency at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. (Ironglass Productions)
Ironglass Productions
SARATOGA SPRINGS — On a warm August night in 1966, then 16-year-old Carla Skodinski begged her parents to go back to the new performing arts center tucked in the pines of Spa State Park. She had already gone once to see the New York City Ballet dance among the fireflies. Enchanted, she wanted to return, this time for the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Eugene Ormandy.
“I had never heard an orchestra play live,” Skodinski said. “I absolutely couldn’t believe the sound I was hearing. I had never heard anything like this. … I was just mesmerized.”
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Henry Peltier from the Philadelphia Orchestra, left, Richard P. Leach; first executive director of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, center, and Norman E. Wait Jr. review plans for the new arts center March 31, 1964, at SPAC in Saratoga Springs. (Times Union archive)
Saratoga Springs friends Erin Guynup, left, and Lori Ercolini chat and enjoy drinks and snacks on the lawn of Saratoga Performing Arts Center while they wait for The Philadelphia Orchestra to perform on opening night on July 27, 2022, in Saratoga Springs.
Lori Van Buren/Times Union
Marin Aslop, prinicpal guest conductor for The Philadelphia Orchestra, leads the musicians on Aug. 6, 2025, at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. The Philadelphia Orchestra will launch its 2026 SPAC residency under her baton. (Erica Miller/The Philadelphia Orchestra)
Erica Miller/The Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra onstage at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in 1966. (Adrian Siegel collection)
Adrian Siegel
Sixty local brass musicians perform on Saratoga Performing Arts Center’s stage with members of The Philadelphia Orchestra during SPAC’s Seventh Annual “PlayIN” on Aug. 1, 2024, in Saratoga Springs.
Lori Van Buren/Times Union
Eugene Ormandy and Yo-Yo Ma at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in 1982. (Allen J. Winigrad)
Allen J. Winigrad
Eugene Ormandy, former music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducts rehearsal at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. (Louis Hood)
Louis Hood
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra, conducts nearly 100 Capital Region string players during a “PlayIN” at SPAC Friday August 10, 2018 in Saratoga Springs, NY. (John Carl D’Annibale/Times Union archive)
John Carl D’Annibale
Philadelphia Orchestra Conductor Eugene Ormandy at Saratoga Performing Arts Center, New York. August 4, 1986 (Times Union archive)
Times Union Historic Images
Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra Conductor, with choir. July 1968 (Times Union archive)
Times Union Historic Images
Philadelphia Orchestra conductor Eugene Ormandy at Saratoga Performing Arts Center, New York. Undated. (Times Union archive)
Times Union Historic Images
An audience listens to the Philadelphia Orchestra on opening night at Saratoga Performing Arts Center on Wednesday, July 31, 2019 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union)
Lori Van Buren
Stephane Deneve conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra on opening night at Saratoga Performing Arts Center on Wednesday, July 31, 2019 in Troy, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union)
Lori Van Buren
Patrons set up chairs as The Philadelphia Orchestra performs during opening night at Saratoga Performing Arts Center on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Lori Van Buren/Times Union
Philadelphia Orchestra Concert Master David Kim joined violinists from around the Capital Region for a PlayIn on Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023, at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga, NY.
Jim Franco/Times Union
Philadelphia Orchestra Concert Master David Kim joined violinists from around the Capital Region for a PlayIn on Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023, at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga, NY.
Jim Franco/Times Union
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, music and artistic director for The Philadelphia Orchestra-Yannick, conducts “An Alpine Symphony” on Aug. 8, 2024 at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. The orchestra returns for its 2026 residency on Aug. 5. (Francesco D’Amico)
Francesco D’Amico
Concertmaster David Kim in front of the Woodside Park Dentzel Carousel at the Please Touch Museum In Philadelphia. He will lead an evening of “the Four Seasons” with The Philadelphia Orchestra on Aug. 19, 2026 at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. (Neal Santos/The Philadelphia Orchestra)
Neal Santos/The Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra Assistant Conductor Naomi Woo leads musicians during the Philadelphia Orchestra “PlayIN” at Saratoga Performing Arts Center on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. More than 90 local violin, viola, cello, and bass players of all ages join members of the Philadelphia Orchestra to play various classical pieces.
