The Philadelphia Orchestra opens 2004-05 season with Opening Night Gala and live video presentation on Broad Street

Celebrated soprano Renée Fleming joins Music Director Christoph Eschenbach and Orchestra for Opening Night Concert

Concert to be broadcast for public on Broad Street, outside the Kimmel Center

(Philadelphia, September 3, 2004)

Philadelphians will have an opportunity to share in the excitement of the opening of The Philadelphia Orchestra's 2004-05 season on Tuesday, September 21, when a gala Opening Night Concert and simultaneous broadcast for the public take place inside and outside The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. Music Director Christoph Eschenbach conducts the Orchestra in the Opening Night Concert, the first concert of the Orchestra's 105th season, joined by celebrated soprano Renée Fleming. The concert begins at 8:30 p.m.

Gala festivities surrounding the concert, which are organized by the Orchestra's Volunteer Committees, include pre-concert cocktails and dinner in the Kimmel Center for gala sponsors, benefactors, patrons, and the Orchestra's 21st Century Society. In addition, all who are attending the concert are invited to a champagne reception in the Kimmel Center preceding the concert.

The Opening Night program begins with Wagner's Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin, features Renée Fleming singing Strauss's Four Last Songs, and concludes with Dvorak's Eighth Symphony. For the second year the Orchestra's Opening Night Concert will be broadcast on a giant video screen on Broad Street across from the Kimmel Center. Enabling a wider public to share in the concert experience continues a practice that Christoph Eschenbach implemented at the start of his tenure last season as one facet of his mission to "raise the invisible curtain" and bring the Orchestra and audience closer to together.

Praised by critics as "the gold standard of soprano sound," American soprano Renée Fleming is recognized worldwide for her musicianship, intelligence, and interpretive talents. A sought-after performer on stage and recordings, the two-time Grammy Award winner is a champion of new music, as well as the standard repertoire, having created many roles for the operatic stage and premiered numerous songs written for her. This November, Ms. Fleming's first book, The Inner Voice, will be released. Also this fall, Decca releases her latest recording, Renée Fleming: Handel, a collection of arias. Highlights of Ms. Fleming's 2004-05 season engagements include her role debut of Handel's Rodelinda at the Metropolitan Opera; the 50th anniversary galas for the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Houston Grand Opera; three performances at Carnegie Hall including Opening Night with The Philadelphia Orchestra on October 6, a solo recital, and a duo-recital at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall with jazz pianist Brad Mehldau, which will feature the world premiere of a work by Mr. Mehldau written especially for Ms. Fleming. Ms. Fleming's orchestral appearances this season include performances with the Berlin, Vienna, and New York philharmonics; the Orchestre de Paris; the Chicago and Houston symphonies; and the Cleveland Orchestra. She made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut at the 1998 Academy of Music Anniversary Concert.

Gala events surrounding the Opening Night Concert include a cocktail party at 5:15 p.m. for sponsors, benefactors, patrons, and members of the Orchestra's 21st Century Society, as well as a champagne reception at 7:45 p.m. for all who are attending the Opening Night Concert. In addition, two separate dinners are being held in the Kimmel Center. Catered by Restaurant Associates, with decoration by Evantine Design, the dinners include:

• the Benefactor Dinner for Underwriters, Platinum Sponsors, and Corporate Benefactors at 6:15 p.m. in the Kimmel Center's Perelman Theater and Rooftop Garden (individual tickets are $1,000, Corporate Benefactor tables are $10,000, and Platinum Sponsor tables are $15,000); and
• the Patron Dinner for Gold Sponsors, Corporate Patrons, Patrons, and 21st Century Society at 6:15 p.m. on Tier One and Tier Two of the Kimmel Center (individual tickets are $375, Corporate Patron tables are $3,750, Gold Sponsor tables are $5,000; and tickets for members of the Orchestra's 21st Century Society are $125).

Ms. Susan Y. Kim and Mrs. Edwin B. Mahoney chair Opening Night 2004. The concert is generously sponsored by Bank of America, the cocktail party and benefactor dinner is generously sponsored by Marsh & McLennan Companies, and EB Games/Electronics Boutique generously sponsors the champagne reception.

This year marks the 18th season for which the Orchestra Volunteer Committees have presented the Opening Night festivities. The Volunteer Committees for The Philadelphia Orchestra were formed in 1904, four years after the Orchestra's first concerts. The Women's Committee, as it was originally called, was the first permanent organization of its kind in the world, and has since come to serve as a model for similar groups in the United States and abroad. The current Volunteer Committees include 10 committees: Central, Chestnut Hill, Chestnut Hill Musical Cocktails, Main Line and Delaware, Main Line Associates, New Jersey, Old York Road, Rittenhouse Square, the 21st Century Society, and West Philadelphia. Through their endeavors over the past century, thousands of members of the Volunteer Committees have given countless hours and their innumerable talents in service to The Philadelphia Orchestra and the people of the greater Philadelphia region.

OPENING NIGHT 2004 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

September 21, 2004 - The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts - Tuesday evening

Following a dynamic inaugural season as music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra, Christoph Eschenbach continues his creative artistic partnership with the venerable ensemble. Held in highest esteem by the world's foremost orchestras and opera houses for his commanding presence, versatility, and consummate musicianship, Mr. Eschenbach has been acclaimed for his creative insight and dynamic energy, as a conductor, collaborator, and ardent champion of young musicians.

