Streaming for free on the Opera Philadelphia Channel starting July 16, Organ Stops brings traditional and new music to three city churches.
For many years, the Opera Philadelphia Chorus has participated in Organ Day, an annual event sponsored by the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Guild of Organists in celebration of the Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ in Verizon Hall. With that program cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, Opera Philadelphia's Chorus Master Elizabeth Braden teamed up with Partners for Sacred Places and the Opera Philadelphia Chorus on a new program celebrating the city's many historic pipe organs.
Organ Stops brings traditional and new music to three churches in the city: Manayunk's St. John the Baptist Church, Wharton-Wesley United Methodist Church in Cobbs Creek, and St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Germantown. The program pairs traditional opera choruses from Verdi's Macbeth and Wagner's Tannhäuser with several newer works composed specifically for chorus and organ by contemporary composers Hannah Kendall, Melissa Dunphy, Marcus DeLoach, and David Hurd.Videos