BSR Classical Interludes, more in January 2026

Copland String Quartet
Sunday, January 25, 3pm
Church of the Holy City, 1118 North Broom Street, Wilmington

This 21-year-old ensemble is composed of Delaware Symphony musicians Eleazer Gutman and Lisa Vaupel (violins), Elizabeth Jaffe (viola), and Jennifer Jie Jin (cello). While they concertize throughout the region, they play often in this historic Delaware church where artist/author Howard Pyle was a member. Their free concert features three very different string quartets, by Haydn (Op.42), Villa-Lobos (No. 5), and Erich Wolfgang Korngold (No. 3, composed in 1945). Korngold is known for iconic film scores, but he also wrote a substantial body of instrumental music.

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society: Merz Trio, with Lucy Fitz Gibbon, soprano
Sunday, January 25, 3pm
American Philosophical Society’s Franklin Hall, 427 Chestnut Street

The busy PCMS winter season includes this concert by the award-winning Merz Trio (Brigid Coleridge, violin; Julia Yang, cello; and pianist Amy Yang) that also features soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon. Fitz Gibbon will sing Shostakovich’s Seven Romances on Poems by A. Blok; the concert opens with that composer’s youthful Piano Trio in C Minor; and it concludes with Dvořák’s Piano Trio in F Minor. Part of the PCMS Social Series (details in the link), the concert will also be available to watch via livestream, and on January 26 the trio will present a masterclass at Settlement Music School.

Andrea Clearfield’s Szalon
Sunday, January 25, 7pm
Online or at the composer’s studio

For 39 years—imagine that!—highly regarded Philadelphia composer Andrea Clearfield has held regular salons, both virtual and in her studio space. She opens her 2026 offerings (there will be six of them this year) with a program in honor of Louise Clearfield, her recently deceased mother. As always, this month features varied musical artists in a program ranging from jazz and classical to opera, folk, and interdisciplinary collaborations, some that are live in Philadelphia and some streamed from afar. Clearfield herself will be at the piano for several of the performances. You can view via a link, but in-person attendance requires advance reservations.

Penn Live Arts: Ruckus with Davóne Tines: What Is Your Hand in This?
Thursday, January 29, 7pm
Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral, 19 S. 38th Street

Ruckus is a New York-based early music ensemble called “the world’s only period instrument rock band” (San Francisco Chronicle). They play worldwide, and here the group partners with starry baritone Davóne Tines. This PLA debut concert—part of the presenter’s America Unfinished series—hits Philadelphia just before the ensemble goes on to Carnegie Hall. Repertoire spans early American hymnody, Handel's Messiah, Benjamin Carr's Federal Overture, abolition-era songs, and mid-20th century protest songs, and it also features commissions from Carnegie Hall and Hudson Hall.

Filament: Consorts Reframed
Saturday, January 31, 7pm
Fleisher Art Memorial, 719 Catherine Street

For their upcoming new-and-old music concert, this baroque trio—Evan Few (violin), Elena Kauffman (gamba), and harpsichordist John Walthausen—will be joined by three of their colleagues: Héloïse Degrugillier (recorder), Kevin Payne (theorbo), and harpist Anna O’Connell. The ambitious program features the boundary-breaking chamber music of early 17th-century English composer William Lawes set against works by his contemporaries (John Jenkins, Matthew Locke, and others), along with a new commission by noted Philadelphia composer Benjamin C.S. Boyle.