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sai-national.org • SUMMER 2016 • PAN PIPES 11 FOR MORE INFORMATION about the collection, visit facebook.com/FleisherCollection MUSIC COLLECTION and high schools had no orchestras. Americans seeking orchestral careers routinely sought training and reputations overseas. Sixty-five boys ranging in age from seven to seventeen showed up at the inaugural meeting of the Symphony Club in South Philadelphia. Fleisher explained: e attempt at a full symphony orchestra with boys so young in years, with little technical ability, and with some of the necessary woodwind and brass instruments missing because no performers of these instruments could be found, I must admit, was not productive of any amazing results, judged solely by their performances. Nevertheless, we struggled along with this little orchestra…and the enthusiasm of these youngsters, their regular attendance at rehearsals, and the enjoyment they derived, convinced me that the project was worth while. By 1912, Fleisher responded to members' zeal by purchasing and renovating a five-story house at 1235 Pine Street to provide a clubhouse and rehearsal hall. He engaged Camille Zeckwer (1875-1924) – the future director of the Philadelphia Music Academy (now the University of the Arts) – to conduct the rapidly growing string orchestra, and on the evening of May 29 th , 1912, the Symphony presented their first annual public performance. When William F. Happich (1884-1950) joined to conduct the full orchestra for the 1915-1916 season, a position he would hold for twenty-six years, Fleisher had already expanded membership to include all races and both sexes. In an interview with e Musical Times, Fleisher noted: We have pretty well every nation represented. ere are Russians, many negroes, one real American Indian, inhabitants of the Malay Peninsula and the Philippines, and we once had a Japanese girl who came in native dress until we found her costume attracted rather too much attention. Between 1909 and 1929, Fleisher would spend between $10,000 and $20,000 annually to supply the Symphony Club with music for biweekly rehearsals (including regular sight- reading sessions!) and annual concerts. Aer exhausting publishing agents in the U.S., Fleisher personally traveled to Europe in 1913, 1925, 1927, 1929, and 1930 to meet with composers and publishers and purchase music to fulfill the group's needs. A special visa in 1929 permitted him unprecedented access to works in the Soviet Union. During the 1920s and 1930s, major conductors, including Leopold Stokowski (1882- 1977), Alexander Smallens (1889-1972), Josef Pasternak (1881-1940), Fritz Reiner (1888-1963), and Victor Herbert (1859-1924), took note of Fleisher's Symphony Club and made time to appear as guest conductors for rehearsals. In 1929, Fleisher donated his expansive collection to the Free Library of Philadelphia. Valued at $500,000 (nearly $7 million by today's standards), the collection contained complete performance sets for just over 3,300 works. Arthur Cohn, who would later conduct the OSP ten times between 1980 and 1983, became the first curator in his early twenties. Between 1934 and 1943, Fleisher co- sponsored a Works Progress Administration [W.P.A.] Music Copying Project dedicated to creating performance sets from unpublished manuscripts by Pan American composers and doubled the size of the collection. Fleisher personally sponsored Nicolas Slonimsky's sojourn to Latin America in 1941-42 with $10,000 to secure works from South and Central America. Slonimsky would produce his pioneering book, Music of Latin America (omas A. Crowell, 1945) as a result of the trip. Fleisher remained actively involved in expanding and promoting the collection right up until his death in 1959 and le a generous endowment for its continued growth. Seven curators have guided the direction of the Collection over the past eighty-seven years. As we continue into the 21 st century the Fleisher Collection continues circulating important works around the world, has embarked on a mission to preserve and provide access to lost treasures in its extensive and important archival holdings, and is again venturing into Latin America with a musical diplomacy mission to Cuba. You can listen to our Discoveries from the Fleisher Collection radio program online at wrti. org as we continue to follow Edwin Fleisher's noble mission. Dr. Gary Galván is the curator of the Fleisher Collection at the Free Library of Philadelphia. He can be contacted at: GalvanG@freelibrary. org Edwin A. Fleisher, Fleisher's nephew and Symphony Club officer Stuart Louchheim, and Symphony Club Conductor William Frederick Happich, circa 1916.

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