January 5, 2006 Issue                                               

©2005 The Chestnut Hill Local

Mixed financial picture for classical music community
By MICHAEL CARUSO

LOCAL KIDS’ RECITAL: Early in December students of Wyndmoor piano teacher Joan Krzywicki presented a piano recital at Foulkeways in Gwynedd. Three of the students were recognized for their achievements. They are (from left) Katie Dolan, who completed Book 2 of the Suzuki Piano School; Becky Dolan and Pedro Ramos, who both completed Book 1. Katie and Becky live in Roxborough and attend the Immaculate Heart of Mary School. Pedro lives in Mt. Airy and goes to Germantown Friends School.

As local lovers of classical music, opera and ballet look ahead into the new year, there are many sunny spots but a few troubling cloudy ones as well. While some of the resident ensembles are experiencing admirable growth and beneficial development, others are facing daunting financial challenges.

Of all the region’s performing arts organizations, probably none is in better shape than the Pennsylvania Ballet. With Erdenheim’s Roy Kaiser at the helm as artistic director and Michael Scolamiero as executive director, the company that once faced financial collapse every four or five seasons has blossomed into an example of reliable planning based on realistic assessments.

Scolamiero’s sure hand on the ledger book has enabled Kaiser to make steady progress in the proficiency of his dancers. This, in turn, has enabled him to attract the efforts of major contemporary choreographers such as the company’s own Matthew Neenan and the internationally acclaimed Christopher Wheeldon. The latter’s new take on Swan Lake was the Pennsylvania Ballet’s vehicle for its international debut at this past summer’s Edinburgh Festival, one of Europe’s premier arts celebrations. Neenan’s 11:11 was received with such wild enthusiasm at its premier last season that it will be reprised later this year.

The Pennsylvania Ballet will continue its season with Western Symphony Feb. 1–5 at the Merriam Theater, The Firebird March 3-11 in the Academy of Music, A Midsummer Night’s Dream April 13-23 in the Academy of Music, and 11:11 June 7-11 in the Merriam Theater.

OCP LESS STABLE

The other regional organization that shares the Academy of Music with the Pennsylvania Ballet, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, is in less stable condition. It’s still attempting to rebound from the dramatic loss in subscribers that resulted from the disastrous production of Bizet’s Carmen that opened its season several years ago. Fully 2,000 subscribers declined to re-subscribe as a result of a mounting of this popular favorite that sounded even less appealing than it looked, and its single drab gray set was the ugliest I’ve ever seen on the Academy’s historic stage.

But you’ve got to give the OCP’s general and artistic director, Robert Driver, credit for not buckling under the strain of the loss of so many subscribers and the attendant financial difficulties. He has struck gold with his choice of Carrado Rovaris as the company’s first full-time music director and he has brought the focus of attention of the international opera world to Philadelphia for the February production of Margaret Garner.

Based on the novel, Beloved, by Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize winner Toni Morrison, Margaret Garner features music by Richard Danielpour to a libretto written by Morrison, herself. It tells the horrific ante-bellum story of an escaped slave who attempts to drown herself and her children upon being captured in Ohio (a true story). Garner was tried for murder in Ohio, a free state, and for breaking the Federal Fugitive Slave Law back in Kentucky, the slave state where she was enslaved on a plantation. The mounting is a co-production with the Cincinnati Opera and the Michigan Opera Theater in Detroit. Its performances in Philadelphia, Feb. 10-26, in the Academy of Music will mark the east coast premiere as well as the opera’s final performance version.

VOCAL ARTS BETTER THAN EVER

The city’s other major purveyor of opera, the Academy of Vocal Arts Opera Theater, is doing better than ever. Audience size and financial support are at record levels, and the all-scholarship school on Spruce Street in center city Philadelphia continues to turn out young singers who go on to major careers throughout the world.

This winter and spring AVA will present a double bill of Massanet’s La Navarraise and Puccini’s Le villi in the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater Jan. 19-21, Wagner’s Das Rheingold Feb. 18-March 3, and Verdi’s Rigoletto April 28-May 20.

Chestnut Hill’s Bach Festival of Philadelphia, celebrating its 30th anniversary season, has rebounded from years in the doldrums to the stature of national prominence it once held when the late Michael Korn was its artistic director. Chestnut Hill maestro Jonathan Sternberg has assembled an admirable roster of performers who will be presenting compelling concerts not just in Chestnut Hill but throughout the region.

London Baroque will feature some of Bach’s beautiful trio sonatas in concert, Monday, Jan. 30, at 7 p.m. in Old St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Society Hill; guitarist Paul Galbraith will perform ingenious transcriptions on Tuesday, Feb. 28, at 7 p.m. in the Baptist Church of Chestnut Hill, and the Bach Festival will host a vocal competition Friday, March 24, 7 p.m. in the German Society of Philadelphia.

PHILOMEL ROCKS

The Chestnut Hill-based baroque instruments ensemble, Philomel, continues its celebration of the 300th anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin with “Franklin’s Philadelphia” Sunday, Jan. 22, at 4 p.m. in St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill. Philomel will also perform on Sunday, March 19, at 4 p.m., in the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill with “Venetian Magic.” We return to Old Ben for “Franklin’s Paris” on Friday, May 5, at 8 p.m. in St. Martin’s Church in Chestnut Hill.

The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, led by Chestnut Hill maestro Ignat Solzhenitsyn, continues to operate under the cloud of an immense deficit of $300,000. So far, no major project to re-balance the books has been announced, although executive director Robert Elias is said to be leaving his post as of June of this year.

Still, the Chamber Orchestra promises some tantalizing programs this month. Jahja Ling will guest Sunday, Jan. 8, at 2:30 p.m. and Monday, Jan. 9, at 7:30 p.m. in the Perelman Theater. His program includes Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No. 2 with David Shiffrin, and Haydn’s Symphony No. 88.

Solzhenitsyn returns to the podium for concerts Sunday, Jan. 29, at 2:30 p.m. and Monday, Jan. 30, at 7:30 p.m. His program includes Haydn’s “Military” Symphony No. 100 and Schubert’s “Great” Symphony in C major. Plus there will be a trio of concerts celebrating the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth April 30 and May 1, May 14 and 15, and June 4 and 5. The programs feature Mozart’s last three opera overtures, last three piano concerti, and last three symphonies. Needless to say, don’t count the Chamber Orchestra out just yet.