Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra functions unofficially as the national ensemble of Israel and is widely viewed as one of the Jewish state's most valued cultural institutions, though its programs encompass an extensive range of music from diverse national traditions. Classical music in the European tradition began appearing in the Palestine region during the 1880s, with formal training centers established after World War I alongside the growing movement for a Jewish homeland. A complete symphony orchestra emerged only in the 1930s, however, once large numbers of Jewish musicians started escaping Nazi Germany. Violinist Bronislaw Huberman was the driving force behind this development; he recruited players dismissed from German ensembles and established the Palestine Symphony Orchestra in 1936. Its inaugural concert was led by the anti-Nazi conductor Arturo Toscanini, featuring music by Wagner—an inclusion that has been followed by a general policy of avoidance ever since. Huberman devoted himself to securing travel papers for the arriving musicians and their relatives, an effort credited with rescuing roughly one thousand individuals from German concentration camps. William Steinberg served as the ensemble's first music advisor and led many early performances, while Leonard Bernstein assumed that advisory role in the late 1940s, maintained a long association with the group, and produced some of its initial recordings toward the end of the 1950s. Following the founding of the Israeli state in 1948, the orchestra adopted its present name. For decades it operated under a succession of guest conductors and advisors that included Paul Paray, Jean Martinon, and Zubin Mehta, who held the post from 1969 to 1977. Mehta became the orchestra's inaugural music director in 1977 and continued until 2019; Lahav Shani took over the post in 2020, while Mehta remained active in the capacity of music director emeritus. The players themselves own the organization as a cooperative.

Approximately 110 musicians currently comprise the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Its principal home is Tel Aviv's Heichal HaTarbut concert hall, previously called Mann Auditorium, although regular appearances also take place in Haifa and Jerusalem as well as abroad. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators interrupted a 2011 performance at the BBC Proms. The ensemble regularly welcomes distinguished soloists and visiting conductors; its repertory draws from many traditions yet frequently highlights compositions by Israeli creators. On the Angel label in 1987 the orchestra issued the album Tradition, consisting of Israeli melodies performed by guest violinist Itzhak Perlman. Through the 1980s and 1990s it recorded for Angel, EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, and additional companies. In 2006 it launched its own Helicon Classics imprint, which has re-released numerous earlier LP recordings. While issuing further titles on Helicon Classics, the orchestra has sustained its relationship with Deutsche Grammophon, which brought out a 2022 recording of Paul Ben-Haim's Symphony No. 1. By the early 2020s its discography encompassed roughly eighty entries.