Philadelphia Orchestra presents 2005 Kuhn Award to
John Koen

Orchestra also honors Leonard Bogdanoff, William de Pasquale, Larry Grika, Arnold Grossi, Paul Krzywicki, Nolan Miller, Donald Montanaro, and William Stokking on their retirement

(Philadelphia, May 6, 2005)

At a special ceremony today during its afternoon concert, The Philadelphia Orchestra presented the C. Hartman Kuhn Award to John Koen, cellist with The Philadelphia Orchestra, chairman of the Orchestra's Members' Committee, a member of the Board of Directors of The Philadelphia Orchestra Association, and a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra Media Institute (POMI) Board of Directors. Music Director Christoph Eschenbach presented the Kuhn Award to Mr. Koen.

The Orchestra also honored Leonard Bogdanoff , viola; William de Pasquale , co-concertmaster; Larry Grika , violin; Arnold Grossi , violin; Paul Krzywicki , tuba; Nolan Miller , principal horn; Donald Montanaro , associate principal clarinet; and William Stokking , principal cello, on their retirement from the Orchestra. Philadelphia Orchestra Asso­ciation Board Chairman Richard L. Smoot recognized the retirees from the stage for their many years of outstanding service. They will receive the traditional Emeritus Key.

The C. Hartman Kuhn Award is given annually to “the member of The Philadelphia Orch­estra who has shown ability and enterprise of such character as to enhance the standards and the reputation of The Philadelphia Orchestra.” The recipient is selected by the music director each year. The Award was established in 1941 and is named for a charter member of the Board of Directors.

John Koen, cello, has been a member of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 1990.  As a member of POMI he helped bring to fruition the Orchestra's recently announced recording contract with Ondine Records. As chairman of the Orchestra's Members' Committee, he led the musicians of the Orchestra through a challenging and groundbreaking negotiation process in the fall of 2004.

Mr. Koen appears regularly on the Orchestra's Chamber Music series, including during Conductor Laureate Wolfgang Sawallisch's Opening Week Festival in 1993. He has been a frequent guest on the Philadelphia Chamber Ensemble series and is also a member of the Mondrian Ensemble and the Network for New Music. As a soloist Mr. Koen has appeared with the New Symphony Orchestra of Sofia, Bulgaria, conducted by Philadelphia Orchestra Associate Conductor Rossen Milanov, and regularly with the Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra (PA), where he has been principal cello since 1992. In 1988 Mr. Koen performed as solo cellist in the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra on European tours with Christoph Eschenbach, Leonard Bernstein, and Sergiu Celibidache. He was nominated for the 1998 Gay/Lesbian American Music Awards (GLAMA) for his performance of Winter Toccata for solo cello, by Robert Maggio, which Mr. Koen commissioned, and is featured on a recording of works by Robert Maggio entitled Seven Mad Gods. Mr. Koen studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with David Soyer and Peter Wiley, the original and current cellist (respectively) of the Guarneri Quartet, and holds a bachelor of music performance degree. He also studied at the New School of Music with Orlando Cole (1984-85). Mr. Koen resides in Philadelphia.

A native of Philadelphia, violist Leonard Bogdanoff attended South Philadelphia High School and the Settlement Music School, where he was a student of former Orchestra members Leonard Mogill and Frank Costanzo. Before joining The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1955, Mr. Bogdanoff served with the United States Air Force Band in Washington, D.C., and as assistant first viola with the New Orleans Symphony. Mr. Bogdanoff resides in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.

William de Pasquale began violin lessons with his father at age seven in his native Philadelphia and continued studies at the Curtis Institute of Music. He made his solo debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra as a student audition winner. In 1960 he became concertmaster of the New Orleans Philharmonic. During this time, he was also concertmaster and soloist with the Saint Louis Sinfonietta. At the beginning of the 1963-64 season, Mr. de Pasquale joined The Philadelphia Orchestra and three seasons later was made an associate concertmaster. Since that appointment, he has made numerous solo appearances with the Orchestra. In May 1995, he received The Philadelphia Orchestra's C. Hartman Kuhn Award. In September 1999 he was named co-concertmaster. Mr. de Pasquale is a member of the string faculty at Temple University. He is first violinist in the de Pasquale String Quartet and violist in the newly formed de Pasquale Trio, along with his daughter, Francesca, and his wife, Gloria, a cellist with The Philadelphia Orchestra. Mr. de Pasquale is a resident of Narberth, Pennsylvania.

