BSR Classical Interludes, October 2025

Brandywine Baroque: A Feast of Festing, De Fesch, and Campra
Friday, October 3, 7:30pm
Sunday, October 5, 3pm (sold out online—call box office for ticket availability)
The Barn at Flintwoods, 205 Centre Meeting Road, Wilmington (Greenville)

In its bucolic performance space, this ensemble opens its season—titled “Baroque in the Barn”—with a program featuring Trio Sonatas by Michael Christian Festing and Cantatas by André Campra, as well as works by Handel, Giovanni Bononcini, Willem De Fesch and Jean-Baptiste Senaillé. The concert features Karen Flint on the harpsichord, along with soprano Laura Heimes, tenor Tony Boutté, and instrumentalists Eileen Grycky (flute), Martin Davids and Karen Dekker (violins), and John Mark Rozendaal and Donna Fournier (cellos).

Philadelphia Orchestra: Marin Alsop and Yunchan Lim
Friday, October 3, 2pm
Saturday, October 4, 8pm
Sunday, October 5, 2pm
Kimmel Center/Marian Anderson Hall, 300 South Broad Street

To celebrate the opening of their 125th season, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the orchestra have commissioned a new work by prominent and popular American composer John Adams. The ensemble will premiere The Rock You Stand On, conducted by Marin Alsop (the orchestra’s principal guest conductor), which Adams composed as a gift to Alsop and dedicated to her. Also featured on the program is Yunchan Lim, the youngest pianist ever to win the Van Cliburn Competition Gold Medal, in Bartok’s Piano Concerto No. 3, and selections from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet.

Tempesta di Mare: New World Recorders
Friday, October 3, 7pm
Christ Church Christiana Hundred, 505 Buck Road, Wilmington

Saturday, October 4, 5pm
Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, 8855 Germantown Avenue

Sunday, October 5, 3pm
Museum of the American Revolution, 101 South 3rd Street

Philadelphia’s baroque orchestra opens their season with an intimate ensemble playing a recital of music from Restoration (17th century) England. The program features a quartet of noted recorder virtuosos—Gwyn Roberts, Heloïse Degrugillier, Emily O'Brien, and Rainer Beckmann—in John Jenkins’ Fantasia in F and Air in A minor; Matthew Locke’s Suites No 3, 5, and 6 from Consorts in Fower Parts; and Chaconnes and Fantazias by the great Henry Purcell.

Lyric Fest: Winnaretta Singer: A Surprising American Princess
Saturday, October 4, 3pm
Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, 625 Montgomery Avenue, Bryn Mawr

Sunday, October 5, 3pm
Academy of Vocal Arts, 1920 Spruce Street

Known for their offerings that present and contextualize song, this ensemble will explore the early 20th century Parisian salon of Winnaretta Singer, the sewing machine heiress who lived life as a gay woman. Singer’s salon was legendary; she curated and commissioned works by noted composers, and her protégés included Debussy and Ravel. Written and narrated by Suzanne DuPlantis, the concert features pianist Laura Ward and singers Rebecca Myers, Alice Chung, James Reese, and Brian James Myer. Tickets are available at the door.

Choral Arts Philadelphia: From This Time Forth: Music of Comfort and Hope
Saturday, October 4, 4pm
Church of the Holy Trinity/Rittenhouse, 1904 Walnut Street

This weekend there’s musical solace to be found in this choral ensemble’s season opener that features works programmed for their sense of reflection and renewal. Conducted by Donald Meineke, Choral Arts will sing Requiems by the Renaissance master Tomás Luis de Victoria and early 20th century composer Herbert Howells, as well as Lay a Garland, a part song by Romantic English composer Robert Lucas Pearsall.