Heather Mitchell will celebrate her new position as associate artistic director of the Mendelssohn Chorus by conducting “Never One Thing” Saturday, Feb. 22, at 4 p.m. in the Episcopal Cathedral Church, 19 South 38th Street in West Philadelphia. The program “invites the listener on a transformative musical journey that celebrates diversity, reflection and the power of change.”

The program “weaves together a tapestry of sound, emotion and thought-provoking themes.” The chorus will sing Franz Schubert’s “Song of Miriam,” Randall Thompson’s “Alleluia,” Vienna Teng’s “Hymn to Acxiom,” and works by Faure, Walker, Brahms, Esenvalds, Hogan, Techeli, Dandridge, Barnwell and May Erlwine’s “Never One Thing.”

For more information about the Mendelssohn Chorus’ 150th anniversary season visit www.mcchorus.org.

Lyric Fest’s ‘City’

Lyric Fest, the vocal/instrumental ensemble founded and directed by Chestnut Hill pianist Laura Ward and Flourtown mezzo-soprano Suzanne DuPlantis, will present the thematic centerpiece of its 2024-25 season, “The Soul of the City,” Sunday, Feb. 23, at 3 p.m. in the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, 201 South 21st Street.

“This program was curated to meet the moment of our urban living with all its messy, exhilarating and somewhat hilarious realities,” explained DuPlantis. “What do we love, and what do we put up with? Who are our archetypes – the lovers in cafes, evangelists on the subway, bird feeders in the park, drunks at the bar, starving artists, and city workers?” Performers include Danielle Talamantes, Aaron Crouch, Jesse Blumberg, Clara Osowski and Ward at the piano.

For more information visit www.lyricfest.org

‘Rococo Dialogues’

Filament, the baroque instruments ensemble, played the first of four performances of a program entitled “Rococo Dialogues” Friday, Feb. 7, in the Fleisher Art Memorial, 719 Catherine St., Philadelphia. The ensemble is led by harpsichordist John Walthausen, the director of music at the First Presbyterian Church in Germantown. Violinist Evan Few and viola da gamba player Elena Kauffman rounded out the complement of players.

The genesis of the program was the almost entirely unknown person of Anne Louise Brillon de Juoy, who lived from 1744 until 1824 and who was living in Paris when Benjamin Franklin was residing in the French capital during the years of the American Revolution as the new nation’s ambassador to the Court of King Louis XVI. Not only was she a composer in her own right, she was also the “hostess with the mostest” of her day, presiding over an aristocratic salon in which some of the era’s finest music was performed. 

Filmanet played her Trio in A minor. Divided into three movements, it speaks in the elegant manners of the gallant era between the glitter of the French baroque of Rameau and Couperin and the dramatic lyricism of Haydn’s and Mozart’s Viennese classicism. Few, Kauffman and Walthausen played it with stylistic eloquence and clarity of texture. 

The program also boasted exemplary renditions of works by Mozart, Boccherini and Schobert. It will be repeated Feb. 9 at 4 p.m. in Christ Church, Christiana Hundred, Wilmington; Feb. 23 at 4 p.m. in Gloria Dei “Old Swedes” Church, Philadelphia; and March 23 at 3 p.m. in the Church of the Good Shepherd, Rosemont. Visit www.filamentbaroque.com/concerts.

Richard George Alexander

Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church, Chestnut Hill, marked the passing of Richard George (“Rick”) Alexander (1946-2025) with a “Service of Celebration and Thanksgiving” Saturday, Feb. 9. Alexander was the parish’s longtime director of music, from 1970 until his retirement in 2008. 

The Rev. Eric Hungerford, St. Paul’s rector, presided over the service while Alexander’s successor in the post, Andrew Kotylo, performed and conducted a roster of choral and organ works that exemplified Alexander’s inestimable contribution to the spiritual and musical life of the parish he loved and served. 

In his homily, Rev. Hungerford spoke of his having had lunch with Alexander very recently and that his final meal was Holy Communion at Chestnut Hill Hospital.

Surrounded by friends and colleagues, “Rick experienced a Holy Death,” he explained. “I will never forget the beauty of singing ‘Love divine, all loves excelling’ at his bedside.”

I first met Rick in the late 1970s. I had become the entertainment editor of the Main Line Times in 1976, the year the late Michael Korn founded the Bach Festival of Philadelphia. Four years earlier, Korn had founded the Philadelphia Singers, the region’s first all-professional choir. Along with Marc Mostovoy, the founding director of the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, they created a celebration of the music of J.S. Bach and his contemporaries. 

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church was the premiere venue for the Bach Festival, so I got to know Rick through the series of concerts every autumn during those early years. Although I was only a “part-time” organist – more honorary than literal – Rick welcomed me as a colleague to St. Paul’s Church and its fantastic Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ with open – although never uncritical – arms.

True professional that he was, he never discussed with me anything musical that I had written in either the Main Line Times or, starting in 1986, the Chestnut Hill Local. He did, however, bring up an issue I once touched upon – the lighting (or lack thereof, in my opinion) at St. Paul’s.  

What did he ask me? “What took you so long?”

You can contact NOTEWORTHY at Michael-caruso@comcast.net.