The Philadelphia Orchestra To Rename Its Home At The Kimmel Center For The Performing Arts Marian Anderson Hall In Honor Of The Legendary Contralto, Civil Rights Icon, And Philadelphian

On June 8, 2024, Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts will be rededicated as Marian Anderson Hall, home of The Philadelphia Orchestra, in honor of the legendary contralto, civil rights icon, and Philadelphian. The first major concert venue in the world to honor the late performer and trailblazer, Marian Anderson Hall will be a permanent monument to its namesake’s artistry and achievements, a reflection of the inclusive future she helped to engender, and an active testament to the intersection of music, art, and positive social impact.

They will officially dedicate the hall in Ms. Anderson’s honor on June 8 with an unveiling in the afternoon, and will celebrate that evening during the Great Stages Gala, featuring The Philadelphia Orchestra and Music and Artistic Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, actress and singer Audra McDonald, soprano Angel Blue, and jazz pianist Marcus Roberts.

Marian Anderson Hall will be dedicated 85 years after Ms. Anderson was denied the opportunity to perform at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., because of her race, singing instead for a crowd of over 75,000 at the Lincoln Memorial. Throughout her life, Marian Anderson emblemized the idea that music can change the world. It is our hope that Marian Anderson Hall will inspire everyone who comes through its doors with the idea that the arts are a transformative force for good in the world. We hope you will join us as we forge a bright, inclusive future in which the arts are for everyone.

To ensure this work continues long into the future, they have partnered with the Philadelphia branch of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) to establish an endowed scholarship in honor of Ms. Anderson, to be awarded each year to two Black students from the Philadelphia region studying the performing arts or pursuing a career in arts administration at schools throughout the country.

The dedication of Marian Anderson Hall was named in her honor by a visionary philanthropic gift from Richard Worley and Leslie Miller. They extend our deepest gratitude for their transformative leadership. Additional generous support for Marian Anderson Hall was given by Sidney and Caroline Kimmel. They also thank the family and estate of Marian Anderson, whose enthusiasm and support for this initiative have been crucial.

For more details, please visit: https://www.ensembleartsphilly.org/

Queen Of Soul To Serenade The Pope In Philadelphia At The Festival Of Families

Aretha Franklin is slated to join the lineup of artists performing for Pope Francis at the Festival of Families Saturday, Sept. 26.
The Queen of Soul will join tenor Andrea Bocelli, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Latin pop star Juanes, who was announced in June, according to sources with knowledge of the event planning.

The festival will be broadcast on TV and shown on 40 Jumbotron screens throughout the city. Free tickets nearest the stage were all reserved last week but the portion of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway from 20th Street east is unticketed and open to all.
Pope Francis is expected to attend and speak at the Festival of Families. Between performances, he will meet with six families from different continents. A smaller stage will feature cultural acts and spiritual organizations from around the region.

Sources said Franklin, 73, was confirmed for the event, though an official announcement from the World Meeting of Families wasn't expected until Monday.

Comedian Jim Gaffigan may be joining the revelry as well. Gaffigan said in a Wall Street Journal interview he would do a 20-minute set at the festival, and sources confirmed he was in talks with event producers.

Gaffigan, who is Catholic, stars in The Jim Gaffigan Show, modeled after his life as a popular stand-up comic juggling the entertainment business, five children, and a devoutly Catholic wife while living in an apartment in Lower Manhattan.

Eighteen-time Grammy Award winner Franklin was the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and was named one of Rolling Stone magazine's 100 best singers of all time.

The daughter of a preacher and a gospel singer, Franklin started singing in her father's Baptist church in Detroit and has remained a devout Christian.

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jterruso@phillynews.com

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/pope/20150914_Queen_of_Soul_to_serenade_the_pope_in_Philly.html#YcUE0E58E3olkLCE.99

Philadelphia International Festival Of The Arts Opens With 'Time Travel' Theme

Contributed by Joann Loviglio, AP.

Visitors explore an imaginary time machine part of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Thursday, March 28, 2013, in Philadelphia. The arts festival is back in Philadelphia with a month of music, dance, theater, visual arts and family activities all loosely based on the topic of time travel. The events are scheduled to run from Thursday through April 27.(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

  The city's newest arts festival has returned with a month of music, dance, theater, visual arts and family activities, all loosely based on the topic of time travel.

The Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts kicked off Thursday and runs through April 27 at locations around the city.

The theme is "If You Had a Time Machine." More than 50 events, installations and performances from local, national and international artists are exploring a wide range of questions related to time travel, many looking at historic events in a novel way or imagining what the future will bring.

The festival's marquee names include Tony Award-winning choreographer and dancer Savion Glover, who is launching the festival's opening weekend with "Dance Space," a world premiere he says will take audiences back to the beginning of the universe.

Acclaimed singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright will pay homage to Judy Garland's 1961 Carnegie Hall performance with his show "Prima! Rufus! Judy!" on April 21, while Grammy Award-winning pianist and composer Danilo Perez on April 26 will use multi-instrumental jazz improvisation to commemorate Balboa's discovery of the Pacific Ocean in 1513.

On April 12, Baltimore-based electronic musician Dan Deacon celebrates the first email, sent by inventor Ray Tomlinson in 1971, with an event that will allow audiences to participate in the performance with their smartphones.

The festival's core exhibit in the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts is an imaginary time machine, actually a 100-feet-long corkscrew spiral that visitors can walk through and experience changing sights and sounds. Free performances are happening on most nights around the time machine, from a musical production called "Flash of Time" to a comedy troupe presenting the pitfalls of time travel with a show called "Shut Your Wormhole."

A group of trapeze artists promise to fulfill the festival's theme "in honor of the spunky women who first sported the raised hemlines of the 1960s" and will sell tickets for public trapeze lessons nearly every day of the monthlong event.

Also on the schedule are concerts by the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Philly Pops, as well as smaller musical and theatrical performances inspired by events including the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the first moon landing in 1969, the founding of the Works Progress Administration in 1935, the emancipation of Puerto Rico in 1873 and the birth of Benjamin Britten in 1913.

The event culminates April 27 with a five-block stretch of downtown Broad Street closed to traffic and transformed into a daylong street fair with food vendors, a Ferris wheel, live music and street performers.

The inaugural PIFA festival in 2011, which had a Parisian theme, attracted more than 400,000 visitors over its 25 days of events. The closing street fair was attended by nearly 200,000 people.