Music of Philadelphia
is home to one of the world's most vibrant and well-documented musical heritages, stretching back to the colonial era. Innovations in classical music, opera, R&B, jazz, soul, and rock have earned the music of Philadelphia national and international renown. Philadelphia's musical institutions have long played an important role in the music of Pennsylvania and that of the nation, especially in the early development of hip-hop, early rock and roll, disco, freestyle music, and soul music. Philadelphia's diverse population has also given it a reputation for styles ranging from dancehall to Irish traditional music, as well as a thriving classical and folk music scene.
The Philadelphia Orchestra's third conductor, Leopold Stokowski, championed American classical music of the 20th century, and on tour, in recordings, and notably in Walt Disney's 1940 animated film Fantasia, brought the traditional and modern classical repertoire to a broad American listening public for the first time. The Curtis Institute of Music on Rittenhouse Square, founded in 1924 by Curtis Publishing Company heiress Mary Louise Curtis Bok, has trained many of the world's best-known and respected American composers and performers, including Leonard Bernstein and Samuel Barber during the 20th century, and current stars Juan Diego Flórez, Alan Gilbert, Hilary Hahn, Jennifer Higdon, Lang Lang, and Ray Chen.
The city has played an equally prominent role in developing popular music. In the early years of rock and roll, a number of South Philadelphia-born popular vocalists made Philadelphia and popular music virtually synonymous, including Chubby Checker, Frankie Avalon, and Bobby Rydell. This led to the airing of the popular rock and roll dance show American Bandstand, hosted by Dick Clark from the WPVI-TV studios at 46th and Market Streets at the time, where teenagers would descend in droves after school to be televised dancing to the latest hits on the pop charts in front of a national audience.
Today, Philadelphia is well known for its hip-hop scene, including superstars like The Roots, Meek Mill, and Lil Uzi Vert. It is also well known for its alternative rock and DIY music scene, which has been a launchpad for indie rock stars including Alex G, Kurt Vile, The War on Drugs, Modern Baseball, Japanese Breakfast, and Hop Along.
Music venues and institutions
Philadelphia has a wide variety of performance venues for music. The city's most senior venue is the famed Academy of Music. Established in 1857, the academy is the longest continuously operating opera house in the United States that is still being used for its original purpose. At the very center of Philadelphia's musical life, the academy is home to many internationally recognized performance ensembles, including the Philly Pops, the Philadelphia Ballet, and Opera Philadelphia. The academy also presents touring artists and musical theatre of the highest caliber.The most recent addition to the city's list of venues is the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, home of the internationally renowned Philadelphia Orchestra, which opened in 2001. The Philadelphia Singers often sing in concerts with the orchestra. The center is also home to the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Philadanco and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. The PCMS, established in 1986, puts on concerts by internationally renowned performers as well as local ensembles like 1807 and Friends, who have been prominent local performers since 1981.
Also of major importance to the city is the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, one of the largest outdoor amphitheatres in the United States. Established in 1976 as the Robin Hood Dell West, the Mann Center is the summer performance space for the Philadelphia Orchestra. It is also host to major touring artists from all genres of music and is Philadelphia's main venue for popular entertainers. In addition to the Mann Center, the Tower Theater, in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia serves as a destination for many top touring acts.
The Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is another notable venue in the city. Founded in 1971, the center now includes the University of Pennsylvania's Irvine Auditorium, Zellerbach Theatre and Harold Prince Theatre. The center offers a varied program of more than 170 performances each year, including concerts, theatre, and dance.
Philadelphia has a thriving jazz and cabaret scene, largely due to the efforts of the John W. Coltrane Cultural Society, which honors local jazz legend John Coltrane and helps to promote jazz in the city. There are a number of nightclubs in the city that host live music, most notably Warmdaddy's which has been a hot spot for jazz and blues entertainers for more than four decades. The city is also home to the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts, which has been called the "first-ever club designed and constructed specifically as a jazz institution". Another notable venue is World Cafe Live, which opened October 2004. A three-tiered music hall, restaurant, and bar, WCL has been host to such artists as George Clinton and the Parliament-Funkadelic, Rhett Miller, Natalie Cole, KT Tunstall, Allen Toussaint, Pink Martini, Buckethead, and Liz Phair.
