A year after its last president gave notice, the Philadelphia Orchestra has a new leader.

Allison B. Vulgamore, president of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra since 1993, will take over the Philadelphia ensemble at a time when it has been badly shaken by financial turmoil. She is expected to start work as president and CEO no later than Feb. 1.

"I think that we have found a leader who is as smart as can be, and who is deeply and successfully experienced in leading an orchestra," said new board chairman Richard B. Worley. "I think she's creative, and she has pizzazz."

Her contract, which will run for two years, is not signed, though Worley said he had a "clear and firm understanding" with Vulgamore. He declined to specify her salary, though he said it was in line with industry standards. She earned $597,669 at the Atlanta Symphony, a smaller and less prestigious orchestra, for the nine months ended May 31, 2008, according to forms filed with the IRS.

Vulgamore - who is meeting with orchestra musicians, the board, and other arts leaders this week - arrives at a time of severe crisis for the 109-year-old organization. It is running a series of large deficits, has spent almost all of its unrestricted endowment, and has functioned for several months without a permanent president, board chairman, or music director.

Vulgamore, a 51-year-old career orchestra administrator who got her start here as assistant to the executive director of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1981 and '82, will be charged with bringing order to a situation so tenuous that bankruptcy has been explored as an option.

She said that the orchestra was "fiscally more challenged than I've seen any orchestra be," but that it was the music, as well as the challenge of solving a problem, that compelled her to pursue the job.

"It's an honor for me to join one of the world's great orchestras, but if I didn't think I could make a difference," she said, "I wouldn't want to come."

Vulgamore will phase into the job gradually, coming to Philadelphia for visits and hosting interim executive director Frank P. Slattery Jr. for meetings in Atlanta.

But she said she would immediately involve herself in three areas: the music-director search, fiscal planning, and hiring for open positions "that are critical to the health of the organization."

Worley said it became obvious in speaking with Vulgamore and other candidates for the job that an emergency bridge fund would be needed to get the orchestra through the next two years. He proposed a goal of $15 million, and, after pledging $2 million with his wife, Leslie Anne Miller, has been passing the hat among board members. About $5 million has been raised so far, he said yesterday.

"I'm hopeful that will give us time to plan thoughtfully," said Vulgamore. "It's imperative. It's the money we need, every inch."

Vulgamore and the orchestra almost sealed the deal once before, three years ago, but she decided she had unfinished business in Atlanta. Then she left that job, if temporarily.

"After that decision happened here, I took a sabbatical for six months and volunteered in Morocco teaching music in a boys' prison for two months with no instruments and no language, and reconnected with myself about the power of music and engagement. And I came back to Atlanta ready to shore up what I knew was its next chapter, and we've done that."

Vulgamore is an orchestra veteran. Before Atlanta, she was general manager of the New York Philharmonic. Previously, she spent five years as artistic administrator and general manager of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington.

She said that, in recent months, she spoke with visiting conductors and soloists coming through Atlanta about the Philadelphia job.

"They all wanted me to know how tremendously committed the ensemble has remained even during these challenging times. My trips certainly affirmed that musically when I have been here. So I think foundationally there is no question about the music of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

"We do need to put some infrastructure around it that is equal to the greatness of the music itself. We need to have a creative governance that aligns the board and the musicians and staff around a common focus going forward. We need to be a holistically well-oiled machine, not just a musically well-oiled machine.

"It's going to take every inch of our organization to manifest reinvention. It's a humbling time for the orchestra fiscally, but I see now a tremendous creative opportunity to design the next era."

As both an outsider and an insider, Vulgamore said the view from beyond Philadelphia was that "perhaps such a great organization is not ready to face what could be a reinvention in a creative way."

But she said the interview process, which took several months, had convinced her otherwise.

"I have to say I wouldn't be here if I hadn't heard from all the constituencies . . . that the Philadelphia Orchestra is ready to rally. It won't be easy, but we're ready to rally.

And, she added, "we need to move quickly."

Contact music critic Peter Dobrin at 215-854-5611 or pdobrin@phillynews.com.
Read his blog at www.philly.com/philly/ blogs/artswatch/.