When you are the nation’s oldest continuing musical organization, you have to celebrate with a bang! This is exactly what the Musical Fund Society is planning to do, with a once-in-a-lifetime performance, presented by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society on April 26, 2020 at the Mary Louise Curtis branch of the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia. 

At this special event, the Society will present four new works commissioned by significant American composers: Tania León, Stephen Jaffe, Roberto Sierra and Augusta Read Thomas.

The bicentennial celebration will call attention to the Society’s unique role in promoting, supporting and encouraging this rich musical legacy by providing vital opportunities to deserving composers, outstanding performing artists, and regional audiences.

“I am very excited about the Musical Fund Society’s upcoming Bicentennial celebration, especially the April 2020 concert featuring new chamber works by some of America’s finest living composers,” said Linda Reichert, president of the Musical Fund Society. “The Society and its activities have quietly thrived under the radar in Philadelphia for many years. These Bicentennial events … will spotlight the important activities of our organization, and connect Philadelphia audiences with the rich musical life of past and present Philadelphia.”  

Four New Works

The Society’s Edwin G. McCollin Fund competition selected these four nationally recognized composers, each commissioned to write a new chamber work based in some way on the rich history of Philadelphia for one of four participating performing organizations: the 20/21 Ensemble from the Curtis Institute of Music, Network for New Music, a quartet from Astral Artists, and PRISM Quartet.

Fifty applications were submitted anonymously by nationally known American composers and were reviewed by a panel of Philadelphia-area musicians, composers, and arts administrators.

Tania León’s new work for Curtis 20/21 Ensemble will celebrate the Musical Fund Society’s long-lasting and unwavering support of people from all heritages who have helped build Philadelphia’s music scene.

“Nowadays, society is more mindful of the contributions composers and musicians have made to the history of humanity,” León said.

Stephen Jaffe is grateful for the opportunity to contribute to write for the Network for New Music Ensemble and Philadelphia’s musical fabric, and for the chance to be part of a group of composers chosen to celebrate the McCollin Fund’s anniversary of enriching Philadelphia’s musical life, being mindful of the deep imprint the vital musical and artistic life of the region has made on him.

“As I soak up ideas and ambience, let them ferment, and aim to produce something previously unheard, new, beautiful and curious, I celebrate the city and the region for the plentifulness that contains the seeds of effervescence,” Jaffe said.

Roberto Sierra will write a work for Prism Quartet inspired by the urban street as a sequel to his work Graffiti, written in 2017. He said Philadelphia, like all major American cities has great street art.

“I am always honored when an institution or an individual is interested in a new work from me,” Sierra said. “This project in particular is special because it was a competition by invitation, and also because the pieces were judged blind.”

For Augusta Read Thomas’s work for Astral’s string quartet, she is picking up on Philadelphia’s history of inclusion, innovation, communication, industry, healthcare for the world’s family, fertile fields and the love that binds us all together.

“The reason I compose music is to express gratitude,” she said. “The music will flow like the arc of the rivers that define this great city. From planting seeds through to harvesting the fruit of mind and labor embodied in the freedom and the spirit of Philadelphia, thanks is given for our mutual celebration of the human experiences of justice, love and joy, health and knowledge, beauty and insight into the nature of being.”

Other festivities

The concert will go hand-in-hand with a special exhibit of historic Musical Fund Society memorabilia—including the manuscript of the Bartok third string quartet and a lock of hair from Niccolo Paganini—at the Kislak Center in the University of Pennsylvania Library, and a display of Musical Fund Society-related manuscripts at the Edwin A. Fleisher Collection of The Free Library of Philadelphia. There also are plans for a bicentennial program book.

To learn more about the Musical Fund Society, visit its website.