Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts, the city’s biggest arts group, names new leader

The understudy has landed the starring role.

Ryan Fleur, after twice serving as interim leader, has been named president and CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts, the group announced Wednesday.

Fleur has worked in a key background capacity since beginning as an orchestra executive vice president in 2012 — with responsibilities in fundraising and touring, recordings and radio broadcasts, legislative matters, and helping to steer the orchestra’s 2021 merger with the Kimmel Center.

He was a leading candidate for the top spot at Philadelphia’s largest arts organization from the start, and was chosen after an international search that considered others who had both orchestra and arts center experience, said POEA board chair Ralph W. Muller.

“Even though we had a lot of confidence in him, we wanted to look at the competition,” said Muller.

Fleur, 53, had been interim president and CEO since Jan. 1 and takes on the permanent title immediately, beginning a five-year contract.

Increasing access to the art for all, he said, was his biggest priority.

“We cannot replace music programming in the schools, but we can provide opportunity,” said Fleur, “and we have these buildings where we are truly a beacon for the art, so that when a child or somebody walks through our doors for the first time they can feel the aspiration.”

More specifically, he aims to create a program that brings every student into one of the arts center’s halls at least three times between kindergarten and 12th grade, and a new discount ticket program for both the orchestra and POEA events (as opposed to those of resident companies) to bring in “people that might not otherwise attend.”

He follows Matías Tarnopolsky, who left at the end of 2024 to run the New York Philharmonic.

Fleur came to the Philadelphia Orchestra after nearly a decade running the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, soon after the Philadelphians became the first major American orchestra to file for bankruptcy. Tensions were high between the orchestra’s management and players, and Fleur soon earned a reputation as earnest, low-key, and collegial.

He studied piano privately for 11 years and began his career as a rehearsal pianist for classes at Boston Ballet.

“My gift is, to this day, I can sight-read just about anything you put in front of me.”

It was at the ballet company that he met his future wife, Laura Banchero, who was on the faculty. They live in Bala Cynwyd.

Fleur was born in the Bronx, raised outside of New York City, in Nanuet, N.Y., and graduated from Boston University with a bachelor’s degree in economics and business. Before Memphis, he was executive director of the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston.

He takes the helm of a $125-million-a-year organization with great strengths and steep challenges. Formed from a 2021 merger of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center, POEA runs the orchestra, presents Broadway and other shows, and is landlord to six resident companies in addition to the orchestra. It owns and operates the Academy of Music, Kimmel Center, and Miller Theater, and is charged with raising money for a list of ambitious ongoing renovations in all three facilities.

Attendance has recovered from the pandemic over the past couple of seasons, with halls for both the orchestra and other events including Broadway expected to end up at about 77% of capacity for the season ending in June.

Significantly, the post-pandemic audience differs from the pre-pandemic one, Fleur said.

“We’re seeing a lot of crossover between Broadway and the orchestra,” he said. “It’s partly the way that society is so fractured, and we have the benefit of the merger and having a very large database so we can cross market.”

Fleur said that at least half his time will be spent raising money. The organization has been working quietly for several years on a fundraising campaign with an as-yet-unannounced nine-figure goal.

The needs are great — for endowment, programs, and the physical plant.

“The biggest thing that we need to fix is the roof,” he said of the glass dome over the Kimmel Center. “This amazing vaulted roof that when properly cared for, you caulk it once every four years, and we did an emergency caulking in 2017 and that’s it.”

The window washing system designed to clean the outside of the dome no longer works. The system right now? “We hope the rain comes to clean it,” he says.

All told, the Kimmel Center, Academy of Music, and Miller Theater need about $137 million in work between now and 2036, according to a recent deferred maintenance study.

Securing the future at home doesn’t mean the orchestra’s work elsewhere will be neglected. Philadelphia Orchestra tours continue. The Philadelphians have a long-standing presence in China through tours and artistic residencies, and the current trade war doesn’t necessarily mean those relationships will be cut off.

“We’re exploring what we might be able to do next,” said Fleur. But the conditions have to be right.

“If there’s a request, say, from the Chinese government, we have to make sure that there’s also the support of the U.S. government. We don’t want to do anything that in any way comes across as partisan and we have to be especially careful of that now with eyes wide open understanding that when we go to China the U.S. government has a benefit.”

At the same time, Fleur says his number-one priority for the orchestra is making it central to Philadelphia’s civic life.

“It’s a mantle that we’ve held at various times in the past, but through necessity we had to focus on ourselves for awhile.”

One example he gives is how the orchestra has somewhat slipped from the consciousness of the city when it comes to Semiquincentennial plans.

“No one has picked up the phone to ask the Philadelphia Orchestra to be a participant in the process. And so my goal — what will be different — is that we’re the first call.

“I want us to be fully present in Philadelphia.”