From a benefit organized by a world-class pianist, to a starring role for a 2,000-year-old Chinese instrument, to riots of orchestral color, this week’s options reflect the diversity of the City of Brotherly Love.
Spotlight: Jonathan Biss in Music for Food Benefit Concert
— Tuesday, Field Hall, Curtis Institute
In times of need, every little bit helps. As the founder of the Philadelphia chapter of Music for Food, pianist Jonathan Biss is anchoring an evening to benefit The Sunday Love Project, the Philadelphia organization that helps feed some of our most vulnerable citizens. Biss will be at the keyboard for works by Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, Kurtág, and Mozart, with an exceptional array of students from the Curtis Institute of Music: Bade Dastan and Leah Amory (violins), Izaiah Cheeran (oboe), Yunji Jang and Dillon Scott (violas), Ania Lewis (cello), and Hwaseop Jeong (clarinet). The event will be held in Field Hall, the intimate Curtis space that received a makeover during the pandemic — ideal for chamber music and a treat on its own, no matter who is performing.
Jan. 20, 7:30 p.m., Field Hall, Curtis Institute of Music, 1726 Locust Street, free with a suggested minimum donation of $35; tickets and information.
Nicholas Phan and Friends — Wednesday, Benjamin Franklin Hall, American Philosophical Society
Among a small galaxy of talent, Grammy Award-winning tenor Nicholas Phan is the vocalist in Louise Talma’s Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird (1979) and Vaughan Williams’s Ten Blake Songs (1957). His outstanding colleagues include violinist Geneva Williams (of the Callisto Trio in Los Angeles), oboist Philippe Tondre (principal oboe of The Philadelphia Orchestra), and cellist Jay Campbell (JACK Quartet), three of whom will also star in Grażyna Bacewicz’s 1935 Trio for Oboe, Violin, and Cello. For the grand finale, violist Emma Wernig of the London-based Doric String Quartet will join the party for Brahms’ evergreen Piano Quartet. The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society offers a livestream, too.
Jan. 21, 7:30 p.m., American Philosophical Society, Benjamin Franklin Hall, 427 Chestnut Street, $30; tickets and information.
Wu Man in a New Pipa Concerto — Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, Marian Anderson Hall
The unusual star of these concerts is the pipa, a Chinese lute-like instrument dating back over 2,000 years. It inspired Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Du Yun to write Ears of the Book (2024), a concerto for pipa and orchestra, for Wu Man, one of the masters of the instrument. Led by guest conductor Elim Chan, the program also includes Debussy’s Afternoon of a Faun, and after intermission comes Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, a sumptuous crown of colors to brighten anyone’s winter week.
Jan. 22 at 7:30 p.m., Jan. 23 at 2 p.m., Jan. 24 at 8 p.m., Marian Anderson Hall, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 300 South Broad Street, $29 to $235; tickets and information.
Peter Donohoe Plays Beethoven — Friday, Perelman Theater
With the Ama Deus Ensemble Orchestra, the distinguished British pianist Peter Donohoe is the soloist in Beethoven’s Fourth and Fifth Piano Concertos, part of an evening devoted to the composer that includes both the “Egmont” and “Coriolan” Overtures. Two days later on Sunday (see below), he returns to Paoli, about a half-hour west of Philly, for a solo afternoon with three of Beethoven’s most popular piano sonatas.
Jan. 23, 7:30 p.m., Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 300 South Broad Street, $34 to $84; tickets and information.
BONUS: three options for the dense last Sunday of the month
Merz Trio and Lucy Fitz Gibbon — Sunday, Benjamin Franklin Hall, American Philosophical Society
As if hearing the Merz Trio in Shostakovich and Dvořák weren’t enough, the soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon joins them for more Shostakovich, his late song cycle Seven Romances on Poems by Alexander Blok (1967), originally created for the great Russian soprano, Galina Vishnevskaya. Can’t make it in person? The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society will livestream the performance, with contributions invited.
Jan. 25, 3 p.m., American Philosophical Society, Benjamin Franklin Hall, 427 Chestnut Street, $27; tickets and information.
Peter Donohoe in Three Beethoven Piano Sonatas — Sunday, Church of the Good Samaritan, Paoli
Two days after appearing at the Kimmel Center as soloist in an all-Beethoven evening with the Ama Deus Ensemble Orchestra, esteemed British pianist Peter Donohoe moves to a church in Paoli for a solo turn, “A Winter Soiree” of three beloved Beethoven piano sonatas: Nos. 8 (“Pathetique”), 14 (“Moonlight”), and 23 (“Appassionata”).
Jan. 25, 4 p.m., Church of the Good Samaritan, 212 W. Lancaster Avenue, Paoli, $12.20 to $32.60; tickets and information.
Osmo Vänskä conducts Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra — Sunday, Marian Anderson Hall
One reason Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra rarely shows up on concerts is its difficulty, pushing musicians to their limits, and conductor Osmo Vänskä with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra would make an exciting afternoon on its own. He also leads Transitions (2022), which Henry Dorn wrote as a response to his mother’s death from cancer, and the world premiere of A Book of Forgotten Creatures by David Serkin Ludwig, featuring the Imani Winds and narrator John de Lancie (a native Philadelphian), known for his role as Q in Star Trek: The Next Generation. The intriguing afternoon begins with conductor Yiran Zhao leading Missy Mazzoli’s gorgeous Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) from 2014.
Jan. 25, 3 p.m., Marian Anderson Hall, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 300 South Broad Street, $28 to $60; tickets and information.
