The Philharmonic Orchestra

Ruth Shitrit is a member of the Board of Directors of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. In the framework of this role Shitrit is in partnership with the goals of the Orchestra Foundation, and invests a great deal of effort to successfully achieve them. Among these goals are maintaining a high degree of artistic excellence, providing the players with financial security, promoton of music education programs and relations with the community, support for special concerts for adults and youth, assistance in financing its performances throughout Israel and abroad, and more.

In August 2011 the Orchestra Foundation launched a campaign, in cooperation with the Friends of the Orchestra in the United States, intended to raise funds to finance the renovation of the Mann Auditorium Culture Palace and the other goals of the Foundation. Shitrit, chairperson of the campaign, was also among the major contributors together with her husband Meir in memory of their daughter Miri Shitrit (of blessed memory).

The fundraising campaign for the Orchestra was successful thanks to the support of the Tel Aviv Municipality, of longtime contributor Charles Bronfman and the Friends of the Philharmonic Orchestra throughout the world. For her activities in the framework of the campaign, Shitrit received a special award from the Philharmonic Orchestra.

The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra was established in 1936 by the Polish violinist Bronislaw Huberman, who persuaded dozens of Jewish musicians to immigrate to Israel in the period prior to the Holocaust and the Second World War, in order to fulfill Zionist culture in Israel. Over the decades since its establishment until the present, the Philharmonic Orchestra has been closely involved in a variety of important historical events, among them playing the National Anthem at the ceremony of the declaration of the State of Israel, performances for soldiers during the Yom Kippur War and even a moving performance on Polish soil, from where, in fact, dozens of Jewish musicians escaped to establish the Orchestra.

World renowned international artists have collaborated with the Philharmonic Orchestra, including Arturo Toscanini, Bernardino Molinari, Leonard Bernstein and others. Furthermore, some of the greatest Jewish and Israeli musicians known throughout the world have emerged from the orchestra, including conductor Zubin Mehta (an Honoray Citizen of Tel Aviv), violinists Pinchas Zukerman and Itzhak Perlman, pianist Daniel Barenboim and more.

Today the Philharmonic Orchestra deals with the challenges of the 21st century: among other things, concerts are broadcast to the entire world on the Internet site, tickets are sold online and innovative programs for music education are underway among youth and adults, and more. In addition the Orchestra continues to appear in various countries, at festivals and celebrations.