Lori Van Buren/Times Union
Philadelphia Orchestra Assistant Conductor Naomi Woo leads musicians during the Philadelphia Orchestra “PlayIN” at Saratoga Performing Arts Center on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. More than 90 local violin, viola, cello, and bass players of all ages join members of the Philadelphia Orchestra to play various classical pieces.
Lori Van Buren/Times Union
Aaron Copland rehearses with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1976. He conducted one of the most historic moments in th history of the orchestra’s residency at Saratoga Performing Arts Center: Marian Anderson narrating his “Lincoln’s Portrait.” (Allen J. Winigrad)
Allen J. Winigrad
Eugene Ormandy, former maestro of the Philadelphia Orchestra, watches construction of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. SPAC has served as the orchestra’s summer home since 1966. (Burns Photography/Saratoga Performing Arts Center)
Burns Photography/Saratoga Performing Arts Center
Pianist Emanuel Ax in 1982 during a rehearsal for the Phildalphia Orchestra’s summer residency at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. (Allen J. Winigrad)
Allen J. Winigrad
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra in an “Alpine Symphony” on August 8, 2024 at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. (Francesco D’Amico)
Francesco D’Amico
The Philadelphia Orchestra has called Saratoga Performing Arts Center its second home since 1966. (Gary Gold)
Gary Gold 2025
Concertmaster David Kim and the Philadelphia Orchestra performs on August 8, 2024 at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. (Francesco D’Amico)
Francesco D’Amico
That evening, a lifelong Philadelphia Orchestra and classical music fan emerged, as did a partnership between one of the world’s top orchestras and the new Saratoga Performing Arts Center. The musical residency, like the performing arts organization, turns 60 this summer.
A main reason the SPAC residency was extended to the Philadelphia Orchestra was because of then-Gov. Nelson Rockefeller’s wife, Happy, said Ryan Fleur, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts Philly. She grew up in Bryn Mawr, a Pennsylvania suburb just west of Philadelphia.
“When the discussion was happening of what to do, who to have, they knew they wanted Balanchine. And Happy told Nelson, ‘Well, why not my orchestra?’” Fleur said. And so Happy’s hometown orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, got a new summer home.
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The residency — as well as its partners — has evolved over its six decades. The orchestra’s summer season has been led by five music directors, from Ormandy that first summer to Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who has led since his appointment in 2010. Programming, once under the auspices of the orchestra in its early years, has become a collaboration between the musical group and its summer home, said Elizabeth Sobol, CEO of SPAC. In addition to performing, the orchestra hosts PlayIN with local musicians of all ages and frequently collaborates with Albany Pro Musica for large choral works.
“The people who are coming to our venue are my neighbors. They are our bankers and our grocers and our shop owners, and they’re our teachers,” Sobol said. “That’s really extraordinary. And to feel the whole community wait for this moment (when the orchestra arrives), I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The musicians also wait for this moment. Some spend the summer camping upstate, Fleur said, while others stay with friends or family or rent.
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“SPAC — it’s not a residency, it’s a second home,” Fleur said.
Clockwise from left: Pianist Emanuel Ax, who will return to Saratoga Performing Arts Center this summer, in 1982; David Kim, Philadelphia Orchestra concertmaster since 1999; and Aaron Copland rehearsing his “Lincoln’s Portrait” in 1976.
Allen J. Winigrad, Francesco D’Amico
Summers in Saratoga are the beloved “capstone” to the Philadelphia Orchestra’s long seasons, said David Kim, concertmaster since 1999. Musicians’ concert days often begin with rehearsal, Kim said.
“Then it’s go to lunch, take a nap, take a shower and then show up and really make music on that stage,” Kim said.
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Evenings often end with a celebratory gathering of “nice charcuterie and a nice bottle of wine or two” at a player’s home, Kim said. Then the ritual repeats for 12 concerts over three weeks.
For anyone who may have noticed a teary-eyed musician during the final concert, Kim said it is because most retiring players end their tenures on SPAC stages.
