The Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra () is an orchestra of international rank founded and underwritten by the government of Mexico. The home venue is the

Silvestre Revueltas Silvestre Revueltas Sánchez (December 31, 1899 – October 5, 1940) was a Mexican classical music composer, a violinist, and conductor. Life Revueltas was born in Santiago Papasquiaro in Durango, and studied at the National Conservatory of Mu ...

Hall at the in

Tlalpan Tlalpan ( , 'place on the earth') is a Boroughs of Mexico City, borough (''demarcación territorial'') in Mexico City. It is the largest borough, with over 80% under conservation as forest and other ecologically sensitive area. The rest, almost al ...

, Mexico City, which opened in 1979.

History

The Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1978 by the National Government of Mexico through an initiative by Carmen Romano, wife of then

President of Mexico The president of Mexico (), officially the president of the United Mexican States (), is the head of state and head of government of Mexico. Under the Constitution of Mexico, the president heads the executive branch of the federal government and ...

José López Portillo José Guillermo Abel López Portillo y Pacheco (; 16 June 1920 – 17 February 2004) was a Mexican writer, lawyer, and politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who served as the 58th president of Mexico from 1976 ...

. The Philharmonic was part of a plan to make fine arts education accessible to youths. The government launched classical music workshops and formed professional orchestras, including the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra. was the founding conductor. The Philharmonic's venue name, ''ollín yoliztli'', means "life movement" or "life force" in

Náhuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller pop ...

Directors, members, and notable soloists

Guest conductors have included

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; born Louis Bernstein; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was th ...

Eduardo Mata Eduardo Mata (5 September 19424 January 1995) was a Mexican conductor and composer. Career Mata was born in Mexico City. He studied guitar privately for three years before enrolling in the National Conservatory of Music. From 1960 to 1963 he ...

, and Enrique Diemecke. Guest soloists have included

Martha Argerich Martha Argerich (; ; born 5 June 1941) is an Argentine classical concert pianist. Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argerich gave her debut concert at the age of eight before receiving further piano training in Europe. At an early age, she won sev ...

Narciso Yepes Narciso Yepes (14 November 19273 May 1997) was a Spanish classical guitar, guitarist. He is considered one of the finest virtuoso classical guitarists of the twentieth century. Biography Yepes was born into a family of humble origin in Lorca, ...

Nicanor Zabaleta Nicanor Zabaleta (January 7, 1907 – April 1, 1993) was a Spanish harpist. Zabaleta was born in San Sebastián, Spain, on January 7, 1907. In 1914 his father, an amateur musician, bought him a harp in an antique shop. He soon began taking ...

Renata Scotto Renata Scotto (24 February 1934 – 16 August 2023) was an Italian soprano, opera director, and voice teacher. Recognised for her sense of style, her musicality, and as a remarkable singer-actress, Scotto is considered to have been one of the pr ...

Birgit Nilsson Märta Birgit Nilsson (17 May 1918 – 25 December 2005) was a Swedish dramatic soprano. Although she sang a wide repertoire of operatic and vocal works, Nilsson was best known for her performances in the operas of Richard Wagner and Richard St ...

Claudio Arrau Claudio Arrau León (; February 6, 1903June 9, 1991) was a Chilean and American pianist known for his interpretations of a vast repertoire spanning the baroque music, baroque to 20th-century classical music, 20th-century composers, especially B ...

János Starker János Starker (; ; July 5, 1924 – April 28, 2013) was a Hungarian-American cellist. From 1958 until his death, he taught at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he held the title of Distinguished Professor. Starker is conside ...

Isaac Stern Isaac Stern (July 21, 1920 – September 22, 2001) was an American violinist. Born in Ukraine, Stern moved to the United States when he was 14 months old. Stern performed both nationally and internationally, notably touring the Soviet Union a ...

Plácido Domingo José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, ...

, and . Artistic directors are appointed by the Secretary of Culture of Mexico City. Artistic directors * 1978–1982: Fernando Lozano Rodríguez * 1983–1989:

Enrique Bátiz Enrique Bátiz Campbell (4 May 1942 – 30 March 2025) was a Mexican conductor and concert pianist. Trained as a pianist in Dallas, New York City and Warsaw, he focused on conducting from 1969. He co-founded the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado d ...

, made 19 recordings with the Mexico City Philharmonic as conductor * 1990–????: Luis Herrera de la Fuente * 1998–2002:

Jorge Mester Jorge Mester (born April 10, 1935, Mexico City) is a Mexican conductor of Hungarian ancestry. He has served as the artistic director for the Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río, Veracruz, since it was founded in 2014. Biography He studied condu ...

