Classical music in Philadelphia this summer

The Philadelphia music whirl may slow down in the summer, but it doesn’t come to a complete halt. In addition to the Philadelphia Orchestra’s truncated season at the Mann Music Center, concert addicts who favor the small-scale and offbeat can keep themselves on life support with modern choral music by the Crossing, a two-opera Russian Opera Workshop at the Academy of Vocal Arts, and the venerable Laurel Hill Concerts by Candle Light chamber music series in Fairmount Park.

The Crossing’s Month of Moderns: Sunday, June 14 and 21 at 4pm and Saturday, June 27 at 8pm. Donald Nally’s high-quality chamber chorus features some of the best voices in the Philadelphia region. Nally’s annual Month of Moderns Festival presents modern choral music, usually with deep spiritual and philosophical connotations. This year, the festival starts with a world premiere I enter the earth, with pianist Laura Ward and trumpeter Michael Jones. June 21 brings another world premiere, A Child Said: What is the grass? June 28 opens with Path of Miracles. Concerts take place at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, 8855 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia. Tickets are $30 general/$20 student & senior online and $35/$25 at the door. For tickets and info, visit www.crossingchoir.com.

The Russian Opera Workshop: June 23-25 and July 28-30. The personable Russian specialist at the Academy of Vocal Arts, Ghenady Meirson, has been managing this event for four years. Advanced opera students from all over the world workshop two Russian operas and present free, classily staged concert productions. This year, they’re doing Anton Rubinstein’s Demon in June and Tchaikovsky’s last opera, Iolanta, in July. Performances start at 7:30pm in the Helen Corning Warden Theater, Academy of Vocal Arts, 1920 Spruce Street, Philadelphia. For more info, visit http://www.russianoperaworkshop.com.

Concerts by Candlelight, 40th Anniversary Season: June 28, July 12, July 26, August 9, and August 23 at 6:30pm. Hear chamber music in its natural habitat — the living room of an 18th-century mansion in Fairmount Park. The lineup this year starts with an evening with two harps and continues with musicales by Mimi Stillman’s Dolce Suono Ensemble, the Wister String Quartet, the La Fiocco period instrument ensemble, and Philadelphia’s popular guitarist Allen Krantz. Concerts take place in the Laurel Hill Mansion, East Edgley Drive, East Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, with post-concert receptions on a porch overlooking the Schuylkill. Tickets are $25 and you can reserve them by phone at 215-643-7923 or email to [email protected]. For more info, visit http://laurelhillmansion.org/.