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Classical Music
History is Philly’s easy claim to fame. Benjamin Franklin brought his glass armonica here. Violinist and founding brother Thomas Jefferson sent to London for duo and quartet scores (how he would have loved the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society 60-plus events!). A century after the Revolutionary-inspired fifes and drums, architect Napoleon LeBrun won a competition to erect the Academy of Music and modeled his 1857 structure on Milan’s great opera house, La Scala. Here is the place of legends and legendary appearances, including Sergei Rachmaninoff, Ulysses Grant, Igor Stravinsky.
From 1900 until 2001, the opulent red-gold Academy was the home of the Philadelphia Orchestra, which still owns it, but now they perform in the magnificent red-mahogany cello-shaped Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. They move to the Mann Music Center in Fairmount Park for June and July. In September, 2003, Christoph Eschenbach becomes only its sixth music director, succeeding Wolfgang Sawallisch, Riccardo Muti, Eugene Ormandy, Leopold Stokowski and Fritz Scheel.
Leading music schools, in particular the Curtis Institute, enrich music in the region. Many Philadelphia Orchestra musicians trained, and subsequently teach, at the Curtis, whose graduates go on to play Carnegie Hall or take first-chairs in leading orchestras. This advanced, all-scholarship conservatory was founded by Mary Louise Curtis Bok, heir to the Curtis Publishing Co. fortune.
The Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA) provides all-scholarship, advanced musical training that is as prestigious for singers. If you like to get up-close-and-personal for good singing, don’t miss opera performances at AVA’s 200-seat Helen Corning Warden Theater. Grand Opera buffs will head for the Academy of Music for the Opera Company of Philadelphia. There is also college opera by Temple University, Curtis, or novelty troupes such as Savoy Company, Opera North and Concert Operetta Theater.
The Settlement Music School offers excellent and affordable music training for the pre-college student. Settlement presents concerts featuring its students, as well as professionals such as Prism Saxophone Quartet and the Philadelphia Classical Guitar Society. The Settlement, which celebrates its Centennial in 2004, gave music lessons to the young Chubby Checker, actor Kevin Bacon and composers Milton Babbitt and Jacob Druckman.
Temple University’s Esther Boyer College of Music presents a faculty, student and guest artist series with over 200 mostly free performances each season, many in the acoustically exceptional 300-seat Rock Concert Hall. Temple also operates one of the few remaining classical and jazz radio stations in the country whose music selections are changed daily, not programmed by tape loop.
Near the Kimmel Center on the Avenue of the Arts, is the University of the Arts, whose venues include the 1,800-seat(cking) Merriam Theater and 250-seat (is university group file coming?) Laurie Wagman Concert Hall for student and professional productions. In University City Penn Presents at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Center is a smaller version of the eclectic mix offered by the Kimmel. Prominent artists have included The Tallis Scholars, San Jose Taiko and James Galway.
In the Philadelphia countryside, concert activity is intense too. Swarthmore College (in Media, Delaware County) operates the magnificent Lang Performing Arts Center, whose alumnus include Peter Schikele, aka P.D.Q. Bach. Lang has the most striking chamber music hall in the region: A stage wall made of glass looks out upon the award-winning Swarthmore Arboretum. Lang hosts performances by the Swarthmore-born Orchestra 2001, which has made a specialty of Philadelphia composers including Melinda Wagner and George Crumb.
Concerts proliferate in art galleries, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Woodmere Art Museum, and Samuel S. Fleisher Art Gallery. Remember Philadelphia churches and synagogues for special music services and series in sacred places. These include Center City’s St. Mark’s Episcopal, the Church of the Holy Trinity, the Church of St. Luke & The Epiphany, Temple Emanuel Beth Israel and Tenth Presbyterian, whose services include the Westminster Brass Quintet. Trinity Urban Center presents Orchestra 2001 and hosts recitals by the international competition winners of Astral Artistic Services.
In city and county, choirs enliven: Philadelphia Singers, resident chorus for the Philadelphia Orchestra, lead the pack, followed by The Mendelssohn Club, Singing City and Choral Arts Society. Other choirs offering public events are the Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus, the Fiskites, the Philadelphia Boys Choir and the Keystone Youth Choir.
The Philadelphia Youth Orchestra and Delaware Valley Youth Orchestra both have outstanding young instrumentalists. Regional orchestras, such as the Kennett Symphony, the Classical Symphony and the Mozart Society, often feature solo talent from the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Early music is presented by Philomel Baroque, Tempesta di Mare, the Philadelphia Bach Festival and Piffaro:The Renaissance Band.
In nice weather, a visitor strolling Center City’s Rittenhouse, Logan or Washington Squares is sure to walk past a professional fiddler, flutist or singer. In addition to musicians, a number of exceptional instrument makers and restorers also call Philadelphia home. Wm Meonnig & Son, Ltd (www.moennig.com) is one of the nation’s oldest and most respected violin makers. Other distinguished firms drawing professionals and collectors worldwide include Helmuth Keller (215 735-5221) and Windworks Studio (215) 790-9815.
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