The Bowling Green Philharmonia is the premiere orchestral ensemble at Bowling Green State University, performing a variety of orchestral literature from the standard repertoire to music of today. Each year, the Philharmonia participates in the internationally acclaimed New Music Festival sponsored by BGSU’s College of Musical Arts and the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music. Festival guest composers have included John Adams, Samuel Adler, George Crumb, Shulamit Ran, Bright Sheng and Joan Tower. To date, the Philharmonia, under the direction of Emily Freeman Brown, has released five CDs on the Albany Records label all consisting of repertoire performed at the New Music Festival.

In addition, the orchestra presents combined concerts with various BGSU choirs. These concerts have featured the Brahms’ Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mozart’s Requiem and Bach’s Magnificat.

The Philharmonia, or the Camerata campo di bocce, joins the Bowling Green Opera Theater for a fully staged production every year. Recent operas have included The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute by W.A. Mozart, Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss and La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini. A concert featuring winners of the college’s annual Competitions in Music Performance is also presented spring semester.

The Philharmonia also performs at least one concert of purely orchestral works each semester. Recent repertoire has included Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique, Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Holst’s The Planets, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 and Stravinsky’s Petroushka.

The Camerata is an elite, audition-only, chamber orchestra. Participation is competitive and open only to Philharmonia members in good standing. The Camerata performs on select concerts throughout the season, both on- and off-campus. Recent performances have included the opera Albert Herring by Benjamin Britten, Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony, Cavalli’s opera Gli amori d’Apollo e di Dafne and The Magic Flute by Mozart.

The chamber orchestra is an audition-only ensemble comprised of members in good standing of the Philharmonia. Its purpose is to provide students with opportunities to study and learn music for smaller orchestra not normally performed by the Philharmonia. Repertoire performed in recent years include works of Mozart, Corelli, Vivaldi, Britten and Milhaud.