Philadelphia's diverse ethnic groups have established several organizations that promote their musical styles, including the Asian Arts Initiative and the Latin American Musicians Association. The AMLA was established by Jesse Bermudez in 1982 in North Philadelphia to promote Latino music and musicians. The association runs a Latin School of Arts, which features teachers like Elio Villafranca and Pablo Batista. The Italian American Broadcasting Network is in Philadelphia and promotes radio stations that broadcast Italian music in southeastern Pennsylvania; the Philadelphia stations that play Italian music include WPHT, WEDO, and WEMG. The Painted Bride Art Center is a local organization that promotes alternative and avant garde music, and Crossroads Music is the city's only organization entirely dedicated to presenting musicians with roots in specific cultural traditions from all parts of the world.
Other local institutions include the Philadelphia Gay Men's Chorus, founded in 1981, and the Mendelssohn Club, a choral group that dates back to the 19th century. The Mendelssohn Club was founded by William W. Gilchrist, one of the major figures of 19th century music in the city. Also of note is the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, one of the most highly regarded children's groups in the United States, having performed worldwide since forming in 1939.
A local and highly respected musical novelty is the Wanamaker Organ, located in the Center City Macy's department store at 1300 Market. Its organ was built in 1904, designed by organ architect George Ashdown Audsley. The organ was so large it required thirteen freight cars to bring it from St. Louis. Once in Philadelphia, the organ was made even larger, with additional pipes added—3,000 were added by 1917, and between 1924 and 1930, 10,000 more were added. The modern organ has 28,500, ranging from a long and thick pipe made of Oregon sugar pine and a tiny, quarter-inch long pipe. Performances on the Wanamaker Organ are given twice a day, Monday through Saturday.
Music festivals and annual events
Major music festivals in Philadelphia include the West Oak Lane Jazz Festival, the Bach Festival of Philadelphia, and the long-standing and historical Philadelphia Folk Festival. There are also a number of different summer concert series and ethnic festivals held at Penn's Landing, including the Smooth Jazz Summer Nights Series in August. The Jazz on the Ave Music Festival typically takes place in mid August on Broad Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue featuring Jazz, Soul, Gospel and R&B, as well as some contemporary urban music. The Philadelphia Céilí Group is a prominent local organization that promotes Irish music, and runs a festival, which the Group claims is among the oldest continuous Irish traditional festivals in the U.S. Not too far from the city is the annual Concerts Under the Stars summer festival in Upper Merrion township. Making Time Festival held on the historic Fort Mifflin, is another important cultural event which happens annually in late September, hosting important dance music acts from around the world as well as historically significant ambient artists and experimental musicians.Perhaps the most famous annual musical event in Philadelphia is the Mummers Parade, a New Year's Day celebration that features outrageous costumes, old-time string bands and other entertainment. The tradition dates to the mid-17th century, when Finnish and Swedish settlers in Philadelphia celebrated holidays by shooting muskets. Their parade grew more diverse over the years, and the Mummers tradition became official in 1901, and has occurred every year but two since. The Mummers' string band is a large group of several dozen musicians who play banjos, violins, bass viols, glockenspiels, bells, accordions, saxophones and drums in an "old-fashioned, tinny sound approximating the popular music of 1900 and earlier".
History
17th century
The earliest music in the Philadelphia region was that of the indigenous peoples of the area, though little is known about their music. The city was founded in 1682 by William Penn of England on land granted to him by Charles II as a place of refuge for victims of religious persecution. As a result, much of the city's early music history is tied to sacred music from a variety of different religious traditions. The city's German immigrants were influential in establishing a vibrant musical culture among Protestant churches and in the field of music publishing during the first half of the 18th century.While non-religious music was actively performed in homes and in private social clubs during the early colonial period, public performances of non-religious music did not occur until the 1750s. At that time Philadelphia rose to prominence as the major cultural capital in the Thirteen Colonies in British America, and then in the newly-established United States after the Revolutionary War. The city established a reputation for classical music of Haydn and Mozart. It had the best opera and theater scene in the United States during the latter half of the 18th century.