Music Features

2006 IN REVIEW! We look back at the past year in the arts in our region and bring you the highlights of the news, issues and events, and the people who made them happen. And what a year it's been. Together we've witnessed great performances and exhibitions and rediscovered so many great perennial treasures. 2006 was a great year for the arts and together we'll remember it on the next Creatively Speaking!

Highlights from this week's program include: a conversation with tenor Carl Tanner. His latest CD is a celebration of great Christmas hymns and carols. Meridee Duddleston looks at how art is more and more being collected as an investment rather than for its esthetic value. Susan Lewis goes beyond the Gross Clinic controversy to profile the artist Thomas Eakins and explores his multifaceted legacy to Philadelphia. Jason Peifer looks at the growing popularity of children's theater and speaks with the creators and producers of several family-oriented productions in Philadelphia.

This week, the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts celebrates its 5th anniversary; we examine how it's changed the city's cultural landscape. Susan Lewis looks at a new public art project in Manayunk that celebrates and reinterprets a local tradition for socializing on stoops.; We look at a new project at the Delaware Art Museum that uses technology to tell new stories about art. Jason Peifer speaks with the creators of This Is the Week That Is, the latest show from 1812 Productions that explores the tradition of political humor.

This week, a look at a new exhibition that shows how local artists have reinterpreted a Japanese childhood tradition; Susan Lewis checks back with contestants in the Project 21 film competition as they near the end of their three-week long production schedule; Jason Peifer explores the popularity of jukebox musicals and visits the Delaware Theatre Company in Wilmington as they stage "Sam Cooke: Forever Mr. Soul."; In our regular exploration of the CultureFiles section at GoPhila.com, we visit the Shoe Museum at Temple University's School of Podiatric Medicine.

Jill is joined by internationally acclaimed pianist Indrek Laul, who also happens to be President of the Estonia Piano Company, one of the few manufacturers with a world-class performer at its helm.