William Smith, 1959-1960
Henry C. Smith III, 1960-1965
Robert Page, 1965-1978

Mendelssohn Club enjoyed a particularly close relationship with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Robert Page, director of choral activities at Temple University, who assumed the music directorship in 1964. The chorus participated in the free world premiere of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 under the direction of Eugene Ormandy. The RCA recording of that performance won the Prix Mondiale de Montreux. Mendelssohn Club appeared with the Orchestra in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, the Verdi Requiem, Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky, Schoenberg’s Survivor from Warsaw and Mahler’s Second and Third Symphonies with such conductors as Ormandy, Abbado, Mehta, Rostropovich and Rozhdestvenksy on the podium. Recordings with Ormandy and The Philadelphia Orchestra included Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe, Holst’s The Planets, Mendelssohn’s Walpurgisnacht and Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances. The chorus celebrated its centennial season with the commission and premiere of Alberto Ginastera’s Turbae ad Passionem Gregorianam with Page conducting The Philadelphia Orchestra.