The Fabulous Philadelphians Take Up Residency in the Rocky Mountains
August 5, 2026The Philadelphia Orchestra concluded its 19th season at the Bravo! Vail Music Festival on Friday, July 17, continuing a residency that has become a meaningful part of the Orchestra’s summer season. Set among the Rocky Mountains, the residency offers more than a change of scenery. It is an opportunity to share performances with audiences beyond Philadelphia while reflecting the same artistic standards that define the Orchestra at home.
A Broad Range of Repertoire
Across six concerts led by Music and Artistic Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Principal Guest Conductor Marin Alsop, and Aram Demirjian, the Orchestra shared a wide view of its artistic life in performances that connected audiences, artists, and community: masterworks central to the repertoire (Brahms’s Symphony No. 3, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, Schumann’s Symphony No. 2); music by living composers (Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto for Orchestra, Terence Blanchard’s Orchestral Suite from Fire Shut Up in My Bones, John Adams’s The Rock You Stand On); and works by voices too long overlooked (“Dawn in Dixie,” from Margaret Bonds’s The Montgomery Variations). The residency closed with selections from Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 accompanied by film excerpts projected on large screens. The Philadelphians famously recorded the soundtrack to Fantasia in 1939.