About Us

The Philadelphia Community Orchestra is collectively led and open to all. We welcome musicians and sound makers of all kinds. There are no auditions to join. 

We share in exploring a wide range of approaches including notation, text scores, graphic scores, improvisation, composition, and performance art. We prioritize open instrumentation to accommodate a wide range of instruments and experience levels. 

We typically operate a Fall/Winter Season and a Spring Season, each culminating in a concert. Our events have always been free to attend, although we gratefully welcome donations.

We occasionally host workshops and special events unrelated to our main seasonal schedule.

The orchestra was conceived of and founded by William (Bill) Dougherty in 2023, and led by him through 2024. We transitioned from Director roles to our current collective leadership from 2025 through 2026. 

Since inception, we have been generously hosted by The Church of Saint Luke & The Epiphany (SLATE) . We are honored to be one of their community partners.

Past Directors:

Joanna (Asia) Mieleszko (Musical Director, Spring 2025) is a singer, conductor, protector of the (very) old, and pioneer of the daringly new. With musical roots in both Eastern European folk music and the classical tradition, Asia’s noise-making oscillates between these musical conventions and, on occasion, bridges them. Recent highlights include joining the Cortona Sessions for New Music as a 2024 vocal fellow, premiering “Across Tongues,” an audio-visual interrogation of third culture as a 2023/24 New Jersey Folk Festival Artist-in-Residence, premiering Hannah Barnes’ The Garden at SHE: Festival of Women in Music, and performing programs of Ukrainian village polyphony at the 2023 Smithsonian Folklife Festival and across the Northeast. 

Rebecca Roland (Executive Director, 2025) is a lifelong lover of classical and orchestral music, ranging from composers like Franz Schubert to genre benders like Isao Tomita. She participated in various choirs throughout childhood and picked up cello as a teenager. After many years away from singing and playing music, Rebecca returned to the cello as an adult and subsequently joined the Philadelphia Community Orchestra. She works as a blindness and low vision therapist by day and is an aspiring amateur musician by night. 

William (Bill) Dougherty (Founder & Director Emeritus 2023-2024) is an American composer, sound artist, and writer.  He currently serves on the faculty of the University of Washington in Seattle where he is Assistant Professor of Music Composition, Theory, & Improvisation. His creative work engages with elements of loss, decay, and memory through the sounds of audio recordings and audio recording technologies. Dougherty has received recognitions and awards from Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the American Academy in Rome, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Cité Internationale des Arts, and the Copland House. His works have been performed internationally by ensembles including Talea Ensemble, The Israel Contemporary Players, and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Dougherty has published articles and interviews in Tempo, Music & Literature, and VAN Magazine and is co-editor of a forthcoming special issue of Contemporary Music Review. He earned degrees from Columbia University, the Royal College of Music, and Temple University and has served on the composition faculties of Columbia University and Temple University. Outside of the university, William volunteers as a music instructor and mentor for high school and elementary school students from underserved communities in Philadelphia, including with the Marian Anderson Young Artist Program—a tuition-free program that aims to serve those individuals whose communities have historically been excluded from the highest levels of musical excellence due to structural barriers.