Happy holidays
Happy holidays from all of us at Penn Live Arts!
Recent Highlights: Sep – Dec 2022
Our 50th celebration season kicked off with a look back at our rich history in a
Penn Today story and a look forward to the future expansion of the Annenberg Center with the announcement of the new Weitzman Theatre, named for noted designer and philanthropist Stuart Weitzman.
The Philadelphia Inquirer,
Philadelphia Business Journal and
Musical America all reported on the exciting plans for the new theatre.
Read more...A Brassy Holiday Playlist
Holiday Music
Get in the holiday spirit with the sounds of sparkling brass! With selections from our upcoming program, A Very Brassy Christmas, by The Marsalis Philadelphia Big Brass, our holiday playlist mashes up styles from classical to big band to New Orleans swing.
Read more...The Crossing @ Christmas: Thoughts from the conductor
Accelerator Program Holiday Music New Music Philadelphia Premieres World Premieres
I remember the first time I encountered Percy Shelley’s “Ozymandias,” with its chilling reference to the ephemerality of civilizations.
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away. Read more...
Unveiling the Gabe Donnay Recording Studio
On October 22, over Penn’s Homecoming Weekend festivities, Penn Live Arts celebrated the memory of Gabe Donnay, Class of 2012 – a talented musician whose community of friends and family made a meaningful gift to honor Gabe’s life with the establishment of a music recording studio in the Annenberg Center.
Read more...5 Questions with Nora Fischer
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
Jazz ListenHear Music Philadelphia Premieres
“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
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
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
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...