Highlights of his second season with the Orchestra include a season-long focus on Dvorak and other Czech composers; a four-week festival entitled Late Great Works; and the continuation of the Orchestra's five-season long, first-ever Mahler cycle. Mr. Eschenbach and the Orchestra conclude the season with a tour of Asia.

Mr. Eschenbach continues as music director of the Orchestre de Paris. This season he also leads the Lyric Opera of Chicago's season opening production of Mozart's Don Giovanni; the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the Staatskapelle Berlin; the Hamburg NDR Symphony; the Staatskapelle Dresden; and the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia.

Mr. Eschenbach has made numerous recordings on various labels as conductor, pianist, or both. His discography includes works of Adams, Berg, Berlioz, Brahms, Glass, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Messiaen, Picker, Pintscher, Rouse, Schnittke, Schoenberg, Schumann, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, and Webern.

Before turning to conducting, Mr. Eschenbach had earned a distinguished reputation as a pianist. He began winning major competitions at age 11, and made his United States debut in 1969 with the Cleveland Orchestra; his conducting debut was in Hamburg in 1972. In 1981 he became principal guest conductor of Zurich's Tonhalle Orchestra, and was chief conductor from 1982-86. Additional posts include music director of the Houston Symphony (1988-99); chief conductor of the Hamburg NDR Symphony (1998-2004); and music director of the Ravinia Festival, summer home of the Chicago Symphony (1994-2003).

Among Mr. Eschenbach's most recent awards are the Légion d'Honneur of France and the Officer's Cross with Star and Ribbon of the German Order of Merit. In 1993 he received the Leonard Bernstein Award, presented to him by the Pacific Music Festival, where he served as co-artistic director from 1992-98. Additional information about Mr. Eschenbach can be found at
www.christoph-eschenbach.com.

Founded in 1900, The Philadelphia Orchestra has distinguished itself as one of the leading orchestras in the world through a century of acclaimed performances, historic international tours, best-selling recordings, and its unprecedented record of innovation in recording technologies and outreach. With only six music directors piloting The Philadelphia Orchestra through its first century, the ensemble has maintained an unparalleled cohesiveness and unity in artistic leadership.

This rich tradition is carried on by Christoph Eschenbach, who began his tenure as the Orchestra's seventh music director in September 2003. As Mr. Eschenbach and the Orchestra inaugurate a new era in the ensemble's esteemed history, the Orchestra has announced the launch of the public phase of a five-year, $125 million endowment campaign, entitled A Sound, A City, A Civilization. Commitments to the campaign include a lead gift of $50 million from the Annenberg Foundation, along with other major leadership gifts that have allowed the Orchestra to raise the original campaign goal from $75 million to $125 million.

In addition to Mr. Eschenbach's appointment as music director, the Orchestra has observed several important milestones in recent years. The Orchestra's 2002-03 season celebrated Wolfgang Sawallisch's ten highly acclaimed years at the Orchestra's helm and paid tribute to his artistic achievements with the release of a Grammy-nominated three-disc set of Schumann recordings, the first recordings made in Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. The Orchestra moved to its new home at the Kimmel Center in December 2001, after celebrating its 100th Anniversary through a series of activities surrounding the year 2000, including the internationally televised gala Birthday Concert on November 16, 2000, a tour of Europe in 2000, and tours of Asia and the United States in 2001. A tour in the spring of 2003 took the Orchestra to nine cities in the United States, Mexico, and South America. Christoph Eschenbach and the Orchestra capped their first full season together with a tour of the music capitals of Europe in the spring of 2004.

The Philadelphia Orchestra annually touches the lives of more than 1 million music lovers worldwide through its performances (more than 300 concerts and other presentations each year), publications, recordings, and broadcasts. A major winter subscription season is presented in Philadelphia each year from September to May, in addition to education and community partnership programs. The Orchestra presents a series of concerts each year at New York's Carnegie Hall, performing encores of some of its acclaimed concerts from Philadelphia. Its summer schedule includes a month-long outdoor season in Philadelphia at The Mann Center for the Performing Arts, free concerts in local neighborhoods, and a three-week residency each August at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in upstate New York.

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts hosts the Orchestra's home subscription concerts. The Center includes two performance spaces, the 2500-seat Verizon Hall, designed and built especially for the Orchestra, and the 650-seat Perelman Theater for chamber music concerts. Designed by architect Rafael Viñoly along with acoustician Russell Johnson of Artec Consultants Inc., the Kimmel Center provides the Orchestra with a state-of-the-art facility for concerts, recordings, and education activities. The landmark building is named in honor of Philadelphia businessman and philanthropist Sidney Kimmel, who gave the largest individual gift toward its construction. Kimmel has served on the Board of Directors of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 1995.

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (KCPA) and the historic Academy of Music (where the Orchestra performed for 101 seasons) are operated together as a single cultural facility by Kimmel Center, Inc. (KCI). A variety of Philadelphia's other performing arts groups serve as resident companies for the two buildings. KCI owns, manages, supports, and maintains the KCPA. Kimmel Center, Inc., also manages the Academy of Music, owned by The Philadelphia Orchestra Association since 1957, and where the Orchestra continues to present the highly anticipated annual Academy Anniversary Concert and Ball.