BSR Classical Interludes, more in February 2026

Network for New Music: Dark Whimsy: Edward Gorey at 100
Friday, February 20, 7:30pm
Settlement Music School, 6218 Germantown Avenue

Monday, February 23, 7pm
Haverford College/Jaharis Hall, 370 Lancaster Avenue, Haverford

These concerts feature an ensemble of 14 Network musicians in the Philadelphia premiere of 26 Little Deaths, a song cycle for singing violinist and chamber orchestra by composer, singer, and violinist Carla Kihlstedt. The work, commissioned in 2021-22 by Milwaukee’s Present Music, sets The Gashlycrumb Tinies, an abecedarium of iconic Gorey drawings that is a meditation on 26 unfortunate ways to die. You can see an online conversation with the composer and Network for New Music director Thomas Schuttenhelm. Admission is free at Haverford, but the Settlement Music School concert is ticketed.

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society: Nathalie Joachim and Yvonne Lam: S P A C E + Solitude
Wednesday, February 25, 7:30pm
American Philosophical Society/Franklin Hall, 427 Chestnut Street

This performance consists of one full-length work for voice, flute, violin, electronics, and sampled field recordings. It was conceived by Grammy-nominated Nathalie Joachim (flutist and Opera Philadelphia’s composer in residence) and performed by Joachim and Grammy winning violinist Yvonne Lam. Immersive lighting by Nicholas Houfek is a feature of the concert, which grapples with notions of fear, othering, comfort, and peace. The evening will also be livestreamed on a pay-what-you-wish basis.

Curtis Opera Theatre and New Music Ensemble: La Passione de Simone
Thursday, February 26, 7pm
Saturday, February 28, 2pm
Philadelphia Film Center/Mainstage Theater, 1412 Chestnut Street

This opera/oratorio is a meditation on faith, sacrifice, and resistance by the late Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, with a libretto by Amin Maalouf. Inspired by Baroque passion plays and subtitled “A Musical Journey in 15 Stations”, the work explores the life and writings of 20th century French philosopher and activist Simone Weil. The production, directed by Marcus Shields and conducted by Marc Lowenstein, unfolds through a soprano narrator and fuses music, poetry, and theater.

Tempesta di Mare: Le Donne Musicali
Friday, February 27, 7pm
Christ Church Christiana Hundred, 505 Buck Road, Wilmington

Saturday, February 28, 7pm
Trinity @ 22nd, 2212 Spruce Street

Sunday, March 1, 4pm
Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, 8855 Germantown Avenue

Part of Tempesta’s ongoing groundbreaking project titled Hidden Virtuosas, this concert features vocal and instrumental works by “hidden” composers Agata Cantora della Pietà and Anna Bon. There’s also music by Vivaldi, Gasparini, and Porpora composed for these women of the Venetian Ospedali, the network of baroque-era orphanages that trained scores of top-tier female musicians. The chamber concert features instrumentalists Gwyn Roberts (recorder and flute), Richard Stone (lute), Emlyn Ngai and Francis Liu (violins), and Lisa Terry (cello), with mezzo soprano Gabriela Estephanie Solís.

Philadelphia Youth Orchestra
Sunday, March 1, 3pm
Kimmel Center/Marian Anderson Hall, 300 South Broad Street

Conducted by music director Louis Scaglione, the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra’s upcoming concert will feature Lansdale native and PYO alumnus Dillon Scott (’22), a current Curtis student and Sphinx prize winner. Scott is the featured soloist in Béla Bartók’s challenging Viola Concerto, sketched out near the end of the composer’s life and completed in 1949 by Tibor Serly. The program also includes Rachmaninoff’s popular Second Symphony, a work closely associated with the city and the Philadelphia Orchestra.