Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra

The MPO made its debut concert on 17 August 1998 under the direction of its first music director and founder, Kees Bakels. In July 2003, Bakels announced that he would be stepping down due to health reasons. In September 2003, the MPO appointed James Judd to succeed Bakels starting from the 2004/2005 season. However, on 14 June 2004, the MPO via a press announcement stated that “all contractual relationships between MPO and Mr. Judd have ceased with effect from 7 April 2004”. The press announcement did not indicate any reason behind the termination of the contract. Due to the termination, Bakels agreed to continue to give more time for the MPO to find his replacement. Bakels held the position until the end of the 2004/2005 season and later, was honored with a conductor laureate title.[2][3]

In November 2004, Matthias Bamert was named the new MPO's principal conductor starting from August 2005.[4] Bamert served in that position until the end of 2007/2008 season.

Claus Peter Flor succeeded Bamert as the MPO's music director starting from August 2008, with an initial contract of 3 years. The contract was renewed, and Peter Flor continued as music director until the end of the 2013/2014 season.[5]

Fabio Mechetti was then appointed as MPO principal conductor.[6] He served in that role from the beginning of the 2014/2015 season through October 2015, from which time the MPO has not named another music director or principal conductor.

Since its inauguration in 1998, the orchestra has performed with many internationally acclaimed conductors, jazz and classical musicians, including Lorin Maazel, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, Mstislav Rostropovich, Jiří Bělohlávek, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Sir Neville Marriner, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Yehudi Menuhin, Vadim Repin, Joshua Bell, Sarah Chang, Maurice Steger, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Branford Marsalis, Harry Connick Jr., Chris Botti, José Carreras, Andrea Bocelli, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Russell Powell and Sumi Jo.[7][1]

To date, the MPO has made 17 recordings under 3 labels.[8][9]

During Peter Flor's tenure as music director, he oversaw the controversial "sacking" of nine musicians. The case led to a call from the International Federation of Musicians to boycott auditions for the orchestra.[10]. These musicians were on fixed-term contracts which expired on 15 August 2012. On 15 February 2012, the MPO sent notices to the nine musicians to officially notify that their contracts will not be renewed. Seven out of the nine musicians who received the non-renewal notices filed a legal suit against the MPO at the Malaysian Industrial Court, challenging their former employer’s decision not to extend their contracts. The musicians are Toko Inomoto (violist), Brian C. Larson (violinist), Paul Andrew Philbert (timpanist), Darcey Layne Timmerman (percussionist), Kevin Hugh Thompson (trombonist), Markus Gundermann (violinist) and Liu Jian (violinist).[11]

In 2015, Malaysian Industrial Court threw out their dismissal suit, citing that the musicians’ fixed term contracts had naturally expired, and therefore, the MPO had not even needed to dismiss them. The court opined that the case is not considered 'sacking' or 'dismissal' but merely not extending the expired contract, which is common in many industries.[12][13]

In a separate case, in May 2014, the Malaysian Industrial Court had ordered the MPO to pay a fine of US$147,000 for the dismissal of its former General Manager, Kim Sargeant in 2006.[14]

Dato’ Seri Ooi Chean See was the founding Resident Conductor of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra from 1998 until 2006. The position remained vacant until Ciarán McAuley was appointed to the position from 2014 to 2016. Naohisa Furusawa, a member of the MPO double bass section since January 2003, was named Resident Conductor in 2016.[15] Gerard Salonga was appointed as an additional Resident Conductor in 2018.

Markus Gundermann (current principal second violin of the Dresden Philharmonic) was the founding MPO concertmaster from 1998 until 2012, when his contract was not renewed by then-Music Director Claus Peter Flor. Anna Reszniak is the second and last violinist to hold the position of MPO concertmaster. Appointed by Flor before his contract was not renewed in 2014, Reszniak left the MPO after just two seasons to join the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra in the same position. Following a successful audition, Marié Rossano was offered the concertmaster position in 2016; she declined and accepted a New York Philharmonic tutti second violin position instead. From the 2014/2015 season, MPO assistant concertmaster Peter Daniš has been serving as acting concertmaster.[16][17]

• Kees Bakels (1998–2005) Music Director
• Matthias Bamert (2005–2008) Principal Conductor
• Claus Peter Flor (2008–2014) Music Director
• Fabio Mechetti (2014–2015) Principal Conductor

• Ooi Chean See (1998-2006)
• Ciarán McAuley (2014–2016)
• Naohisa Furusawa (2016–present)
• Gerard Salonga (2018–present)

• Malaysian Philharmonic Youth Orchestra

• Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra official website
• Malaysian Property Partners - Malaysian Philharmonic