Creatively Speaking

Orchestra concerts don't usually leave people laughing.  But, as WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports, some contemporary composers are combining serious music with comedy. Berlin Philharmonic Music Director Sir Simon Rattle is introducing innovative works to audiences in Germany, and brings an example with him in his upcoming visit to Philadelphia.

On May 16th, 18th and 19th, Maestro Rattle conducts The Philadelphia Orchestra at the Kimmel Center in a program that includes the music of Beethoven, Ligeti, Webern, and Berg.

This week, America’s oldest art school and museum will - for the 112th time - display the finest work by its newest graduates. As WRTI’s Jim Cotter reports, the show is also where "in-the-know" collectors and dealers come to discover the stars of tomorrow.

The 112th Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Annual Student Exhibition runs through June 2nd.

What does it take to make a chorus come together?  The pressure of an impending performance?  The skill and sensibility of a conductor? The intrinsic beauty of the music? WRTI’s Meridee Duddleston stopped by the Unitarian Universalist Church in Cherry Hill for a rehearsal of the Greater South Jersey Chorus as it strives for perfection.

This Saturday evening, May 18th at 8 pm, The Greater South Jersey Chorus performs Spotlight, a program of choruses and songs from opera, stage, and screen. The concert will be performed at The Roman Catholic Church of St. Isaac Jogues in Marlton.  More information about the concert.

Let us know Where Music Lives in your community! Add your ideas in the comments section here and check out our other Where Music Lives posts.

The 2013 Philadelphia Jewish Music Festival concluded with a curious 1918 silent film, The Yellow Ticket, presented at the Gershman Y in Center City, with live musical accompaniment that gave the often-grainy images a new life and renewed meaning. One of the first films about anti-Semitism, The Yellow Ticket reminded The Philadelphia Inquirer's David Patrick Stearns just how much the world has changed – and how much it has yet to change.

The renowned British conductor and early-music expert Nicholas McGegan is the conductor on Sunday’s Philadelphia Orchestra In Concert broadcast on WRTI.

McGegan, an accomplished harpsichordist and flutist, specializes in Baroque, and early Romantic repertoire. But as WRTI’s Jim Cotter reports, this doesn’t stop him from being a strong advocate for new music.

Today, J. S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos are among the most popular pieces from the Baroque era. WRTI’s Susan Lewis explores the mystery in the story of the famous concertos.   

On Sunday, May 19th, WRTI will broadcast The Philadelphia Orchestra performing three of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, his Double Violin Concerto, and his Orchestral Suite No. 3.

The strings are the largest section of a symphony orchestra, and communicating among them to create a unified sound involves the conductor, the  concertmaster, and another pivotal player. WRTI’s Susan Lewis talks with The Philadelphia Orchestra’s Juliette Kang about her position as associate concertmaster, and the lure of her instrument. 

On WRTI's  broadcast of The Philadelphia Orchestra this Sunday, May 12th at 2 pm, Juliette Kang will lead the strings in a program featuring Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence, for string orchestra, and Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5.

Great news! We’ve been awarded a $50,000 challenge grant from the Knight Foundation to fund our new WRTI Music Makers series. WRTI is one of only 43 recipients to be chosen out of several thousand applicants.

If the classical recording market is supposedly global, why is a major Yannick Nezet-Seguin recording available seemingly everywhere but here? The Philadelphia Inquirer’s David Patrick Stearns sent away to Japan for the conductor’s new Rotterdam Philharmonic recording - and wonders why.

This week we mark the birthday of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who was born in Russia on May 7, 1840 and died suddenly at age 53. As WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports, the composer -  internationally renowned for his great melodies - was also a master of  technique and form. His body of work includes major works for the ballet, opera, and orchestra, as well as chamber music, concertos, sacred music, piano music, and solo songs.