Coming up in Philly music: Hungarian melodies, Southern hymns

The Chestnut Street Singers have presented some of the most fascinating, offbeat programs I’ve heard in the last few years. For their season finale, they’ll tackle the work of Zoltán Kodály, a composer whose unique, highly personal style blends Hungarian folk music with the harmonies and idioms of European classical music. Kodály is a national hero in Hungary and a special figure for choruses, like the Chestnut Street Singers, that sing unaccompanied by music. He wrote over 150 pieces for unaccompanied choruses and developed a teaching method based on unaccompanied choral singing. The Singers will cast extra light on his work by combining it with Virgil Thomson’s Hymns from the Old South and other American pieces inspired by American folk music.

The Chestnut Street Singers will present Mother Tongue: Kodály's Hungary on Saturday, June 3, at 8pm at University Lutheran Church (3637 Chestnut Street) and on Sunday, June 4, at 3pm at the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia (2125 Chestnut Street). Both concerts are pay-what-you-wish. Donations by cash, card, or check will be accepted at the door.