A renaissance for Penn Live Arts
From the construction of the new Weitzman Theatre, to increased support of student performers across campus, to expanded residencies with groundbreaking artists, Penn Live Arts is putting innovative performing arts center stage at Penn and in Philadelphia.
Read more...Our fall education and engagement activities
“It’s like watching people paint with their life, with their bodies,” longtime Negro Ensemble Company actor Kene Holliday told a roomful of Penn students about the art of acting this past November. Holliday would know; the historic company’s
Brownstein Residency for Artistic Innovation with Penn Live Arts this year marks more than 50 years of the stage, film and TV actor’s career. He and NEC Artistic Director Karen Brown made Penn Professor McKenna Kerrigan’s Intro to Directing class one stop in a busy series of outreach engagements to students and the West Philadelphia community, kicking off our education and engagement activities for the season.
Read more...Thoughts on Dance Theatre of Harlem
Dance
Black ballet dancers were virtually non-existent on the stage in the late nineteen sixties. There wasn’t even a discussion about this exclusion. Mainstream classical ballet was white. The racist norm was that black dancers could not physically perform classical dance and they would “break the look” of dancers in a line.
Philadelphia’s own Joan Myers Brown, PHILADANCO’s founder, was turned away from our hometown ballet company because of race. There was the occasional artist that broke through the color barrier and was by default essentially a token. It was not a very encouraging situation for dancers of color. Read more...
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...
