BSR Classical Interludes November 2023, part 2

Market Street Music: Trio Eos
Saturday, November 18, 3pm
First & Central Presbyterian Church, 1101 North Market Street, Wilmington

Sopranos Jessica Beebe and Michele Kennedy and mezzo-soprano Maren Montalbano perform music from the early Middle Ages through the 21st century, as well as championing works by emerging composers. Trio Eos has sung in venues from New York’s Metropolitan Museum to Washington, DC’s Folger Library, among many others, and their multi-year performance residency at the Museum of Biblical Art resulted in newly commissioned works. Testimonies is a celebration of women’s voices that will feature premieres by Kamala Sankaram and Karen Siegel.

Main Line Early Music: The Publick Pleasure
Sunday, November 19, 3pm
Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, 1116 Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr

In its concerts, the Publick Pleasure explores the intersection of Philadelphia’s musical landscape and history. Stop the Bell’s Tolling: Music of Philadelphia and the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 looks at how concert life and musical tastes in the city changed as inhabitants fled after this epidemic. (Sound familiar?) This concert will include texts from period newspapers and personal accounts, with musicians Edmond Chan (violin), Amy Leonard (viola), Eve Miller (cello), John Walthausen (harpsichord), Steven Zohn (flute), and baritone Jean Bernard Cerin.

"Wister and More!" Series: Wister Quartet
Sunday, November 19, 3pm
German Society of Pennsylvania, 611 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia

The Wister and More Series was founded in 1991, and a centerpiece of this seven-concert series at the German Society is always a concert by the Wister Quartet. This year’s concert features the String Quartet No. 2 by Maddalena Lombardini-Sirmen, Felix Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in D Major, and Handel’s Passacaglia. This is a popular series, but single tickets are generally available at the door.

Park Avenue Concerts: Quey Percussion Duo
Sunday, November 19, 7pm
Park Avenue Community Center, 129 Park Avenue, Swarthmore

If you don’t know them, once you see virtuoso percussionists (and charming entertainers) Tim Broscious and Gene Koshinski, you’ll certainly not forget them. For nearly 20 years, this duo (pronounced “kway”) has performed for audiences in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, China, France, Jordan, the UK, and extensively throughout the US. Quey Percussion Duo currently holds the only full-time residency by a percussion duo in the US—they’re at the University of Delaware. The concert will feature an amazing variety of instruments and works by series co-director Adam Silverman (“Paper Covers Rock”), Koshinski (“Impressions of Chinese Opera”), and Broscious (“Pick Up Sticks”—my personal favorite).

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society: Brooklyn Rider
Tuesday, November 21, 7:30pm
Benjamin Franklin Hall at the American Philosophical Society, 427 Chestnut Street

Brooklyn Rider (Johnny Gandelsman & Colin Jacobsen, violin; Nicholas Cords, viola; and Michael Nicolas, cello) is known for their eclecticism and musical exploration of works both classical and brand new. Here, they’ll play Haydn’s String Quartet in C Major (“Sun”); Robert Schumann’s String Quartet in A minor; Sofia Gubaidulina’s “Reflections on the Theme B-A-C-H,” and in a Philadelphia premiere, works by Assad, Kahane, and Sorey from the Brooklyn Rider Almanac. This concert is also available online as a pay-what-you-wish livestream.