* * 2013–2016: José Areán, appointed artistic director January 2013 * 2016–present: Scott Yoo, appointed artistic director and chief conductor, February 2016 Principal guest conductors * 2011–2013: José Areán, appointed Principal Guest Director June 2011 Assistant conductors * 1980–1983: Enrique Diemecke (born 1955) Associate conductors * 1998–2002: Carlos Miguel Prieto (born 1965) Musicians * 1978–1979: Jerome (Jerry) Ashby (1956–2007),

french horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

; became associate principal french horn with the

New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic is an American symphony orchestra based in New York City. Known officially as the ''Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc.'', and globally known as the ''New York Philharmonic Orchestra'' (NYPO) or the ''New Yo ...

in 1979 * Morris T. Kainuma (born 1959),

tuba The tuba (; ) is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece (brass), mouthpiece. It first appeared in th ...

; appointed principal tuba in 1980; currently a freelance and educator in the New York City area * John Emmanuel Godoy (1959) was appointed principal timpanist in 1987. During his tenure, the Mexico City Philharmonic performed four concerts with tenor Plácido Domingo, including recording

Lalo Schifrin Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (born June 21, 1932) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Music of Latin America, Lati ...

's world premiere of ''Cantos Aztecas''. Godoy later won the principal timpani position with the Corpus Christi Symphony under John Giordano. In 2011 he founded the Lux Musicae chamber group and became its artistic director.

Awards and critical acclaim

The Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra has made over 100 recordings, most of them of works by Mexican composers. The Philharmonic is reputed to be the most prolifically recorded orchestra of music by Mexican composers. In 1981, it won the Academie du Disque Francais Grand Prize for its recording of ''Mexican Ballets'' by Blas Galindo,

José Pablo Moncayo José Pablo Moncayo García (June 29, 1912 – June 16, 1958) was a Mexican pianist, percussionist, music teacher, composer and conductor. "As composer, José Pablo Moncayo represents one of the most important legacies of the Mexican nationali ...

, and

Carlos Chávez Carlos Antonio de Padua Chávez y Ramírez (13 June 1899 – 2 August 1978) was a Mexican composer, conducting, conductor, music theorist, educator, journalist, and founder and director of the Mexican Symphonic Orchestra. He was influence ...

. Fernando Lozano Rodríguez was the conductor. The jury stated that the Philharmonic was the best in Latin America. In 2001, the Mexico City Philharmonic was nominated for Best Classical Recording in the inaugural

Latin Grammy Awards The Latin Grammy Awards (stylized as Latin GRAMMYs) are awards presented by the Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music, Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish language, S ...

. The Mexican Union and Theater Critics Philharmonic Mexico City and Music as the best of the year, calling it "The Best Orchestra of Mexico, 2000".

Selected discography

* ''Works of De Falla'', Desto DC 7216 (1982); – , conductor * ''Classical Music of Mexico'', Desto DC 7218 (1982); – Fernando Lozano Rodríguez, conductor * ''Music of Revueltas'', Desto DC 7215 (1982); – Fernando Lozano Rodríguez, conductor *

Gabriel Fauré Gabriel Urbain Fauré (12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. ...

, Musical Heritage Society (1991); – Recorded in 1989 at the , Mexico City; Rodolfo Bonucci, violin (grandson of the Italian cellist, (1894–1964); Viocheslav Ponomarev (1950–2009), cello;

, conductor # Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (world premiere recording) # '' Berceuse'', for violin and orchestra, Op. 16 # '' Elegie'', for cello and orchestra, Op. 24 # ''Overture'', from '' Masques et bergamasques'', Op. 112 # ''Nocturne'', from ''

Shylock Shylock () is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's play '' The Merchant of Venice'' ( 1600). A Venetian Jewish moneylender, Shylock is the play's principal villain. His defeat and forced conversion to Christianity form the climax ...

'', Op. 57 # '' Pelléas et Mélisande: Suite'', Op. 80 * ''Salute to Democracy'',

EMI Classics EMI Classics was a record label founded by Thorn EMI in 1990 to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogues for internationally distributed classical music releases. After Thorn EMI demerged in 1996, its recorded mus ...

CDC 7 54539 2 (1992); –

, conductor # ''

Fanfare for the Common Man ''Fanfare for the Common Man'' is a musical work by the American composer Aaron Copland. It was written in 1942 for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under conductor Eugene Goossens and was inspired in part by a speech made earlier that yea ...

'' # '' Lincoln Portrait''

References

External links

* * {{Authority control, state=collapsed

Philharmonic An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, a ...

City A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

Musical groups established in 1978 Symphony orchestras