The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Richard Strauss, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Arturo Toscanini; of the Philharmonia's younger conductors, the most important to its development was Herbert von Karajan, who though never formally chief conductor was closely associated with the orchestra in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Philharmonia became widely regarded as the finest of London's five symphony orchestras in its first two decades.
Anna Moffo was an American opera singer, television personality, and actress. One of the leading lyric-coloratura sopranos of her generation, she possessed a warm and radiant voice of considerable range and agility. Noted for her physical beauty, she was nicknamed "La Bellissima".
Peter Manning FRSA is a British conductor and violinist.
Bristol Schools Philharmonia is an orchestra run by Bristol City Council for young musicians of a high standard who attend schools in the Bristol area.
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale is an orchestra based in San Francisco, which is dedicated to historically informed performance of Baroque, Classical and early Romantic music on original instruments. It was founded in 1981 by harpsichordist, teacher, and early music pioneer Laurette Goldberg (1932-2005). The ensemble added the Philharmonia Chorale in 1995. Its current Music Director is Nicholas McGegan, who has held that position since 1985.
Roy Goodman is an English conductor and violinist, specialising in the performance and direction of early music. He became internationally famous as the 12-year-old boy treble soloist in the March 1963 recording of Allegri's Miserere with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, under David Willcocks.
Richard Rood is an American violinist based in New York City.
"Méditation" is a symphonic intermezzo from the opera Thaïs by French composer Jules Massenet. The piece is written for solo violin and orchestra. The opera premiered at the Opéra Garnier in Paris on March 16, 1894.
Paul Mauffray is an American conductor and laureat of the 2007 Bartók International Opera Conducting Competition, The American Prize for Conductors, and 1996 Freedman Conducting Competition. He has studied at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, Louisiana State University, Justus Liebig University (Giessen), Masaryk University (Brno), and earned a Masters of Music degree in Orchestra Conducting as an Associate Instructor / Assistant Conductor at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music.
Paul Hostetter is the Ethel Foley Distinguished Chair in Orchestral Activities for the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University, the Conductor and Artistic Advisor for the Sequitur Ensemble, and the Founder and Artistic Adviser to the Music Mondays chamber series in New York City. He has held appointments as the Director of the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University where he also was the Director of Orchestral Studies/Associate Professor, the Music Director of the Colonial Symphony, the Music Director of the High Mountain Symphony, Artistic Director of the Winter Sun Music Festival, Music Director of the New Jersey Youth Symphony, and the Associate Conductor for the Broadway productions of Candide and George and Ira Gershwin's Fascinating Rhythm.
The Philharmonia Virtuosi is a chamber orchestra that first performed in 1974. It was founded by Richard Kapp, who conducted the orchestra until the time of his death in 2006.
Richard Kapp was an American conductor.
Sophia Reuter, born in 1971, in Dresden, Germany, comes from a family with a long musical history. Her father was the late Rolf Reuter, a conductor, and her grandfather, the late Fritz Reuter, was a composer. Sophia is a violinist and violist with a varied solo, orchestral, chamber music and pedagogical career.
Oscar Ravina, born in Warsaw, Poland, was a violinist, violin teacher and concertmaster based in New York, who has had a prolific career as a performer as well as being a current professor emeritus at Montclair State University, where a talent grant in his name is regularly given to outstanding full-time freshmen studying string instruments.
Carlo Ponti Jr. is an Italian orchestral conductor working in the United States. He is the son of late film producer Carlo Ponti Sr. and Italian actress Sophia Loren and he is the older brother of film director Edoardo Ponti.
Jennifer Frautschi is an American classical violinist. She plays an Antonio Stradivarius violin known as the "ex-Cadiz," dated to 1722 which a private American foundation gave to her on loan.
Bernd Ruf is a German conductor and clarinettist. He is active in the crossover field between classical and contemporary music, jazz, rock and world music. In 2004, Ruf was appointed a new professorship in popular music, jazz, and world music at the Lübeck University of Music.
Carlos Antonio Pini OBE was a cellist, known as a soloist, orchestral section leader and chamber musician. He was principal cellist of five major British orchestras between 1932 and 1976, and a teacher at the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Mela Tenenbaum, born in Ukraine, is a classical violinist and violist, also playing viola d'amore. She graduated from the Kiev Conservatory and performed the Kiev Philharmonic and other orchestras. She inspired composers such as Dmitri Klebanov to write pieces for her.
Nikki Chooi is a Canadian classical violinist. He is the winner of the 2013 Michael Hill International Violin Competition in New Zealand. and Laureate of the 2012 Queen Elisabeth Music Competition. Nikki was a member of the cross-over ensemble, Time for Three, during the 2015/2016 season and subsequently served as Concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York for the 2016/2017 season.
