The Philharmonia Orchestra was founded in 1945, primarily as a recording orchestra. It is made up of more than 80 musicians giving around 40 concerts in London and over 60 concerts a year at its Residencies and other venues around the UK, in addition to its touring work all over the world. Its community and education programme brings thousands of young people into contact with the Orchestra. It is the world’s most recorded orchestra with over 1000 releases to its credit.
Conductors associated with the Orchestra include Otto Klemperer, Herbert von Karajan, Lorin Maazel, Wilhelm Furtwangler, Arturo Toscanini, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Kurt Sanderling, Riccardo Muti, Mstislav Rostropovich, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Yevgeny Svetlanov, Sir Charles Mackerras, Honorary Conductor for Life Christoph von Dohnányi and current Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Many millions of people since 1945 have enjoyed their first experience of classical music through a Philharmonia recording, and in 2008/9 audiences can engage with the Orchestra through webcasts, podcasts, downloads, computer games and film scores as well as through its unique interactive music education website launched in 2005, The Sound Exchange, which is now visited by almost 2 million people a year. In 2005 the Philharmonia became the first ever classical music organisation to be shortlisted for a BT Digital Music Award, and in the same year the Orchestra presented the first ever concert webcast. Now more than 3500 people a month download free monthly Philharmonia video podcasts, which include artist interviews and features on repertoire and projects; these films are also watched by more than 60,000 people on YouTube.
