Holiday Fare: Vienna Boys Choir and TUBACHRISTMAS Celebration this December at the Kimmel Center
NOVEMBER 24, 2009
- The angelic voices of Austria’s historic Vienna Boys Choir perform their time-honored holiday program of classic carols and music from around the world in Verizon Hall (Friday, December 4, 2009)
- The eighth annual TUBACHRISTMAS brings together 100 regional tuba, sousaphone and euphonium players for a free holiday concert in Commonwealth Plaza (Saturday, December 19, 2009)
Vienna Boys Choir
Friday, December 4, 2009 at 7pm
Verizon Hall
Price: $32-70
"… a superb musical ensemble … [with] clarion sound." –Salt Lake Tribune
The world-renowned Vienna Boys Choir returns to Philadelphia to enchant audiences with the sounds of the season on Friday, December 4, 2009 at 7pm in Verizon Hall. For more than 500 years, the cherubic choristers ranging in age from 10 to 14 have captivated audiences across the globe with their purity of tone and diverse repertoire of Austrian folk songs and waltzes, classical masterpieces, beloved holiday favorites and medieval chants. Their heart-warming holiday program includes classics such as "I’ll Be Home for Christmas," "Silver Bells" and "Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming," as well as French, Italian and Russian carols.
In 1498 the Vienna Boys Choir was founded as six boys included among the court musicians of Emperor Maximilian I. Now expanded to about 100 choristers, the Vienna Boys Choir is divided into four touring choirs that give approximately 300 concerts and performances each year in front of nearly half a million people. Over the centuries, illustrious composers have written masterpieces for the boys' choir, including Mozart, Bruckner, Gluck and Schubert. Together with members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera Chorus, the choir maintains the tradition of providing the music for the Sunday Mass in Vienna’s Imperial Chapel, as they have done since 1498.
More recently, filmmaker Curt Faudon's documentary Silk Road, released on November 17, 2009, follows the choristers' yearly travels throughout Korea, Japan, Canada, the United States, Germany and the Silk Road trade route in Asia. The soundtrack offers everything from medieval chansons and Renaissance music to masses and lieder by Schubert. In September 2009, the choir rereleased The Best of Vienna Boys Choir, featuring works by Handel, Brahms, Strauss and others. In 2002, they recorded their first ever pop album, featuring songs by Madonna, Celine Dion and Robbie Williams. The bestselling CD was nominated for the 2003 Amadeus, the Austrian music award.
"…Astonishing vocal range stretching from coloratura to mezzo and tenor territory…totally disciplined voices tempered by a singular sense of ease and consistency, and a sound conveying ebullience, humor or solemnity as the music called for." – Washington Post
Philadelphia Handbell Ensemble
Friday, December 4, 2009 | 5:30pm
Commonwealth Plaza | Friday LIVE
Philadelphia Handbell Ensemble (PHE) will surely ring you into the
spirit of the season! PHE is a community ensemble comprised of
auditioned, advanced-level handbell ringers from Pennsylvania, New
Jersey and Delaware. Philadelphia Handbell Ensemble appreciates a wide
array of musical styles and moods with a repertoire spanning original
compositions, arrangements and transcriptions of classical literature.
This performance takes place as part of Friday LIVE, a series of free
musical performances on the Commonwealth Plaza stage every Friday from
5:30pm to 7:15pm throughout the 2009/10 season.
TUBACHRISTMAS
Saturday, December 19, 2009 at Noon
Commonwealth Plaza
Price: FREE
The Kimmel Center hosts its eighth annual TUBACHRISTMAS celebration on Saturday, December 19, 2009 at Noon, ushering in the holiday season with a free community concert of 100 regional tuba, sousaphone and euphonium players performing classic carols on the Commonwealth Plaza stage. Tinsel, mistletoe and other seasonal ornaments will decorate local musicians' brass instruments as "Silent Night," "Jingle Bells," "O Come All Ye Faithful" and other holiday favorites fill the air.
Musicians interested in participating in TUBACHRISTMAS must send an e-mail RSVP to krushtuba@gmail.com. Please include name, instrument, e-mail address and phone number(s). The first 100 musicians will be accepted. Any replies after 100 will be placed on a waiting list.
The schedule for performers on Saturday, December 19, 2009 is as follows:
Registration: 8:30-9:30am, Kimmel Center’s Innovation Studio
Rehearsal: 9:30-11:15am, Kimmel Center’s Innovation Studio
Performance: 12-1pm, Kimmel Center’s Commonwealth Plaza
There is a $5 registration fee for performers. Music, useable at any TUBACHRISTMAS event in the country, is $15. For further details, contact TUBACHRISTMAS coordinator and conductor Jay Krush at (215) 520-0818 or jaykrush@earthlink.net.
With concerts taking place in over 200 cities across the country, TUBACHRISTMAS has become a beloved nationwide phenomenon. TUBACHRISTMAS was conceived in 1974 as a tribute to the late artist and educator William J. Bell, who was born on Christmas Day in 1902. It was first conducted in New York City’s Rockefeller Plaza Ice Rink on December 22, 1974. The tradition has grown exponentially over the past three decades, and today the concerts are presented in cities and towns throughout the world by thousands of spirited brass players. For more information please visit www.tubachristmas.com.
Conductor/coordinator Jay Krush is a founding member of the Grammy®-Award winning Chestnut Brass Company, tubist with the Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra and a faculty member at the Boyer College of Music at Temple University.
Tickets can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at www.kimmelcenter.org, or at the Kimmel Center box office open daily from 10am to 6pm and later on performance evenings. (Additional fees may apply.) For group sales call 215-790-5883.
A limited number of $10 tickets are available for most Kimmel Center Presents performances. Tickets go on sale the day of the event and can be purchased at the Kimmel Center box office at 5:30pm prior to evening curtain time and 11:30am for matinees. Limit one ticket per person.
Kimmel Center Presents' 2009/10 Season is sponsored by Citi. American Airlines is the Official Airline of Kimmel Center Presents.
Free at the Kimmel programming and subsidized tickets offered to the community and social service groups for $10 are made possible through the Wachovia Gateway to the Arts Community Access Program, supported by a generous grant from the Wachovia Foundation.
The Kimmel Center is the recipient of partnership funding through the nationally recognized PNC "Grow Up Great" initiative, a ten-year, $100 million investment in preparing children for success in school and life. Funding gives support to the Kimmel Center's early childhood program "Bop and Swing," an arts program for children 1-5 years old, designed to promote an appreciation for American culture.
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