Larry Grika , a native of Chicago, received his bachelor and master of music degrees from the Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University. Before joining The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1964, he was a member of the Lyric Opera Orchestra of Chicago, the Cincinnati Symphony, and the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra. He is on the faculty of Temple University, and has participated in the Aspen and Casals music festivals. In his commitment to orchestra concerns, Mr. Grika has played an active role on Philadelphia Orchestra committees, both as chairman of the Members' Committee and the Negotiation Committee, and as a member of the Pension Committee. He was also the catalyst for the Gala Benefit Concert with Riccardo Muti held on February 13, 2005, and served as chairman of the Orchestra Members Planning Committee for this special event. Mr. Grika resides in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

Before joining The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1969, Arnold Grossi was a member of the National Symphony in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Marine Band in which he was a featured soloist, and the Pittsburgh Symphony. He began violin studies at the age of six, a year after he and his family moved to Philadelphia from Charleroi, PA, and continued his studies with Raphael Bronstein at Settlement Music School and privately in New York City. Mr. Grossi is on the faculty at Temple University and Trenton State College. He has appeared as guest soloist on a “TV Portraits of Music” program and with orchestras throughout the Tri-State area, and has also given numerous recitals. Mr. Grossi resides in Voorhees, New Jersey.

A native of Philadelphia, Principal Tuba Paul Krzywicki attended St. Joseph's Prep where he studied with Leo Romano and later with his Philadelphia Orchestra predecessor, Abe Torchinsky. He earned his bachelor and master of music degrees from Indiana University. In 1965 Mr. Krzywicki was a soloist at a Philadelphia Orchestra Children's Concert. During his career, Mr. Krzywicki has been a member of the United States Military Academy Band at West Point, the New York Brass Sextet, the Boston Opera and Ballet Orchestra, the Portland (ME) Symphony, and the Buffalo Philharmonic. For several summers since 1967, he has played and taught at the Aspen Music Festival. Mr. Krzywicki came to The Philadelphia Orchestra at the start of the 1972-73 season and was the recipient of the Orchestra's C. Hartman Kuhn Award during the 1984-85 season. He is a member of the faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music. Mr. Krzywicki is a resident of Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania.

Nolan Miller became principal horn of The Philadelphia Orchestra in the 1978-79 season. He joined the Orchestra in 1965 as co-principal horn upon graduation from the Curtis Institute of Music. A native of Hamburg, Pennsylvania, Mr. Miller received a bachelor of music education degree from Lebanon Valley College, where he studied horn with James Thurmond, and continued his studies at the Curtis Institute with Mason Jones. As a member of the Curtis Horn Quartet, he was an Orchestra Senior Student Audition winner and performed as soloist with the Philadelphians at a Student Concert in 1964. Mr. Miller is currently a member of the Philadelphia Chamber Ensemble. He resides in Haddonfield, New Jersey.

A native Philadelphian, Associate Principal Clarinet Donald Montanaro is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music. For three years prior to joining The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1957, he was a member of the New Orleans Symphony. In 1965 he married Margarita Csonka, who is now co-principal harp of The Philadelphia Orchestra. One of the founders of the Philadelphia Chamber Ensemble, he has been its music director since its inception in 1977. Since 1980 Mr. Montanaro has been on the faculty of the Curtis Institute, where he teaches both clarinet and woodwind chamber music. He has also been a trustee of Curtis. Aside from playing and teaching, Mr. Montanaro has designed some of the most successful clarinet mouthpieces in the world for the French company Vandoren. In May 1999, Mr. Montanaro received The Philadelphia Orchestra's C. Hartman Kuhn Award. Mr. Montanaro resides in Philadelphia.

