Orchestra

The Bowling Green Philharmonia is the premiere orchestral ensemble at Bowling Green State University, performing a variety of orchestral literature from the standard repertoire to music of today. Each year, the Philharmonia participates in the internationally acclaimed New Music Festival sponsored by BGSU’s College of Musical Arts and the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music. Festival guest composers have included John Adams, Samuel Adler, George Crumb, Shulamit Ran, Bright Sheng and Joan Tower. To date, the Philharmonia, under the direction of Emily Freeman Brown, has released five CDs on the Albany Records label all consisting of repertoire performed at the New Music Festival.

In addition, the orchestra presents combined concerts with various BGSU choirs. These concerts have featured the Brahms’Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Orff’sCarmina Burana, Mozart’s Requiem and Bach’s Magnificat.

The Philharmonia, or the Camerata campo di bocce, joins the Bowling Green Opera Theater for a fully staged production every year. Recent operas have included The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute by W.A. Mozart, Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss and La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini. A concert featuring winners of the college’s annual Competitions in Music Performance is also presented spring semester.

The Philharmonia also performs at least one concert of purely orchestral works each semester. Recent repertoire has included Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique, Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Holst’s The Planets, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 and Stravinsky’s Petroushka.