Creatively Speaking

The term "outsider art" came into use in the early 1970s from a French description for unrefined art. As WRTI’s Jim Cotter reports, the preferred term today is “self-taught,” and a single collection of such work is the focus of a new, major exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

When the first Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA) ended in May of 2011, no one knew for sure if there would be a second one. But now, as WRTI’s Jim Cotter reports, the city is preparing for PIFA 2013, a journey through time, which runs from March 28th to April 27th.

This Sunday at 2 pm on The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert - a new weekly radio series on WRTI - Music Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin takes to the podium to conduct a symphony by one of the composers who is closest to him.  WRTI’s Jim Cotter has more.

Gioachino Rossini was born the last day of February in 1792. WRTI's Susan Lewis looks at the life and legacy of this prolific and celebrated operatic composer whose memorable melodies endure today.

His name is Yannick Nezet-Seguin, but in a New York Times profile recently, he was nicknamed "Mighty Mouse" by the opera star Joyce DiDonato.

After all, he's been saving the day for the recently distressed Philadelphia Orchestra. And, as The Philadelphia Inquirer's David Patrick Stearns reports, he hopes to continue to do so in the upcoming 2013-2014 season.

Philadelphia’s All-City Orchestra has brought together talented music students from city high schools for over 60 years,. Its alumni include musicians in orchestras around the country. Students are learning from some of the best in the business, starting with their director, Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Timpani Don Liuzzi.

The annual All-Philadelphia High School Music Festival takes place on Monday March 4th at the Kimmel Center. The Philadelphia Orchestra performs the Shostakovich 5th Symphony on March 1st. 

This week, we celebrate the birthday of Marian Anderson. The opera superstar was born in Philadelphia in 1897. WRTI’s Jim Cotter says that though her voice had an ethereal quality, the late, great contralto was renowned for her humility and her humanity.

Band music includes marches, pop songs, and transcriptions of orchestral works. But over the last century more composers have written explicitly for winds. The Philadelphia Wind Symphony was founded, in part, to explore the variety and richness of the repertoire.

The Philadelphia Wind Symphony performs this Sunday afternoon, March 3rd, at the University of the Arts, in Center City, Philadelphia.