David L. and Rhonda R. Cohen are giving $10.5 million to the Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts, a gift the couple says is their largest ever to a Philadelphia organization. The money will help fund the orchestra’s international touring, including upcoming trips to China and Europe, and will establish a fund supporting works by overlooked and emerging composers.
According to Inquirer.com, the Cohens finalized their commitment in August 2026, after David L. Cohen spent roughly six months weighing how to get involved following his election to the orchestra’s Board of Trustees in January. Cohen, 71, is a former Comcast executive, onetime chief of staff to Philadelphia Mayor Edward G. Rendell, and the most recent U.S. ambassador to Canada, where he served for almost four years. He told the paper he had more than 100 meetings during that six-month stretch before agreeing to anything, and that he ultimately wanted most of the gift to function as a lead donation in the organization’s next campaign, setting an example for other prospective donors.
Cohen’s ties to Philadelphia’s cultural institutions run deep. He was a founding board member of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and once served on its President’s Leadership Council, according to a release from The Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts. He also sat on that board back when it was known as the Regional Performing Arts Center, and per the Inquirer’s reporting he has previously chaired the boards of the Philadelphia Theatre Company and University of Pennsylvania nonprofits, in addition to mediating discussions between Drexel University and the Academy of Natural Sciences boards — a role Gov. Josh Shapiro asked him to take on after the two discussed civic involvement.
A Diplomat’s Case for Culture
Cohen has said that after returning from his ambassador years during the Biden administration, he devoted himself anew to Philadelphia causes. During his time in Ottawa, he met with ambassadors from 150 other countries, and he has said those international diplomats consistently expressed the greatest global interest in Philadelphia’s arts and culture scene, particularly the orchestra and the art museum — an observation that fed directly into how the new gift is structured…