A message to supporters and friends of the New Philharmonia Orchestra.
As we approached our 25th season this past year, we were full of pride in having achieved this milestone, and joy at being able to make wonderful music together over a span of many years. We began in 1995 with our beloved founding Music Director Ron Knudsen. His musical leadership and teaching created a legacy that has lived on beyond his passing in 2015. Over the last five years, we have been fortunate to experience music making under the guidance of Music Director Francisco Noya. We made the successful transition to our twenty-fifth season and were having such a wonderful year, full of beautiful music and appreciative audiences, and making new connections with our communities.
And then, Covid-19 hit and devastated us all. We were suddenly unable to play together as a group, and unable to perform for concert audiences. Since ticket revenues are a significant part of our income, we were forced to greatly reduce our overall budget. Francisco understood our situation perfectly and generously offered to resign his position as Music Director, offering to do whatever he could to help us.
After an extended and painful deliberation, the New Philharmonia Board of Trustees came to the sad conclusion that we should accept Francisco’s resignation. In addition to expressing their deep appreciation for all of his fine work over the past five years, the board expressed the hope that we remain, as always, on cordial terms and hope that we will be able to make music together at some point in the future. The board also expressed its appreciation for the generous spirit of Francisco’s offer to resign, realizing the necessity of our mandate to ensure the survival of the New Phil in uncertain times.
Subsequently, the Board voted to have Jorge Soto, our Associate Conductor for the past several years, to become our Principal Conductor for a two-year term. We are currently making music as best we can, in small socially distanced groups. We look forward to sharing this music with you in the near future, and we eagerly look forward to the days when Covid-19 is behind us and we can return to the concert hall and to the experience of creating some of the world’s great music and sharing it with you, our loyal supporters.
