It’s always great to get feedback about how we’re doing and what we could do better.  We take the word “Society” in our name very seriously, and attempt to base how we approach our concerts (and especially the marketing of those concerts) on the feedback we get from our audience members and the community at [...]

Earlier in the season I touted artists’ blogs as a great way to get to know some of the musicians on our series.  In doing so I previewed artists appearing during the first half of our season and promised to explore the second part in a subsequent post. If you’re a piano enthusiast, I highly [...]

This season has been one of wonderful reviews, and we’re very proud that Philadelphia audiences and critics alike appreciate our continued commitment to presenting truly outstanding concerts.   However, we completely missed Peter Burwasser’s review of our Leon Fleisher/Network for New Music concert in the City Paper last month – probably because it was published [...]

It’s a big month for Argentinean mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink.  Not only is she making her PCMS recital debut at the Perelman on Friday, January 22, but her much-anticipated new recording of Schumann lieder was just released to glowing reviews — most recently from David Patrick Stearns in The Philadelphia Inquirer.  Hear what he has to [...]

What does a classical music enthusiast do when he moves to Philly and wants to make new friends who share his interests?  If you’re Gary King, you start a Meetup online. In the four years since its inception, the Philadelphia Fans of Classical Music has grown to 187 members from the Greater Philadelphia region including [...]

Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert… it doesn’t take much more than a quick scan of our programs to see why Germany and Austria are considered the cradle of classical music.  But these countries are responsible for another of life’s great cultivated pleasures:  BEER.  Isn’t it about time these two great regional accomplishments were brought together? If you [...]

As you may know, PCMS presents concerts at venues throughout Center City Philadelphia.  A natural extension of any concert event is a meal at one of our city’s fine restaurants or a nightcap following an evening of great music.  We thought we’d stare a list of some of our favorite places, and please feel free [...]

As you may know, PCMS presents concerts at venues throughout Center City Philadelphia.  A natural extension of any concert event is a meal at one of our city’s fine restaurants or a nightcap following an evening of great music.  We thought we’d stare a list of some of our favorite places, and please feel free [...]

As you may know, PCMS presents concerts at venues throughout Center City Philadelphia.  A natural extension of any concert event is a meal at one of our city’s fine restaurants or a nightcap following an evening of great music.  We thought we’d start a list of some of our favorite places, and please feel free [...]

The Piano Series has always been an important, and also very popular, part of the PCMS season.  Those who have been coming to these recitals for years may have noticed our commitment to presenting not only great artists but a very particular kind of musician.  As a rule, we tend to choose artists whose playing embodies a certain integrity [...]

For a limited time, you can get both for free through our new Student and Young Friends Program.  Pretty sweet, right?   Here’s how: Get an iPod Nano on October 23rd That’s when violin virtuoso Leonidas Kavakos appears at the Kimmel Center for one of our most exciting concerts of the year.  Come to the concert, [...]

As we near the beginning of the season, I thought it might be helpful to give an overview of the different series and to point out concerts that I feel might be of special interest to our ticket buyers.  I thought I would start by covering the string quartets that are appearing with us this season. [...]

As we expand our blogging activities, we’ve been drawing inspiration from – who else? – the musicians on our series.  How they manage to rehearse, tour, record and write is beyond me, but a good number of them maintain smart, informative, richly personal sites that invite you into their musical worlds.  In this post I [...]

As I’m sure all of you have heard, there is a potential state sales tax coming to the performing arts/concert world.  At this moment we don’t have any more details on the proposed legislation, but we’ll be sure to keep you informed. A good place place to stay in touch with “what’s going on” in [...]

While much of our staff spends the summer at the Marlboro Music Festival, Bradford and I have been holding down the fort here in Philadelphia, placing subscribers in seats and laying the groundwork for the upcoming season.  We’ll be mailing out tickets during the first week of September, which means that concert season is right [...]

I wanted to post a quick note regarding the impact of ongoing debate of our state and city budgets. While I don’t like to bring politics into our Society, it’s important to let you know that without new action, both the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA) and the Philadelphia Cultural Fund (PCF) will have [...]

I was forwarded this article by a friend, Kerry Candaele – he’s a filmmaker out in Los Angeles who did a documentary about Beethoven’s 9th around the world – and I loved it.  The title gives most of it away: Greg Mitchell, former rock n’ roll magazine editor, chronicles his recent discovery of classical music. [...]

To my PCMS Patrons: It has been a while since I last chatted with you – my apologies!  Ten Dollar Day was a rousing success and the first half of our season concluded with a Tokyo Quartet performance at the Kimmel Center – this stellar performance had people walking up to Bradford and me stating [...]

I have to admit – I’m a big fan of the internet and all that it can do to bring people and ideas together.  A few months ago I even (grudging) signed up for Facebook, only to be delighted by the regular connection I have with friends from long ago and family from far away. [...]

When PCMS was founded in 1986, it was in response to an obvious need in the Philadelphia community for a presenter of outstanding chamber music.  Inherenent in that founding principal (which traces its roots to the esteemed and collegial Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont) was a firm belief that great music should be shared as [...]

PCMS patrons often ask me this very question: “Tell me Miles…what was it like backstage during last night’s concert?”  I can understand the curiosity!  While audience members get to see the world’s top artists performing on our series, they are often equally interested in the personalities behind those stellar performances. Many of our artists participate [...]

Sometimes you get a compliment from the most unexpected of places!  Ours came today from “B-Love” over at www.phillyskyline.com.    If you haven’t read this particular home-grown blog before, you’re definitely missing out.  A fine mixture of commentary and outstanding photographs help keep you “in the know” with Philadelphia, its buildings, its neighborhoods, and its [...]

Living and Breathing Our Mission: Part One of a Series PCMS was founded to fill a void in the cultural life of our city: for decades eminent recital and chamber music musicians visited New York, Boston, and Washington but had no performance outlet in Philadelphia.  When Anthony Checchia and his colleagues founded PCMS in 1986, it [...]

The Guarneri Quartet will play here on October 28, then return for the final concert of the PCMS season in May.  Then, silence – and memories.   The Quartet will end its 45-year run after that May concert, one in which founding cellist David Soyer, now 85, will rejoin the ensemble in a symbolic farewell, [...]

I thought it might be helpful to all of our patrons if I took the occasion of this initial blog posting to offer suggestions as to how our Box Office might make your concert going experience a more pleasurable one. Important services (and ones rarely taken advantage of by our patrons) include our “ticket upgrade” [...]

Welcome to the new pcmsconcerts.org! Launching a new website is a bit like premiering a new piece of music – you work hard for months in relative solitude, only to place your efforts on public display and hope for a positive response.  We hope you like what we’ve done! As one of Philadelphia’s largest music [...]