This joint Historical Society of Pennsylvania/Philadelphia Orchestra program, entitled Rachmaninoff’s Philadelphia, is being presented in conjunction with the Philadelphia Orchestra’s April 2017 Rachmaninoff Festival. The program will explore the special relationship between the Philadelphia Orchestra and the great Russian composer/conductor/pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1843).

Music historian and archivist Jack McCarthy will open the program with a brief illustrated historical overview of Rachmaninoff and the Orchestra. This will be followed by a discussion with Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Guest Conductor Stéphane Denève, Conductor of the Rachmaninoff Festival, and Rachmaninoff scholar David Butler Cannata, Associate Professor of Music History at Temple University. The discussion will be moderated by Jeremy Rothman, Vice President for Artistic Planning for the Philadelphia Orchestra.

In addition to being Principal Guest Conductor for the Philadelphia Orchestra, Stéphane Denève is Chief Conductor of Brussels Philharmonic. David Butler Cannata is the author of Rachmaninoff and the Symphony and wrote the preface for the 2001 edition of the definitive Rachmaninoff biography, Sergei Rachmaninoff--A Lifetime in Music.