Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra
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Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra is a San Francisco-based orchestra dedicated to historically-informed performance of Baroque, Classical and early Romantic music on original instruments. The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra was founded in 1981 by harpsichordist, teacher and early music pioneer, Laurette Goldberg (1932-2005).
Nicholas McGegan has been Music Director of the Philharmonia Baroque since 1985. In addition, the Orchestra has welcomed eminent guest conductors to its podium including William Christie, Andrew Parrott, Jordi Savall, Gustav Leonhardt, Trevor Pinnock, Monica Huggett and Stanley Ritchie.
The Orchestra performs a subscription season in four cities in the San Francisco Bay Area -- San Francisco, Berkeley, Lafayette, and Palo Alto -- and is regularly heard on tour in United States and internationally. In 2005 the Orchestra debuted at the BBC Proms, Snape Maltings (UK) and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam as part of its European tour.
In 1990, Philharmonia began a successful collaboration with the Mark Morris Dance Group. Joint productions have included Purcell's Dido and Aeneas; Vivaldi's Gloria; Handel's L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato; and Rameau's ballet-opera Platée.
Philharmonia has made a number of recordings for Harmonia Mundi, Reference Recordings and BMG and released a self-produced 2-CD set of music of Alessandro Scarlatti on the Avie label. The Orchestra was named "Ensemble of the Year" for 2004 by Musical America.
