The New Philharmonia Orchestra of Massachusetts, founded in 1995, is a 75-member mostly non-professional regional orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

 based in Newton, Massachusetts

Newton, Massachusetts

Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States bordered to the east by Boston. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.-Villages:...

. The "New Phil" performs in at the First Baptist Church of Newton, and on occasion at Mission Church

Mission Church

The Mission Church is a historic Congregational church in Mackinac Island, Michigan, United States. Built in 1829, it is the oldest existing church in the state of Michigan...

 in Boston's Roxbury

Roxbury, Massachusetts

Roxbury is a dissolved municipality and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was one of the first towns founded in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, and became a city in 1846 until annexed to Boston on January 5, 1868...

 neighborhood, as well as other locations in the region.

The current and founding music director of the orchestra is Ronald Knudsen, a violinist in the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Boston Symphony Orchestra

The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...

 since 1965 and occasional guest conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra.

The orchestra's programs include a mix of familiar and unfamiliar classical repertoire (including collaborations with local choruses), as well as new music, including commissions. In 2005, the New Philharmonia participated in the Made in America commission from noted American composer Joan Tower

Joan Tower

Joan Tower is a Grammy-winning contemporary American composer, concert pianist and conductor. Lauded by the New Yorker as "one of the most successful woman composers of all time", her bold and energetic compositions have been performed in concert halls around the world...

, and premiered a number of other pieces by local composers. The 2009-2010 season included the Boston-area premiere of blue cathedral by Jennifer Higdon

Jennifer Higdon

Jennifer Higdon is an American composer of classical music. Higdon has received many awards, including the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto and the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for her Percussion Concerto.-Biography:Higdon was born in Brooklyn,...

. The 2005-2006 concert series also included a performance of Mahler

Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...

's second symphony

Symphony No. 2 (Mahler)

The Symphony No. 2 by Gustav Mahler, known as the Resurrection, was written between 1888 and 1894, and first performed in 1895. Apart from the Eighth Symphony, this symphony was Mahler's most popular and successful work during his lifetime. It is his first major work that would eventually mark his...

.

Eminent soloists who have performed with the orchestra include the flutist

Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

 Eugenia Zukerman

Eugenia Zukerman

Eugenia Rich Zukerman is an American flutist, writer, and journalist. An internationally renowned flute virtuoso, Mrs Zukerman has been performing with major orchestras and at major music festivals internationally for more than three decades...

, violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

ists James Oliver Buswell IV and Stefan Jackiw

Stefan Jackiw

-Biography:Stefan Jackiw was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to a Korean mother and a German father of Ukrainian origin, both physicists. His mother, So-Young Pi, teaches at Boston University, and his father, Roman Jackiw, at MIT. His surname, pronounced jack-eev, is of Ukrainian origin...

, cellist Matt Haimovitz

Matt Haimovitz

Matt Haimovitz is an Israeli-born cellist now based in the United States and Canada. He mainly plays a cello made by Matteo Gofriller in 1710.-Family, musical education and early career:...

 and pianist Randall Hodgkinson

Randall Hodgkinson

Randall Hodgkinson is an American pianist. He won the International American Music Competition which was sponsored by Carnegie Hall and the Rockefeller Foundation...

, as well as many soloists drawn from the ranks of the Boston Symphony, including Ann Hobson Pilot

Ann Hobson Pilot

.Ann Hobson Pilot is the Former Principal Harpist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops. She joined the BSO in 1969 as Assistant Principal Harp and Principal Harp of the Boston Pops. She was named Principal Harpist of the BSO in 1980. Prior to joining the BSO in 1969, she was the...

, Doriot Anthony Dwyer

Doriot Anthony Dwyer

Doriot Anthony Dwyer is an American flautist. She was the first woman to be awarded principal chair for a major U.S. orchestra. She was the principal flute for the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1952 until 1990. She was second flute for the National Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles...

, Tatiana Dimitriades, Edwin Barker

Edwin Barker

Edwin Barker is an American double bass player who graduated from the New England Conservatory. He is currently Principal Double Bass with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Associate Professor of Music at Boston University College of Fine Arts.-Career:...

, Haldan Martinson, Daniel Katzen

Daniel Katzen

Daniel Katzen is a French horn teacher and player, and, since September 2008, has been the Associate Professor of Horn at the University of Arizona School of Music in Tucson. Prior to that, he was Second Horn in the Boston Symphony Orchestra from April 1979 to August 2008...

 and Keisuke Wakao. The orchestra's inaugural season featured a guest conducting appearance by Keith Lockhart

Keith Lockhart

For the baseball player, see Keith Lockhart Keith Lockhart , to Newton Frederick and Marilyn Jean Woodyard Lockhart, is an American orchestral conductor....

, conductor of the Boston Pops. Its fifteenth season was launched on July 1, 2009 with a concert in Boston's Symphony Hall

Symphony Hall, Boston

Symphony Hall is a concert hall located at 301 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts. Designed by McKim, Mead and White, it was built in 1900 for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which continues to make the hall its home. The hall was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1999...

, featuring French music for organ

Pipe organ

The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...

 and orchestra, with James David Christie

James David Christie

James David Christie is an American organist with an extensive performance career throughout the world and especially in Europe. He is Chair and Professor of Organ at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, College Organist at Wellesley College and the Distinguished Artist in Residence at the College...

 (organist of the Boston Symphony) as soloist. The concert marked the opening night of the New England convention of the American Guild of Organists

American Guild of Organists

The American Guild of Organists, or AGO, is a national organization of academic, church, and concert organists in the U.S., headquartered in The Interchurch Center in New York City. It was founded in 1896 as both an educational and service organization...

.

The motto of the orchestra is Music for All. In that spirit, the orchestra conducts active outreach programs in the Boston public schools and has strong links to other local school systems and civic organizations. The 2007-2008 season concluded with a benefit concert at the Kennedy Library attended by the mayor of Boston, Thomas Menino

Thomas Menino

Thomas Michael "Tom" Menino is the mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, United States and the city's first Italian-American mayor...

, honoring the orchestra's partnership with John Hancock financial services

John Hancock Insurance

John Hancock Financial is a loose term for a United States insurance company which existed, in various forms, from its founding on April 21, 1862, until its acquisition in 2004 by the Canadian insurance company Manulife Financial. It was named in honor of John Hancock, a prominent patriot...

. Under this partnership, members of the orchestra have been offering supplemental music education programs in the Oliver H. Perry elementary school

Boston Public Schools

Boston Public Schools is a school district serving the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States.-Leadership:The district is led by a Superintendent, hired by the Boston School Committee, a seven-member school board appointed by the Mayor after approval by a nominating committee of specified...

 in South Boston.

The New Philharmonia Orchestra is a member of the American Symphony Orchestra League and the New England Orchestra Consortium.