As principal cello of The Philadelphia Orchestra, William Stokking has appeared as soloist with the Orchestra in Philadelphia, New York, Washington, and Baltimore. He studied with Gregor Piatigorsky at the Curtis Institute of Music and Felix Salmond and Leonard Rose at the Juilliard School of Music. Mr. Stokking was solo cellist with the Navy Band and Orchestra in Washington, D.C. Upon leaving the Navy, he joined the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell for two seasons and was then offered a position with The Philadelphia Orchestra. After six years as an Orchestra member, Mr. Stokking left to become principal cello of the Chamber Symphony of Philadelphia. At the demise of that ensemble, Mr. Stokking moved to Boston where he became a member of the Boston Symphony and performed as soloist with the Boston Pops. In 1971 he returned to Cleveland to serve as principal cello of the Cleveland Orchestra and serve on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music. In 1973 he returned to Philadelphia to serve as principal cello. Mr. Stokking is a resident of Medford, New Jersey.

Founded in 1900, The Philadelphia Orchestra has distinguished itself as one of the leading orch­estras in the world through a century of acclaimed performances, historic international tours, best-selling recordings, and its unprecedented record of innovation in recording technologies and outreach. With only six music directors piloting The Philadelphia Orch­estra through its first century, the ensemble has maintained an unparalleled cohesiveness and unity in artistic leadership.

This rich tradition is carried on by Christoph Eschenbach, who began his tenure as the Orchestra's seventh music director in September 2003. As Mr. Eschenbach and the Orchestra inaugurate a new era in the ensemble's esteemed history, the Orchestra has announced the launch of the public phase of a five-year, $125-million endowment campaign, entitled A Sound, A City, A Civilization. Commitments to the campaign include a lead gift of $50 million from the Annenberg Foundation, along with other major leadership gifts that have allowed the Orchestra to raise the original campaign goal from $75 million to $125 million.

In addition to Mr. Eschenbach's appointment as music director, the Orchestra has observed several important milestones in recent years. The Orchestra's 2002-2003 season celebrated Wolfgang Sawallisch's ten highly acclaimed years at the Orchestra's helm and paid tribute to his artistic achievements with the release of a Grammy-nominated three-disc set of Schumann recordings, the first recordings made in Verizon Hall at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. The Orchestra moved to its new home at the Kimmel Center in December 2001, after celebrating its 100th Anniversary through a series of activities surrounding the year 2000, including the internationally televised gala Birthday Concert on November 16, 2000, a tour of Europe in 2000, and tours of Asia and the United States in 2001. A tour in the spring of 2003 took the Orchestra to nine cities in the United States, Mexico, and South America. Christoph Eschenbach and the Orchestra capped their first full season together with a tour of the music capitals of Europe in the spring of 2004.

The Philadelphia Orchestra annually touches the lives of more than 1 million music lovers worldwide through its performances (more than 300 concerts and other pre­sentations each year), publications, recordings, and broadcasts. A major winter subscription season is presented in Phila­delphia each year from September to May, in addition to education and community part­ner­ship programs. The Orchestra presents a series of concerts each year at New York's Carnegie Hall, performing encores of some of its acclaimed concerts from Philadelphia. Its summer schedule includes a month-long outdoor season in Phila­del­phia at The Mann Center for the Performing Arts, free concerts in local neighborhoods, and a three-week residency each August at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in upstate New York.

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts hosts the Orchestra's home subscription concerts. The Center includes two performance spaces, the 2500-seat Verizon Hall, designed and built especially for the Orchestra, and the 650-seat Perelman Theater for chamber music concerts. Designed by architect Rafael Viñoly along with acoustician Russell Johnson of Artec Consultants Inc., the Kimmel Center provides the Orchestra with a state-of-the-art facility for concerts, recordings, and education activities. The landmark building is named in honor of Philadelphia businessman and philanthropist Sidney Kimmel, who gave the largest individual gift toward its construction. Mr. Kimmel has served on the Board of Directors of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 1995.

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (KCPA) and the historic Academy of Music (where the Orchestra performed for 101 seasons) are operated to­gether as a single cultural facility by Kimmel Center, Inc. (KCI). A variety of Philadelphia's other performing arts groups serve as resident companies for the two buildings. KCI owns, manages, supports, and maintains the KCPA. Kimmel Center, Inc., also manages the Academy of Music, owned by The Philadelphia Orchestra Association since 1957, and where the Orchestra continues to present the highly anticipated annual Academy Anniversary Concert and Ball. Additional information about The Philadelphia Orchestra can be found at www.philorch.org .