Classical music

Enjoy a reception at 5 pm before the performance begins at 6 pm! The Tonics (@tonics1990) with more than 60,000 followers on social media and posted videos with over 6 million views, are a tenor-bass a cappella group founded in 1990 by alums in the Philadelphia area who sang in college. Currently 19 members strong, including Princeton Tigertones, Yale Whiffenpoofs, and alums of various other groups, the Tonics have released five albums, available on Spotify and Apple Music, and have over 130 arrangements in their repertoire. The Bacchus Boys are a collection of singers and musicians who perform a unique repertoire of folk, rock, country, rhythm and blues, and other traditions. Their broad and eclectic repertoire of both originals and covers spans many generations and styles and are performed with a unique combination of original instrument and ensemble vocal harmony.

Join us for an evening celebrating the expressive power of voices and piano featuring the vocal virtuosity of Variant 6 in their program, Equinox. Serving as the centerpiece of the program is Philadelphia composer Benjamin C. S. Boyle’s cantata, To One in Paradise. Set to Edgar Allan Poe’s poem of the same title—written during the poet’s mature period and rich with his signature themes of young love, divinity, and death—the cantata, composed twenty years ago, will be heard in an all-new transcription created by Boyle for the vocal soloists of Variant 6 and pianist Laura Ward. The program also features a selection of compelling vocal works for voices and piano, including music by Fauré, Poulenc, and more.

Harpsichordist, John Walthausen plays music from the Francis Hopkinson Collection of Music, one of the most important sources of early American music and Philadelphia’s early history.