“It’s a very emotional moment,” Kim said. “Usually there’s at least one or two or three every season. Some of them have been coming up to Saratoga for like 40, 50 years, and they get handed a bouquet of flowers and extra applause on the last night. It’s very emotional for them, and for all of us too, to say goodbye, so that gives an extra layer of intensity to the end of the SPAC season.”
The Philadelphia Orchestra’s residency has been filled with memorable moments. Perhaps the most historic was opera legend Marian Anderson’s performance of Aaron Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait,” under Copland’s baton, in 1976 as part of the nation’s Bicentennial. This summer’s presentation of the work, this time with Broadway star Brian Stokes Mitchell narrating, is a deliberate nod to Anderson’s performance, Sobol said. There are other callbacks to notable figures in this season, including pianist Emanuel Ax and conductor Marin Alsop.
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There have also been concerts that may not make the history books but have had no less of an impact on their viewers. Fleur recalled Verdi’s “Requiem” from last summer. After the morning’s two-hour rehearsal block for a roughly 90-minute piece (and one the orchestra had performed before elsewhere), Nézet-Séguin went rogue during the concert.
“Because Yannick has such a rapport with the ensemble, he got up there, and he did it entirely differently, and the orchestra, they just followed him, and they breathed with him,” Fleur said. “It was the most extraordinary hour-and-a-half experience I’ve ever had. The audience, everybody, was connected at once. It was this music-making thing that happened to be Verdi. It was about the surroundings, it was about the park, it was about being outdoors, it was about just being focused and in a moment where we’re very comfortable making music.”
For Sobol, one of the “most profoundly meaningful performances of (her) tenure” was John Luther Adams’ “Vespers of the Blessed Earth” in 2023. Sobol described the work as a “lamentation about climate change” that featured the recitation of hundreds of species now extinct. Though it had been performed elsewhere by the Philadelphia Orchestra, including Carnegie Hall, experiencing it outdoors, in an audience that included local conservationists and climate activists, transformed the piece.
“It summoned the essence of what makes this place so special,” Sobol said.
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Skodinski — who hasn’t missed a summer season, even when she was working full-time on Wall Street and could only travel to Saratoga Springs on the weekends — is quick to rattle off a list of concerts on repeat in her mind. Seeing opera stars Beverly Sills and Jessye Norman with the orchestra introduced her and her husband Michael to another love, the Metropolitan Opera. Then there was the “touching” tribute to Ormandy, featuring the late violinist Isaac Stern. This summer, she will travel from New York City for eight concerts, many with friends who plan their annual visits with the Skodinskis around the Philadelphia Orchestra’s season.
“As long as it’s classical, we’re there,” said Skodinski of how she and her husband pick their concerts.
Eugene Ormandy, former music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, top left and bottom right, was involved in the design of Saratoga Performing Arts Center, which is an acoustic favorite among the orchestra’s current musicians and audiences.
Burns Photography/Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Gary Gold, Lori Van Buren/Times Union and Times Union archive
Though not “every single concert is one of those blockbusters,” Kim said, some of those splashy moments stand out to him. The orchestra’s expansion into popular culture — accompanying hit films or splashy concerts with big-name, orchestra-loving artists like John Legend and Laufey — has packed SPAC’s lawn with audiences who may have never thought orchestral concerts were for them. That is exciting to the musicians, even if it meant it took Kim an hour and a half to get out of the parking lot post-Laufey.
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The physical amphitheater, which Ormandy helped design, is also special to the orchestra. Acoustically, SPAC ranks highly for musicians, Kim and Fleur said.
“Being on that stage, whether it’s really rain or shine, and when we are playing concerts, it is, you know, at nighttime it’s 90 degrees, it’s humid, there are bugs everywhere — those are all part of the memories,” Kim said.
With the lifelong spell that fateful summer concert cast upon Skodinski and — after convincing them the late-night drives were worth it — her parents, she hopes more families take advantage of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s summers at SPAC.
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“My parents started loving coming here to SPAC,” Skodinski said. “They ended up being mesmerized by it. They weren’t necessarily people who were high, classical music people, but when you hear it, and in that environment, I can only describe it as magic.”