page_title: Music of Philadelphia
section_title: Philadelphia Orchestra
hierarchical_section_title: Music of Philadelphia / Music history / 20th century / Philadelphia Orchestra
context_page_description: The city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is home to a vibrant and well-documented musical heritage, stretching back to colonial times. Innovations in classical music, opera, R&B, jazz and soul have earned the music of Philadelphia national and international renown. Philadelphia's musical institutions have long played an important role in the music of Pennsylvania, as well as a nationwide impact, especially in the early development of hip hop music. Philadelphia's diverse population has also given it a reputation for styles ranging from dancehall to Irish traditional music, as well as a thriving classical and folk music scene.
  The Philadelphia Orchestra's third conductor, Leopold Stokowski, championed American classical music of the 20th century, and on tour, in recordings, and notably in Walt Disney's 1940 animated film Fantasia, brought the traditional and modern classical repertoire to a broad American listening public for the first time.
context_section_description: Philadelphia became home to the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1900, for much of its history considered preeminent among American orchestras and one of the "Big Five" American ensembles.  The Orchestra was initially led by Fritz Scheel; in 1907, Karl Pohlig took up its baton. But it was the conductor Leopold Stokowski who made the Orchestra one of the most prominent in the country.  Stokowski jointly held the conductor's post with Eugene Ormandy beginning in 1936, with Ormandy taking over completely in 1938.
  Under the direction of Stokowski and Ormandy, the Philadelphia Orchestra produced several well-known recordings in the 20th century, including the 1940 score for the Disney film Fantasia, and the Orchestra under the flamboyant "Stokie" with his gift for self-promotion pursued an ambitious schedule of national and international tours, becoming the template for the modern classical orchestra in the 20th century.  After Stokowski's departure, Ormandy led the Orchestra into the 1970s, preserving its lustrous sound and relying on the popular classical repertoire that had made the "Philly sound" famous, when it became the first American orchestra to visit China and perform in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing; the Chinese tour was well received and has since been repeated three times.
  The 20th century saw the Orchestra become the first of its kind to make electric recordings, to perform on its own commercially sponsored radio broadcast, to perform on the soundtrack of a feature film (The Big Broadcast), to appear on a national television broadcast, to record the complete Beethoven symphonies on compact disc, to give a live cybercast of a concert on the Internet, and to tour Vietnam.
caption: The Philadelphia Orchestra performs the United States premiere of Mahler's Symphony No. 8 in Eb conducted by Leopold Stokowski in 1916.
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