Coming up in Philly Fringe music: Not your average organ recital

Is there any other city in which a festival devoted to offbeat, unconventional art could include the celebration of a new church organ?

The 2018 Fringe Festival includes five free performances of a new work, In Plain Air, created for the organ Christ Church installed earlier this year. The world premiere includes all the nontraditional elements a devotee of the avant-garde could ask for. The audience will travel around the Christ Church grounds, movement by movement; the different movements will employ custom-built instruments in addition to the organ and the church bells; and one of the composers, Phyllis Chen, is noted for her compositions for toy pianos. Chen and her co-composer, Nathan David, are both members of the International Contemporary Ensemble, an artist collective founded in 2001.

The event may not be a standard organ recital, but the composers advise us In Plain Air is rooted in the long history of a church whose parishioners have included George Washington, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Betsy Ross. Chen and David received a one-year residency at Christ Church and they immersed themselves in its history and architecture. Several movements of In Plain Air were inspired by the musical compositions of Francis Hopkinson, a composer and organist whose non-musical accomplishments included designing the American flag and signing the Declaration of Independence. You can learn more about the project here.

The five free performances will be preceded by two open rehearsals on September 19 and 20. Historian John Bright will accompany the rehearsals with short talks on the church bells, previous Christ Church organs, and Hopkinson.

The Christ Church Preservation Trust will present In Plain Air at 1pm, 3:30pm, and 6pm on Saturday, September 22; and at 3:30pm and 6pm on Sunday, September 23 at Christ Church (2nd and Market Streets, Philadelphia). It will present open dress rehearsals on Wednesday, September 19 and Thursday, September 20 at 3pm. Tickets are free at the door, limited seating available. Guaranteed seating is $2 with advanced reservations.