The Fabulous Philadelphians Take Up Residency in the Rocky Mountains

Above photo by Tom Cohen

The Philadelphia Orchestra concluded its 19th season at the Bravo! Vail Music Festival on Friday, July 17, continuing a residency that has become a meaningful part of the Orchestra’s summer season. Set among the Rocky Mountains, the residency offers more than a change of scenery. It is an opportunity to share performances with audiences beyond Philadelphia while reflecting the same artistic standards that define the Orchestra at home.

A Broad Range of Repertoire

Across six concerts led by Music and Artistic Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Principal Guest Conductor Marin Alsop, and Aram Demirjian, the Orchestra shared a wide view of its artistic life in performances that connected audiences, artists, and community: masterworks central to the repertoire (Brahms’s Symphony No. 3, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, Schumann’s Symphony No. 2); music by living composers (Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto for Orchestra, Terence Blanchard’s Orchestral Suite from Fire Shut Up in My Bones, John Adams’s The Rock You Stand On); and works by voices too long overlooked (“Dawn in Dixie,” from Margaret Bonds’s The Montgomery Variations). The residency closed with selections from Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 accompanied by film excerpts projected on large screens. The Philadelphians famously recorded the soundtrack to Fantasia in 1939.

The Higdon, Blanchard, and Adams works were all commissioned or co-commissioned by the Orchestra and given their world premieres by the ensemble. Higdon’s Concerto for Orchestra was one of the Orchestra’s centennial commissions and received its premiere in 2002 with then-Music Director Wolfgang Sawallisch. It has gone on to become one of the most-often performed new works in the orchestral repertoire. Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones was the first opera by a Black composer performed at the Metropolitan Opera, where Yannick is also music director. The Orchestra and the Met co-commissioned this Orchestral Suite, which received its premiere at Opening Night 2024. And John Adams composed The Rock You Stand On as a gift for Alsop, one of his closest collaborators. He has said of her that “She is one of the very few conductors whom I can trust to do the right thing with what I’ve written.” Bonds was a pioneering composer-pianist, the first Black soloist with the Chicago Symphony. The Montgomery Variations is her sole purely orchestral work to survive.

Young Talent Joins the Orchestra

Fifteen-year-old violin prodigy Himari joined Alsop and the Orchestra for the Sibelius Concerto. Described as a once-in-a-generation talent, Himari made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut at the 2024 New Year’s Eve Concert with Alsop. She began lessons at age three, made her orchestral debut at six, and was accepted into the Curtis Institute of Music in 2022, one of the youngest applicants ever. The next evening, Alsop was joined by Aristo Sham in his Orchestra debut playing Mendelssohn’s First Piano Concerto. Sham won the Gold Medal at the prestigious 2025 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and appeared in the 2009 documentary The World’s Greatest Musical Prodigies, broadcast on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom.

Back to Nature

Offstage, musicians took some time to unwind from the hectic schedule of rehearsals and concerts to bask in the natural beauty of the area, whether hiking one of the numerous mountain trails, visiting one of the nearby tourist attractions, or enjoying some down time with family and friends.

The Vail residency continued the Orchestra’s work toward building a more inclusive future for classical music while strengthening connections between the two communities. We can’t wait to return next year!