Sometimes the best way to succinctly explain an orchestra’s impact on the performance landscape—particularly the “new music” landscape—is with numbers. Since its beginnings in 1988, Philadelphia’s Orchestra 2001 has premiered more than 90 compositions and performed more than 250 works by 130 different American composers, with more than half of those compositions being written by Philadelphia-area artists.

The ensemble has also interpreted the works of such seminal 20th century composers as Ligeti, Messiaen, and Boulez, and Stravinsky.