PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The stars are coming out for the Philadelphia Orchestra’s 125th birthday season.<\/p>\n
Jeremy Rothman, Chief Programming Officer for the Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts, says pianist Manny Ax will celebrate 50 years of his professional debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra, while Wynton Marsalis is writing a brand-new piece for the Philadelphia Orchestra.<\/p>\n
Opening night is September 25 with music and artistic director, Yannick N\u00e9zet-S\u00e9guin, joined by Yuja Wang on piano.<\/p>\n
“She’s performing a piece by Ravel that actually this orchestra gave the U.S. Premier of,” says Rothman.<\/p>\n
Days later, principal guest conductor Marin Alsop leads the orchestra in a program featuring a ‘one-in-a-million talent,’ the pianist Yunchan Lim.<\/p>\n
“This guy is an absolute superstar,” says Rothman.<\/p>\n
And it’s the world premiere of a piece commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra, written by John Adams, who Rothman calls “one of the leading American composers of today.”<\/p>\n
The orchestra’s long tradition of innovation is one of the themes of this celebratory season.<\/p>\n
“We have a long history of firsts,” says Ryan Fleur, CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts. “We were the first orchestra on the radio. We were the first orchestra on television. We were also the first orchestra in the movies.”<\/p>\n
The ensemble skyrocketed to fame under the baton of music director Leopold Stokowski.<\/p>\n
“Most famously known for shaking the hand of Mickey Mouse,” says Rothman.<\/p>\n
The orchestra partnered with Walt Disney for the 1940 release of “Fantasia.”<\/p>\n
To celebrate the orchestra’s 125th anniversary, Rothman says “we’re going to perform ‘Fantasia’ live with the film.” The orchestra is also celebrating its 25th season in the Kimmel Center, and the 250th birthday of our nation, next year.<\/p>\n
“This orchestra has an amazing legacy right here in the birthplace of America,” says Rothman.<\/p>\n
“We are one of the greatest orchestras in the world. And we’re right here in your backyard,” says Fleur.<\/p>\n
For more information: <\/strong><\/p>\n Philadelphia Orchestra Opening Night Sept. 25<\/a> Marian Anderson Hall (located inside the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts) Copyright \u00a9 2025 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The stars are coming out for the Philadelphia Orchestra’s 125th birthday season. Jeremy Rothman, Chief…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":231426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[124760,124759,5229,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-231425","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-124760","9":"tag-6abc-loves-the-arts-philadelphia-orchestras-125th-season-begins-opening-night-september-25","10":"tag-america","11":"tag-pa","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-philadelphia","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Philadelphia Orchestra 2025-26 Season<\/a><\/p>\n
300 S. Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102<\/p>\n