Philadelphia Orchestra Associate Conductor Rossen Milanov leads the concerts and introduces the pieces from the stage. All three performances take place at 7:00 p.m. in Verizon Hall at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.

Czech Mix

Featuring orchestral favorites from Czech composers and their neighbors, “Czech Mix” promises to be a flavorful delight. The program opens with the festive Carnival Overture by the most famous of Czech composers, Antonin Dvo?? ak. Four dance-inspired works are next, with performances of Kodaly’s Dances of Galanta, two of Dvo?? ak’s Slavonic Dances, and an excursion to the nearby cultural capital of imperial Vienna with Johann Strauss Jr.’s “Emperor” Waltz. Smetana’s surging “Moldau” follows, vividly depicting the river that runs through the Czech Republic, before more dances – this time Bartok’s Romanian Folk Dances – return. The program closes with Hora-staccato, a dazzlingly virtuosic work by Romanian composer Grigora?? Dinicu (June 24, 7 p.m.).

From Russia with Love

From Musorgsky to Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky to Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich, Russia has produced many of the most significant composers of all-time. “From Russia with Love” features music by five of these Russian greats. The program opens with Musorgsky’s A Night on Bald Mountain, a dark and dramatic work that depicts a witches’ Sabbath. Along with his friend Rimsky-Korsakov, Musorgsky strove to produce a specifically Russian sound. He wrote of the piece: “In form and character my composition is Russian and original.” Next we hear from Rimsky-Korsakov, whose Capriccio espagnol displays the composer’s colorful (and typically Russian) orchestration despite its source in Spanish songs.

No concert of Russian music would be complete without excerpts from ballet scores (Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty and Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet) or lush sound of Rachmaninoff (his haunting Vocalise). The program ventures further into the 20th century with the Second Movement of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, a work that both defied and placated Soviet censors. It closes with a pioneering 20th-century ballet, Stravinsky’s The Firebird, a colorful work that helped set the course for ballet as we know it today (June 25, 7 p.m.).

American Postcards

“American Postcards” travels the country with our own homegrown composers. They blend music from the theater, the worship hall, and the bandstand with folk and bluegrass for a sound that is as American as baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet.

We begin on Broadway with Bernstein’s Overture to Candide, then travel to New England for a sampling of Charles Ives’s eclectic taste (The Unanswered Question). The sounds of the square dance and lovely folk melodies follow in Copland’s iconic Appalachian Spring. The next stop is the bandstand with John Philip Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever” March, followed by the pastoral Fantasy, for English horn, harp, and strings, by Walter Piston. The program closes with a Gershwin classic: Porgy and Bess, A Symphonic Picture (June 26, 7 p.m.).

Rossen Milanov

A sought-after guest conductor on the international music scene, Rossen Milanov has been hailed as “one who bears watching by anyone who cares about the future of music” (Chicago Tribune). He currently holds the positions of associate conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra and artistic director of The Philadelphia Orchestra at The Mann Center for the Performing Arts. In addition Mr. Milanov serves as music director of New Jersey’s Symphony in C (formerly the Haddonfield Symphony), one of America’s premier professional training orchestras; music director of the New Symphony Orchestra in his native city of Sofia, Bulgaria; and chief conductor of the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony.

Mr. Milanov began his association with The Philadelphia Orchestra as assistant conductor in 2000 and was promoted to associate conductor four years later. In this role he leads the Orchestra in subscription, Family, educational, community, and holiday concerts. In March 2006 Mr. Milanov was named artistic director of the The Philadelphia Orchestra performs three “Best of…” concerts in 2008 Orchestra’s summer series at The Mann Center for the Performing Arts. In July 2007 he led the Orchestra in two performances during its first residency at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival in Vail, Colorado. During the 2007-08 season, Mr. Milanov debuts with the NHK, BBC, and Seattle symphonies, and the Royal Scottish Philharmonic, and he has return engagements with the Indianapolis Symphony, the Slovenian National Radio Orchestra, and the Curtis Opera Theatre. In addition he leads the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in a new double bill production of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Petrushka with the Ballet du Grand Theatre de Geneve. Mr. Milanov also conducts the Bulgarian National Radio Orchestra in a European tour. The tour stops in Munich, Dortmund, Valladolid, and at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and features acclaimed Bulgarian mezzo-soprano Vesselina Kasarova.

