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News & Events
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| Announcing The Singing City Children's Choir
The Boards of Singing City and West Philadelphia Children’s Choir have agreed to merge. After intense discussions and planning for almost half a year, a final agreement to merge was endorsed unanimously and enthusiastically by both boards in June 2010. Singing City and the West Philadelphia Children’s Choir have a strong mission, shared vision, and values.
Read more.
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Singing City's Annual Youth & Family Concert, Voices of Philadelphia, featured guest choirs Chester Children's Chorus, Northeast High Concert Choir and Joyful Noise.
Slideshow.
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Singing City was featured in an article in The Delaware County Times on Friday, February 19.
Read the article online.
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Singing City Performs at the Eastern Division Conference
of the American Choral Directors Association
at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia
Singing City performed the work of Philadelphia composers at its recent concert for members of ACDA. Pictured with Music Director Jeffrey Brillhart, right, are composers Teddy Poll, Andrea Clearfield, Cynthia Folio, David Bennett Thomas and Jennifer Higdon.
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The newest members of Singing City
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Fall Concerts Feature Thrills and Chills
by Steve Crandall
Witches and goblins and ... Singing City Fall Concerts! If these things have never seemed to go together in your mind before, they will now, after the Singing City Fall 2009 concerts, 'Witchcraft' and 'Boo!'
Beginning on October 30 and continuing on the afternoon of Halloween Day, Singing City presented a musical exploration of all things spooky. Artistic director Jeffrey Brillhart and assistant Jim Batt concocted a program which extended from spine-tingling organ works to current Broadway frights, with visits to cowboy ghosts, operatic witches, a cat-haunted house (and operatic cats!) along the way.
A significant stop on the Halloween journey was made in the French countryside as the choir sang the Troix Chansons of Maurice Ravel. These three songs create widely disparate moods as Ravel's texts (he was lyricist and composer of these pieces) re-create the Red Riding Hood legend, speak of preparations to go to war, and warn against traveling in the bedeviled woods.
 Conductor Jeffrey Brillhart and accompanist Jim Batt changed places for much of the performances, especially as the choir sang selections from the Broadway stage. Theater devotees certainly noticed a theme among the shows represented, with Phantom of the Opera, Wicked, Jekyll and Hyde, and Sweeney Todd all portraying some facet of horror or the fantastic. The popularity of these shows clearly demonstrates our fascination with all things spooky.
In addition to accompanying the Broadway selections, Brillhart was also the soloist Friday for the two terrifying organ pieces. (At the Saturday matinee performance, the organ and accompanying responsibilities were taken by a frightful visitor, Count Dracula!)
The theme of these performances certainly was more fun and frivolity than most Singing City concerts. (Costumes were even invited for the Saturday performance and many audience members, including children, attended in their Halloween best.) However, the musical challenges were nonetheless daunting. In particular, Ravel's selections tested the choir's skills with intricate harmonic patterns and very tricky French diction.
Photos by Robert Mann
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Singing City Retreat
Singing City Choir and Board members gathered at Fellowship Farm in Pottstown, PA for a retreat. The day was filled with lively discussion, opportunties to get to know each other better, and wonderful food!
Slideshow (photos by Linda Madara)
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Chorus America
The latest issue of Chorus America's magazine, The Voice, features an article entitled "Changing Lives, One Child at a Time," about education and outreach programs of choruses across the country. Singing City features prominently!
Article
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Singing City Combines with Mural Arts Program for Dedication Ceremony
by Steve Crandall
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Singing City at Mural Arts dedication, photo by Walter Johnson
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When the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, www.muralarts.com, unveiled their newest project on the afternoon of September 25 at the 30th Street Station, the choral arts joined with the visual arts in an uplifting ceremony of hope.
The mural itself is the result of many months of collaboration between organizations who collected stories from the neighborhoods of Philadelphia, artists who interpreted the spirit of those stories on canvas, and of course, funders who provided the means to make it happen. The project, entitled This We Believe, is meant to reflect the entire city of Philadelphia. Hence, it was entirely appropriate to invite Singing City to provide music for the ceremony.
The two numbers that we performed were selected to reflect the theme of the afternoon. The choir opened the afternoon ceremony with The Heartbeat of Change, a piece written by Jason Wilber who is a high school prize winner in the Singing City Prize for Young Composers competition. A Downingtown resident, Jason's composition takes its text from the words of the Invisible Children movement www.invisiblechildren.com, an organization dedicated to bringing attention to the plight of children in war-torn Africa, and, by extension, changing perceptions and lives in the Western world. Lines like 'speak boldly and shout on behalf of the voiceless' and 'your words can change the world' are equally relevant in the streets of Philadelphia as in the strife that afflicts many African nations.
The choir closed the ceremony with Lookin' for a City, an arrangement commissioned by Singing City for its 60th anniversary season. Sung in an exhuberant gospel style, this piece takes the singers and listeners on a journey toward a city of refuge, which is ultimately complete with the realization that love provides the refuge. Director Jeffrey Brillhart noted in his brief introduction to the piece that the arrangement was written with Philadelphia in mind, and that the timeless message of finding hope in love is especially appropriate in this mural dedication.
Singers, speakers, and listeners alike were touched by the connection of choral music to the mural. Conceived and executed as a community project, the mural joins together many visions in one final piece of visual art, just as choral music joins voices together in musical art. Singer Beth Johnson noted later that the two selections were so in tune with the spirit of the ceremony that there must have been a muse which, two years ago when the pieces were written, was aware that this dedication would be taking place.
It was exciting to see a civic event which took advantage of the wonderful choral music that is available in Philadelphia. Here's hoping that more local activities provide this kind of cultural connection. All of us will be better for it.
*The mural This We Believe will be on display at the Amtrack 30th St. Station until October 10. It will then be displayed temporarily at the Market East Station before being moved to its final home.
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