A call was made to Touchi-Peters, who lived in Los Angeles at the time, and he agreed to come to Minneapolis to serve as interim conductor of the new ensemble until a permanent music director could be found.
As Touchi-Peters was not a gay man, he was told by Ford—now chairman of the new group's board of directors—that he would not be eligible for the permanent post; and he accepted the interim job on those terms.
[2] Sensitive to this issue—and to increasing demands from the orchestra's players to consider Touchi-Peters for the permanent conducting post—the Philharmonia's board changed their new charter to also allow for musicians "supportive of the mission of the gay community".
Touchi-Peters conducted the orchestra for its first nine seasons, drawing consistently sold-out crowds and near-universal positive reviews from the local Twin Cities press.
[5] Drawing on his extensive ties in the music industry, he also arranged for several world-class soloists to appear with the ensemble, including pianist Lydia Artymiw and soprano Dorothy Benham.
Founder Kevin Ford, who also served as the orchestra's principal cellist, died of complications from AIDS in February 1995, only two days before a scheduled MPO concert.
[6] In his honor, the orchestra performed that concert with the first cellist's chair vacant; in his eulogy at Ford's funeral, Touchi-Peters called him "a relatively ordinary man who accomplished an extraordinary thing".
The orchestra also performs for outreach and charitable causes, including the Human Rights Campaign, the local annual AIDS Walk, and the annual Twin Cities Gay Pride Celebration; and every June it performs an outdoor concert at Como Park in St. Paul in conjunction with the four other major gay/lesbian music ensembles of the Twin Cities (collectively known as the Queer Music Consortium).