[7] The New York Philharmonic was founded in 1842 by the American conductor Ureli Corelli Hill, with the aid of the Irish composer William Vincent Wallace.

Two other conductors, German-born Henry Christian Timm and French-born Denis Etienne, led parts of the eclectic, three-hour program, which included chamber music and several operatic selections with a leading singer of the day, as was the custom.

After only a dozen public performances and barely four years old, the Philharmonic organized a concert to raise funds to build a new music hall.

That year, Eisfeld conducted the orchestra's memorial concert for the recently assassinated Abraham Lincoln, but in a peculiar turn of events which were criticized in the New York press, the Philharmonic omitted the last movement, "Ode to Joy", as being inappropriate for the occasion.

Because of the desperate financial circumstances, the Philharmonic offered Theodore Thomas the conductorship without conditions, and he began conducting the orchestra in the autumn of 1877.

[16] With the exception of the 1878/79 season—when he was in Cincinnati and Adolph Neuendorff led the group—Thomas conducted every season for 14 years, vastly improving the orchestra's financial health while creating a polished and virtuosic ensemble.

Twelve thousand people applied for tickets to his funeral at the Metropolitan Opera House and the streets were jammed for blocks with a "surging mass" of his admirers.

After that, he says, for several seasons (1903–1906) the orchestra employed guest conductors, including Victor Herbert, Édouard Colonne, Willem Mengelberg, Fritz Steinbach, Richard Strauss, Felix Weingartner, and Henry Wood.

In 1909, to ensure the Philharmonic's financial stability, a group of wealthy New Yorkers led by two women, Mary Seney Sheldon and Minnie Untermyer, formed the Guarantors Committee and changed the orchestra's organization from a musician-operated cooperative to a corporate management structure.

The Guarantors were responsible for bringing Gustav Mahler to the Philharmonic as principal conductor and expanding the season from 18 concerts to 54, which included a tour of New England.

Under Mahler, a controversial figure both as a composer and conductor, the season expanded, musicians' salaries were guaranteed, the scope of operations broadened, and the 20th-century orchestra was created.

For nine years Mengelberg dominated the scene, although other conductors, among them Bruno Walter, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Igor Stravinsky, and Arturo Toscanini, led about half of each season's concerts.

During this period, the Philharmonic became one of the first American orchestras with an outdoor symphony series when it began playing low-priced summer concerts at Lewisohn Stadium in upper Manhattan.

It made its first domestic tour in 1882, introduced educational concerts for young people in 1891, and premiered works such as Gershwin's Concerto in F and Holst's Egdon Heath.

Toscanini, who had guest-conducted for several seasons, became the sole conductor and in 1930 led the group on a European tour that brought immediate international fame to the orchestra.

He had also conducted the Sunday afternoon radio broadcast when CBS listeners around the country heard the announcer break in on Arthur Rubinstein's performance of Brahms's Second Piano Concerto to inform them of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

(Initial word of the attack was forwarded by CBS News correspondent John Charles Daly on his own show before the Philharmonic broadcast.)

Soon after the U.S. entered World War II, Aaron Copland wrote A Lincoln Portrait for the Philharmonic at the request of conductor Andre Kostelanetz as a tribute to and expression of the "magnificent spirit of our country."

Known for championing new composers and obscure operas-in-concert, Mitropoulos pioneered in other ways, adding live Philharmonic performances between movies at the Roxy Theatre[26] and taking Edward R. Murrow and the See It Now television audience on a behind-the-scenes tour of the orchestra.

Bernstein, who had made his historic, unrehearsed and spectacularly successful debut with the Philharmonic in 1943, was music director for 11 seasons, a time of significant change and growth.

In September 1962, the Philharmonic commissioned Aaron Copland to write a new work, Connotations for Orchestra, for the opening concert of the new Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Boulez's years with the orchestra were notable for expanded repertoire and innovative concert approaches, such as the "Prospective Encounters" which explored new works along with the composer in alternative venues.

During his tenure, the Philharmonic inaugurated the "Live From Lincoln Center" television series in 1976, and the orchestra continues to appear on the Emmy Award-winning program to the present day.

Members of the New York Philharmonic string section are heard on the 1971 John Lennon album Imagine, credited as '"The Flux Fiddlers".

In 2000, Lorin Maazel made a guest-conducting appearance with the New York Philharmonic in two weeks of subscription concerts after an absence of over twenty years,[29] which was met with a positive reaction from the orchestra musicians.

In his first subscription week he led the world premiere of John Adams' On the Transmigration of Souls commissioned in memory of those who died on September 11, 2001.

The concert was held at East Pyongyang Grand Theatre, with a program including the national anthems of both North Korea (Aegukka) and the United States (The Star-Spangled Banner), the Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin by Richard Wagner, Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No.

[39] In January 2016, the orchestra announced the appointment of Jaap van Zweden as its next music director, effective with the 2018–2019 season, with an initial contract of five years.

Following 26 additional guest-conducting appearances with the orchestra, the New York Philharmonic announced, in February 2023, the appointment of Dudamel as its next music director, effective with the 2026–2027 season, with an initial contract of 5 years.

[57] The current holder of the position is Michael Beckerman, Carroll and Milton Petrie Chair and Collegiate Professor of Music at New York University.