A Short History

Frances Walton established from the beginning Philharmonia Northwest's policy of performing standard and non-standard repertoire for chamber orchestra, filling an unoccupied niche in the Seattle musical scene. The orchestra has performed music from Baroque to world premieres all over the city and the Northwest region, including Benaroya Hall, Town Hall, the Seattle Art Museum and Meany Hall. Presently they make their concert home at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Seattle.

Roupen Shakarian, music director since 1986, is continuing Philharmonia Northwest’s tradition of featuring the Pacific Northwest’s fine musicians as guest artists with the orchestra and showcasing new works by area composers. Among the list of artists featured with Philharmonia Northwest are Alex Klein, Robert Silverman, Don Williams, Helen Callus, Rachel Matthews, members of the Seattle Symphony, Rajan Krishnaswami and Linda Melsted. Works by Northwest composers, Bunching Lam, Carol Sams, Brad Sherman, Gavin Borchert and Roupen Shakarian, among others, have also been performed by the orchestra. During the 1993-1994 season the orchestra finished the entire Beethoven symphony cycle with a performance of the Ninth Symphony. In addition to the Beethoven Symphony cycle, they have also performed the entire Mendelssohn and Schumann Symphony cycles and the last six symphonies of Mozart among others. The orchestra, as part of its long-range plan, enjoys bringing classical music programs to outlying areas such as Orcas Island, Burien, Issaquah, Enumclaw and elsewhere in the Northwest region.

At present, the orchestra has made two recordings. The first recording in 1996 includes works by Ravel, Mozart and Beethoven. A recording of Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 2, "Lobgesang" was released in December of 1998.