Orchestra of the Americas

The Orchestra of the Americas operated chiefly as a studio ensemble, issuing many commercially successful recordings that blended light classical selections with material drawn from musical theater. Its lifespan extended from the 1980s into the opening years of the 2000s. Distinctions must be drawn between this group and the identically titled orchestra that conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto established in 2002 under the original name Youth Orchestra of the Americas, as well as the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, which conductor Alondra de la Parra launched and maintained in New York City near 2010.

Matters grow more intricate once it is noted that both ensembles named Orchestra of the Americas maintained their base in Mexico City. The earlier organization concentrated on studio projects, above all the taping of film scores and anthologies assembled from Broadway shows. Its first documented appearance occurred in 1987 on a release presenting the soundtracks to Hanna's War and Assisi Underground. Early in the 1990s the orchestra collaborated with violinist Ruggiero Ricci on several discs of standard repertory and also produced recordings of Mexican and Brazilian symphonic works, yet the bulk of its later catalog centered on Broadway and film music.

Particularly noteworthy was its sustained collaboration with Paul Freeman, recognized as one of the earliest African American conductors to sustain a prominent career in the United States. Freeman directed the ensemble through a sequence of Broadway recordings issued by the Intersound label, each titled “Aspects of” followed by the names of specific musicals. In the late 1990s conductor Bill Broughton guided the group in multiple film-music anthologies. Among its most visible projects was the soundtrack album for Heart of the Ocean, composed by the leading Hollywood figure James Horner. The orchestra remained active into the early 2000s, releasing Signature Series: Romancing the Screen in 2004. The initial designation of Prieto’s ensemble as the Youth Orchestra of the Americas may have been adopted to separate it from the still-functioning earlier group, while the eventual omission of “Youth” likely reflected the fact that the original orchestra had disbanded by the close of the 2000s.