Philharmonia Orchestra

Philharmonia Orchestra
Orchestra
Official Philharmonia Orchestra logo
Founded	1945
Location	London, England, UK
Concert hall	Royal Festival Hall
Principal conductor	Esa-Pekka Salonen
Website	www.philharmonia.co.uk

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. Since 1995, the orchestra has been based in the Royal Festival Hall. The Philharmonia also has residencies at De Montfort Hall, Leicester, the Corn Exchange, Bedford, and The Anvil, Basingstoke. Esa-Pekka Salonen has been the orchestra's principal conductor and artistic advisor since 2008, and Vladimir Ashkenazy and Christoph von Dohnányi both conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra regularly.

The Philharmonia Orchestra tours widely, regularly welcomes top soloists and conductors, and performs more than 160 concerts a year, as well as recording music for films and computer games. Performing more than 35 concerts a year at Royal Festival Hall, the orchestra notably presents premieres of contemporary works, along with the classics. Since its inception in 1945, the Philharmonia has commissioned more than 100 compositions from composers that include Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Mark-Anthony Turnage and James MacMillan.

The orchestra was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge. As Legge was a recording producer for EMI it was believed that the orchestra was primarily formed for recording purposes, but that was not Legge's intention. He had been Sir Thomas Beecham's assistant at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, before World War II, and, assuming that he and Beecham would be in charge there again after the war, Legge planned to establish a first-class orchestra for opera, concerts and recordings. After the war, opera resumed at Covent Garden under a different management, but Legge went ahead with his plans for a new orchestra. His contacts in the musical world during the war enabled him to secure the services of a large number of talented young musicians still serving in the armed forces in 1945. At the Philharmonia's first concert on 25 October 1945, more than sixty per cent of the players were still officially in the services. Beecham conducted the concert (for the fee of one cigar), but as he refused to be Legge's employee and Legge refused to cede control of the orchestra, Beecham instead went on to found the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.