Penn Live Arts Blog / October 2022

5 Questions with Nora Fischer

Posted October 31, 2022

ListenHear Music New Music Philadelphia Premieres

Silkroad Ensemble member Nora Fischer is renowned for her adventurous approach to live performance and her creative and genre-defying collaborations. On November 6, Fischer joins several other artists from Silkroad Ensemble for the Philadelphia premiere of Osvaldo Golijov's gripping song cycle, Falling Out of Time. Get to know more about this Amsterdam-based vocalist in just 5 questions. Read more...

Finding presence in absence with Terence Blanchard

Posted October 24, 2022

Jazz ListenHear Music Philadelphia Premieres

Gordon Parks’ Untitled, from the series What Their Cry Means to Me (Nation of Islam), 1963, printed in 2017.
“Music and art have the power to change souls,” says five-time Grammy® Award-winning trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard. This heartfelt sentiment is echoed throughout everything he creates, from film scores to opera to jazz and everything in between. “A brass-wielding force of nature,” (Los Angeles Times), Blanchard is known for music that makes powerful statements on American culture, past and present, and his upcoming performance, Gordon Parks: An Empathetic Lens, furthers this dedication in spades. Read more...

Ballet Hispánico Makes A Glorious Return To Philadelphia

Posted October 20, 2022

Dance

Known for its sophisticated elegance, pulsating rhythms, superb dancers and captivating works created by some of the world’s most sought-after choreographers, Ballet Hispánico makes a rare Philadelphia appearance in conjunction with its 52nd anniversary season. 

An American Cultural Treasure, Ballet Hispánico is the nation’s leading ambassador for Latinx culture with a repertory of more than 80 commissioned works that explore the Hispanic world in all its complexity and beauty. Read more...

5 Questions with Brandee Younger

Posted October 13, 2022

Alice & John: A Coltrane Festival Jazz Music Penn Live Arts Debuts

Brandee Younger, a classically trained jazz harpist, wraps up our Coltrane Festival with her Penn Live Art debut on October 23. A 2021 Grammy® and NAACP Image Award nominee, Younger "has almost single-handedly made a persuasive argument for the harp’s role in contemporary jazz.” (The New York Times) As we await this undoubtedly mesmerizing debut, let’s get to know more about Brandee Younger in just five questions. Read more...

Celebrating Alice and John Coltrane

Posted October 5, 2022

Alice & John: A Coltrane Festival

Alice and John Coltrane are jazz royalty, and our Coltrane Festival (October 14-23) honors the tremendous impact this iconic duo had on American music, with an exciting emphasis on Alice’s significant and often underrepresented contributions. With rising star saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin serving as Artistic Advisor, the Festival showcases John’s bebop, free jazz and spiritual enlightenments alongside the more abstract sounds and Eastern influences of Alice’s compositions. An impressive line-up of artists brings new interpretations of the Coltranes’ music into the present day through world premieres and Penn Live Arts commissioned works, while films and discussions with Coltrane scholars round out the Festival’s thematic journey with these jazz icons. Read more...