Welcoming the New Season

The end of the summer is traditionally a period of enormous activity here at PCMS. This is when we launch most of our marketing pieces, pull together our annual program book, begin anew our weekly eNews and file many of our major grant requests to funders like the William Penn Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts and more.

It's also the end of our fiscal year (Philip and Marianne are busy closing out the books for another balanced budget year), and the time during which Miles and Tony map out big chunks of future seasons with artists and their managers. Most importantly, Bradford and Brian mail out all of the tickets they've been busy selling and seating since last spring and throughout the summer.

As one might imagine, this is a busy time - but it's also gratifying and exciting and, in a sense, a time of reflection.   It is during September and October of each year that I turn for the first time and focus attention solely on the season that is upon us.  My usual reaction was repeated this year: wow, they (Miles and Tony) have done it again.

Sitting down with our 11/12 Single Ticket Brochure the other day (image at right), I was struck by the wonderful artists that will make appearances on our series this year.  From series stalwarts like the Emerson and Juilliard Quartets, pianist Richard Goode and Anonymous 4 to a first time appearance by Time for Three, a return of Quatuor Mosaïques, and a much-awaited recital by Angelika Kirchschlager.    It really is an amazing series, and one that is more than the sum of its parts.

As if the stellar lineup of artists from around the world weren't quite enough... what about all the music?  I'll let others more knowledgeable fill you in on the details, but I'm especially looking forward to hearing Leonidas Kavakos' Prokofiev, the Golijov premiere with the St. Lawrence Quartet, the Elias Quartet and Jonathan Biss' rendition of the Dvorak Piano Quintet, Hopkinson Smith's renaissance lute program, and Nick Phan's evening of English lieder.

Most of all, I think we're all excited to welcome back our friends -- old and new -- that are our audience.  It's been a long four months since we last saw you at the Perelman Theater, or over snacks during intermission at the American Philosophical Society. We look forward to sharing the music with you again in the weeks ahead.