Can I still say Happy New Year? It’s our first full Fanfare week, and we’ve got some cool shows lined up — star performers, modern saxophone music, and a performance where you could learn something, especially if you’re a singer.
Spotlight: Melissa White and Pallavi Mahidhara — Tuesday, Benjamin Franklin Hall
You may have seen violinist Melissa White via Philadelphia Chamber Music Society before. She’s a founding member of the Harlem Quartet, and appeared pretty recently with the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective. This will be her solo recital debut with PCMS, in Benjamin Franklin Hall at the American Philosophical Society.
She’ll be joined by pianist Pallavi Mahidhara, who explains: “We are performing works by composers who represent a diversity of backgrounds, much like the two of us.” That includes the American composers Reena Esmail, Amy Beach, George Gershwin and William Grant Still, with works by Arvo Pärt and Johannes Brahms opening the program. It’s sold out, but try the waitlist — and catch snippets of the program on White’s Instagram, where she kicked the year off with Hilary Hahn’s #100daysofpractice (which would make this concert Day 14).
Jan. 14 at 7:30 p.m., Benjamin Franklin Hall at the American Philosophical Society, 427 Chestnut Street, sold out, more information including waitlist.
Yuja Wang Returns — Thursday through Saturday, Marian Anderson Hall
The headline for this concert by The Philadelphia Orchestra is deservedly reserved for Yuja Wang, and it will be worth it alone to hear her perform Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto. But there should be no intermission departures, as the whole program is stacked. Opening the concert is Margaret Bonds’ recently published-in-full Montgomery Variations, composed after a visit to that Alabama city in 1963, after a white nationalist firebombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. The closer is William Grant Still’s Second Symphony, titled “Song of a New Race.”
Jan. 16 at 7:30 p.m., Jan. 17 and 18 at 8 p.m., Marian Anderson Hall, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 300 South Broad Street, $66-$214, tickets and more information.
Brillhart & Baroque — Friday and Sunday, Perelman Theater
Conductor Jeffrey Brillhart joins the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia for a program of mostly Bach, opening and closing with the Third and Fifth Brandenburg Concertos, respectively. The program also features the solo cantata “Ich habe genug,” in the version for soprano sung by Kara Goodrich, and Jean-Féry Rebel’s Les Élémens.
Jan. 17 at 7:30 p.m., Jan. 19 at 2 p.m., Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 300 South Broad Street, $29-104, tickets and more information.
A Masterclass with Latonia Moore — Saturday, Academy of Vocal Arts
Are you a singer? Or do you just want to gain insight into the inner workings of the voice (and hear some great singing in the process)? East Passyunk Opera Project has brought internationally acclaimed soprano and AVA alumna Latonia Moore to lead a masterclass, working with six local singers: sopranos Ryan Colbert, Renee Macdonald, Olivia Prendergast, and Beautiful Sheriff; mezzo Rebecca Sacks; and tenor Thomas Balfour-Austin.
Jan. 18 at 2 p.m., Helen Corning Warden Theater, Academy of Vocal Arts, 1920 Spruce Street, $20, tickets and more information.
New Thread Quartet — Saturday, University Lutheran
The New York-based saxophone quartet comes to University Lutheran for a program called “A Little Night Music,” featuring pieces on the themes of light pollution, the comfort night can bring, as well as how it can be unsettling. New Thread is celebrating the upcoming release of their new album Saxifraga, out the following Friday, and they’ll have a cut from that on the program too.
Jan. 18 at 7:30 p.m., University Lutheran, 3637 Chestnut Street, $15-$25, tickets and more information.
Looking ahead:
An Evening with Art City Opera — Jan. 25, Redemption Lutheran Church
Pauline Oliveros: The Well and The Gentle — Jan. 26, Icebox Project Space
The Anonymous Lover — Jan. 31 and Feb. 2, Academy of Music
What Can I Know? — Feb. 7, Chestnut Hill Presbyterian
Companions — Feb. 21, Settlement Music School, Germantown
