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The Fort Wayne Philharmonic was founded in 1944 and gave its first concert on October 18, 1944, at the Palace Theatre. Its music directors form a line of musicians who built careers in this city. The first was the German-born Hans Schwieger (1944–48), whose Fort Wayne soloists included William Kapell, Yehudi Menuhin and Mario Lanza, and who went on to lead the Kansas City Philharmonic from 1948 to 1971. Igor Buketoff (1914–2001) followed in the summer of 1948 and served until 1966 — still the longest tenure in the orchestra's history. James Sample (1967–70) and Thomas Briccetti (1970–77) succeeded him.
Ronald Ondrejka (1932–2016) directed the orchestra from 1978 to 1993, tripling its budget and building a regular collaboration with the Fort Wayne Ballet. Edvard Tchivzhel (born 1944 in Leningrad), formerly assistant to Yevgeny Mravinsky at the Leningrad Philharmonic, served from 1993 to 2008; Jaime Laredo was artistic advisor for the 2008–09 season. The English conductor Andrew Constantine (born December 30, 1961, in County Durham) was appointed in July 2009 and held the post from 2010; he announced in 2025 that the 2026–27 season would be his last, and in the event departed at the end of the 2025–26 season. Since 1980 the orchestra has won five ASCAP awards for adventuresome programming; its homes are the Embassy Theatre and the Auer Performance Hall at Purdue Fort Wayne.
Sources: Fort Wayne Philharmonic music-director succession, drawing on History of Fort Wayne & Allen County, Indiana (M.T. Publishing, 2006); Journal Gazette, April 16, 2016 (Ondrejka obituary) and July 11, 2025 (Constantine departure); conductor biographies (Tchivzhel; Constantine).