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Spotlight: Considering Matthew Shepard — Thursday, Downstage @ The Mann
Someday, this work will hopefully be a mere reminder of our more problematic past, but Craig Hella Johnson’s choral drama Considering Matthew Shepard is still relevant today. Turning the story of a hate crime — the beating and murder of a college student in Laramie, Wyoming — into a celebration of his life, Johnson sets passages from Shepard’s journal, along with texts by Hildegard von Bingen, Lesléa Newman, Michael Dennis Browne and Rumi. According to Johnson, the oratorio is “about Matt, but also not just about Matt,” with a story meant to reflect all of us and our roles and perspectives. Johnson brings his ensemble, Conspirare, together with more than 500 Philadelphia choristers, led by Rollo Dilworth and Jay Fluellen, for this performance.
Oct. 10 at 8 p.m., Downstage @ The Mann, 5201 Parkside Avenue, sold out (tickets still available on StubHub, $123-$720); more information.
The Philadelphia Orchestra Winds — Monday, Perelman Theater
If you’ve already gotten tickets to this sold-out show, the opening performance of Philadelphia Chamber Music Society’s ‘24-’25 season, you may experience feelings like those of the fictional Antonio Salieri in Amadeus, marveling at the “rusty squeezebox” of the Adagio cantabile from Mozart’s Gran Partita. In fact, members of The Philadelphia Orchestra’s wind section (joined by assistant principal cellist Yumi Kendall and principal bassist Joseph Conyers) will be playing the whole piece, along with Dvořák’s Serenade for Winds, Op. 44 and a world premiere by Nick DiBerardino, Chair of Composition Studies at the Curtis Institute.
Oct. 7 at 7:30 p.m., Perelman Theater, 300 South Broad Street, sold out; more information.
The Philadelphia Orchestra — Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday, Marian Anderson Hall
The Philadelphia Orchestra is busy this week — since the wind section is on the day before, Tuesday is the perfect time for the strings to reprise their performance interweaving Vivaldi’s and Piazzolla’s takes on The Four Seasons, led by assistant conductor Austin Chanu and featuring concertmaster David Kim, and this time supported by two heavy favorites, Bach’s Air on the G String and Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik. The full orchestra comes together this weekend for two performances of Camille Saint-Saёns’ Organ Symphony, featuring organist Raphael Attila Vogl, along with Bartók’s Miraculous Mandarin suite and Bohuslav Martinů’s Rhapsody-Concerto, featuring principal violist Choong-Jin Chang.
The Four Seasons: Oct. 8 at 7 p.m.; Saint-Saёns: Oct. 11 and 13 at 2 p.m., Marian Anderson Hall, 300 South Broad Street, $25-195.
Piffaro: Triomphi — Friday through Sunday, various venues
Triomphi are Francesco Petrarch’s Triumphs, poems on the subjects of Love, Chastity, Death, Time, and Eternity. Piffaro member Grant Herreid has put together a musical interpretation of those themes, using music by five different composers, at two churches in Philadelphia and one in Wilmington. TENET joins the Renaissance Band for this concert, set against a backdrop of visual art by NYC-based artist Camilla Tassi (for the Friday and Saturday performances).
Oct. 11 at 7:30 p.m., Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral, 19 South 38th Street;
Oct. 12 at 7:30 p.m., Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, 8855 Germantown Avenue;
Oct. 13 at 3 p.m., Christ Church Christiana Hundred, 505 East Buck Road, Wilmington, DE; $25-$49; tickets and information.
Evan Chapman — Saturday, Kirk Hall at Resurrection Church
This performance may not be strictly classical, but is absolutely for those who enjoy multiple styles of music and when classical musicians get involved with them. Philly-based percussionist and composer Evan Chapman presents a concert featuring works from his album Reveries (which drops the day before), featuring guitarist JIJI of the new music ensemble Wild Up. Experimental pop band Lizdelise and multi-instrumentalist Koof Ibi open.
Oct. 12 at 8 p.m., Kirk Hall, Resurrection Church, 401 South 42nd Street, $15-25; tickets and information.
“A Sousa Band Concert” — Sunday, Miller Symphony Hall
Sousalarm Club, assemble! The Allentown Band, as part of Miller Symphony Hall’s celebration of its 125th anniversary, will present a program in the style of the Sousa Band concerts that took place at the hall a century ago. They’ll perform Sousa marches, standard classical favorites, and opera excerpts featuring soloists taking the place of their early 20th-century counterparts. The afternoon will be hosted by the March King’s great-grandson, John Philip Sousa IV.
Oct. 13 at 3 p.m., Miller Symphony Hall, 23 North 6th Street, Allentown, $5-40; tickets and information.
Looking ahead:
Can We Know the Sound of Forgiveness? — Oct. 16, The Performance Garage
Exploratorium — Oct. 17, The Rotunda
Sphinx Virtuosi w/Britton-René Collins — Oct. 18, Perelman Theater
Verdi Requiem — Oct. 24-26, Marian Anderson Hall
We Have Gone As Far As We Can Together — Nov. 1-9, FringeArts
Chamber Music of George Walker — Nov. 2, University Lutheran
