Please join us for an organ concert with highly acclaimed organist Douglas Cleveland. As part of his tour-de-force program, he will be playing “The Seven Last Words and Triumph of Christ” by renown American composer Pamela Decker. As part of the concert, Dr. Decker will join Dr. Cleveland to speak on the musical themes and elements of this substantial work, and how it came into being.

The Chancel Choir of First Presbyterian Church is collaborating with The Cathedral Basilica and Archdiocesan Adult Choirs to perform the Fauré Requiem, as well as works by Bainton, Tavener, Walker and Elgar. Please join us for this opportunity of communal remembrance as we commemorate the faithful departed. All are welcome.

To purchase tickets or to add names of deceased loved ones to the concert program for a donation amount of your choice, please click here. All names must be received by November 2 in order to be included in the printed materials. Information is also available at this link: cathedralphila.org/music/faure-requiem/.

“The Human Need for Melody”
Concert and Conversation with Debra Lew Harder

Why are human beings drawn to melody? How does melody affect our brains, our hearts, our community? Dr. Debra Lew Harder explores the latest thinking in neuromusicology to answer these questions, and she’ll play some of the most compelling melodies written for solo piano in works by J.S. Bach, Michio Miyagi, Beethoven, Scott Joplin, Ingrid Arauco, Francis Poulenc, and Chopin.

On-street parking is available with placard.

Kinan Azmeh, internationally renowned Syrian clarinetist, with First Church’s own Jean Schneider, pianist. This concert is free and open to the public.

Kinan Azmeh has been hailed as a “Virtuoso” and “Intensely Soulful” by the New York Times and “Spellbinding” by the New Yorker, and “Incredibly Rich Sound” by the CBC.  His utterly distinctive sound across different musical genres has gained him international recognition as clarinetist and composer.  Kinan was recently named composer-in-residence with Classical Movements for the 2017-2018 season.

Kinan has been touring the world as soloist, composer and improviser.  Notable appearances include: Opera Bastille, Paris; Tchaikovsky Grand Hall, Moscow; Carnegie Hall and the UN’s General Assembly, New York; the Royal Albert Hall, London; Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires; der Philharmonie, Berlin; the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, Washington DC; the Mozarteum, Salzburg; Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie; and the Damascus opera house for its opening concert in his native Syria.

He has appeared as soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, the Qatar Philharmonic and the Syrian Symphony Orchestra among others, and has shared the stage with Yo-Yo Ma, Marcel Khalife, Aynur, Daniel Barenboim and Jivan Gasparian.

His compositions include several works for solo, orchestra, and chamber music, film, live illustration, and electronics.  Recent commissions include works for the New York Philharmonic, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and a new clarinet concerto for the Seattle Symphony, as well as recording original music for Bob Wilson’s recent production of Oedipus Rex.  He leads  his Arabic/Jazz quartet the Kinan Azmeh CityBand and his Hewar Ensemble and serves as artistic director of the Damascus Festival Chamber Players, a pan-Arab ensemble dedicated to contemporary music form the Arab world.  He is also a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble with whom he was awarded a Grammy in 2017.

Kinan is a graduate of New York’s Juilliard school as a student of Charles Neidich, and of both the Damascus High institute of Music where he studied with Shukry Sahwki, Nicolay Viovanof and Anatoly Moratof, and Damascus University’s School of Electrical Engineering in his native Syria.  Kinan earned his doctorate degree in music from the City University of New York in 2013.
www.kinanazmeh.com

Jean Schneider began her piano studies at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia at age seven, and by the age of fifteen had performed three times as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra. In addition to other orchestral appearances, she has been heard in recital in the United States and Europe, as well as in numerous radio broadcasts. An active chamber musician, she has collaborated with other artists in concerts throughout the U.S. and in Europe and is Associate Piano Faculty at the Sarasota Music Festival and guest artist faculty at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music in New Hampshire. Ms. Schneider earned her bachelor and masters degrees from the University of Southern California, a doctorate in performance from Stony Brook University, and studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg as a Fulbright scholar. 

Andrew Senn, organist
works by Bach, Whitlock, Howells, & Senn

First Church Chancel Choir member Calli Graver and friends present interpretations of seasonal favorites.

Concerts@First presents “Digging Up Old Bones”

Missa Solemnis in C (Joseph Senn 1810-1882) for Choir, Orchestra, and Soloists.

Joseph Senn was the great, great, great grandfather of Director of Music and Organist Andrew Senn. Andrew spent more than a year searching for the music of Joseph Senn, and he was able to Missa Solemnis at the University of Tübingen in Germany; it was a large scale work for choir, orchestra and soloists. Over this past summer, Andrew took on the laborious task of creating a modern performing edition from the original parts. On November 11th at 7 pm the choir with many friends, along with an orchestra of 22 players will bring Joseph Senn’s Missa Solemnis to life in a concert celebrating Andrew’s 40th birthday!

This concert will also conclude our Concerts@First fundraiser, and will be a ticketed event. There will be a celebratory reception following, where Andrew will have copies of the original parts on display. Tickets will be available for $10 in advance from the church office, or $15 at the door.

On-street parking for the concert will be available.