With The Philadelphia Orchestra, Mr. Milanov’s recent highlights have included critically acclaimed concerts on the Orchestra’s summer series at the Mann Center; subscription performances of Adams’s Violin Concerto and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15; and the world premiere of Maw’s English Horn Concerto. Mr. Milanov has led concerts and tours with the Aspen Festival; the Auckland, Rotterdam, and Seoul philharmonics; the Baltimore, Colorado, Duluth-Superior, Honolulu, Lucerne, New World, Omaha, Syracuse, and Virginia symphonies; the Saint Paul and Cincinnati chamber orchestras; the Civic Orchestra of Chicago; the Festival Orchestra of the Grand Teton Music Festival; the Curtis Opera Theatre; the national orchestras of Colombia and Mexico; the Residentie Orchestra of the Hague; and the Teatro Colon Buenos Aires.

He was music director of the Chicago Youth Symphony from 1997 to 2001, and he has participated in numerous summer festivals, including Tanglewood and Interlochen. His recording of works by the Russian composer Alla Pavlova with the Moscow Philharmonic is available on the Naxos label. Mr. Milanov retains a close association with his native city of Sofia in Bulgaria. As music director of the New Symphony Orchestra, Eastern Europe’s first privately funded orchestra, his work has included commissions and premieres of new works, the introduction of American music to Bulgarian audiences, and several recordings. Currently he is in the midst of leading a multi-year Mahler cycle with the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony. Mr. Milanov has received the Award for Extraordinary Contribution to Bulgarian Culture, awarded by the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture. In 2005 he was chosen as Bulgaria’s Musician of the Year. Mr. Milanov studied conducting at the Juilliard School (recipient of the Bruno Walter Memorial Scholarship), the Curtis Institute of Music, Duquesne University, and the Bulgarian National Academy of Music. 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. The Orchestra has maintained an unparalleled unity in artistic leadership with only six music directors piloting its first century: Fritz Scheel (1900-07), Carl Pohlig (1907-12), Leopold Stokowski (1912-41), Eugene Ormandy (1936-80), Riccardo Muti (1980-92), and Wolfgang Sawallisch (1993-2003).

This tradition is carried on by Christoph Eschenbach, who became music director in 2003. The 2007- 08 season, Mr. Eschenbach’s last, focuses on monumental works of the symphonic repertoire, including Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 (“Symphony of a Thousand”), Orff’s Carmina burana, and Richard Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony. During his tenure, Mr. Eschenbach has conducted Beethoven’s nine symphonies paired with music of our time; led a four-week Late Great Works Festival; launched the Orchestra’s first-ever multi-year cycle of Mahler’s complete symphonies; and led tours of Europe, Asia, Florida and Puerto Rico, and the United States.

Recent Philadelphia Orchestra highlights include the launch of a Global Concert Series, which involves multi-casting concerts to large-screen venues through the Internet2 network; the opening of the Orchestra’s Online Music Store, www.thephiladelphiaorchestra.com, in September 2006; regular broadcasts on NPR beginning in April 2006; a series of critically acclaimed recordings led by Mr. Eschenbach and released in partnership with Ondine Records; and a $125 million endowment campaign launched in 2003. The Philadelphia Orchestra annually touches the lives of more than one million music lovers worldwide through its performances, publications, recordings, and broadcasts. The Orchestra presents a subscription season in Philadelphia each year from September to May, in addition to education and community partnership programs, and appears annually at Carnegie Hall. Its summer schedule includes an outdoor series at Philadelphia’s Mann Center for the Performing Arts, free Neighborhood Concerts, and residencies at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in upstate New York, and the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. -- www.philorch.org