The new calendar year brings with it the opening of the second half of the 2025-26 concert season of all of Greater Philadelphia’s local performing arts ensembles. Among the earliest to get the ball rolling again following the Christmas/New Year break will be the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, which presents its first trio of concerts in the new calendar year Friday, Jan. 16, at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 17, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Jan. 18, at 2:30 p.m.

The decision by the administration of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia to stop performing in the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater and to move its concerts to other regional venues was one of the more telling stories of the past year. The Perelman’s small size – a mere 600 seats – always made it a difficult setting for concerts featuring more than a chamber music-sized ensemble such as a quartet or a quintet. There aren’t enough tickets to sell to help offset the rental fee.

The Chamber Orchestra, instead of courting financial disaster, reached back into its past as the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia under former music director Marc Mostovoy and chose the Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity, Rittenhouse Square, as one of its new concert venues. Two of the others are Goodhart Hall on the campus of Bryn Mawr College and the Rhoden Theater on the campus of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 118-128 N. Broad St.

The first performance is set for the Rhoden Theater, the second for Goodhart Hall, and the third for Holy Trinity Church. The program features two violin concerti by Mozart and his Sinfonia Concertante for Violin Viola and Orchestra in E-flat major, K. 364. Violinist Francisco Fullana will conduct all three scores and be soloist in the Concertante along with violist Mary SangHyun Yong.

For ticket information visit www.chamberorchestra.org.

Valentin Radu’s Vox Renaissance Consort will present “A Renaissance Candlemas” Sunday, Feb. 21, at 7:30 p.m., in the Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. For ticket information call 610-688-2800 or visit www.VoxAmaDeus.org.

Piffaro, the Renaissance Band, will return to the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, Saturday, March 14, at 7:30 p.m., with “Ferrara: Splendor of the Renaissance,” a journey into one of Italy’s brightest city-states during the 14th and 15th centuries. For ticket information call 215-235-8469 or visit www.piffaro.org.

Osmo Vanska will conduct the Curtis Symphony Orchestra Sunday, Jan. 25, at 3 p.m., in the Kimmel Center’s Marian Anderson Hall. His program will include Missy Mazzoli’s “Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres),” Henry Dorn’s “Transitions,” David Ludwig’s “Concerto for Imani Winds and Orchestra,” and Bela Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra. For ticket information visit www.curtis.edu.

The Philadelphia Orchestra returns to the stage of Marian Anderson Hall Friday and Sunday, Jan. 9 and 11, at 2 p.m. and Saturday, Jan. 10, at 8 p.m., with Dalia Stasevska conducting a mighty program featuring John Adams’ “Short Ride on a Fast Machine,” West Chester native Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto (with Augustin Hadelich as soloist), and Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. For ticket information visit www.philorch.org/2526season.

‘Lessons and Carols’

As the Christmas season came to a close, I had the chance to take in two celebrations of the traditional Anglican liturgy of “Lessons and Carols.” Both took place in two of the region’s leading Episcopal parishes, one in Chestnut Hill and the other in Center City, although conducted by a Chestnut Hiller.

The first was presented by St. Paul’s Church, with the rector, the Rev. Eric Hungerford, presiding and Andrew Kotylo directing the musical forces with the aid of organ scholar Andy Brown. The second was heard at St. Mark’s Church, Locust Street, with interim rector the Rev. David Cobb presiding and Donald Meineke directing St. Mark’s musical forces. While St. Mark’s liturgy was well attended, St. Paul’s literally (not figuratively) jammed the church with a solid 500 in attendance.

Although St. Mark’s is one of the region’s leading “Anglo-Catholic” parishes and St. Paul’s, while not “low church,” certainly isn’t “high church,” either, “Lessons and Carols” is a ceremony that transcends the divide within Anglicanism and is marked in virtually the same fashion throughout the Anglican Communion. Both parishes followed the well-loved nine Readings from Scripture (both Old and New Testaments of the Bible) suitably enhanced by anthems and carols.

Kotylo’s choir at St. Paul’s is more than twice the size of St. Mark’s and, so, produced the space-filling sound of a peerlessly trained cathedral choir from “Merry Olde England” itself. Meineke’s smaller ensemble proffered the sound of an immaculately trained chapel choir within the confines of Westminster Abbey. Both sang their similar repertoires with intense purity and spiritual passion. How lucky we are in Philadelphia to have the opportunity to avail ourselves of both.

You can contact NOTEWORTHY at Michael-caruso@comcast.net.