Coming up in Philly music: Curtis keeps us going through the summer

For years, many of us have been complaining that Philadelphia music organizations close down during the summer, even though the city can still provide an audience. Philadelphians may take vacations during the summer, but they’re still here most weeks. Many of our concert venues even offer a 20th-century innovation called air conditioning. The city also attracts more foreign tourists than it used to. Our civic leaders may find it hard to believe, but many of those people come from countries where the classical-music tradition is a routine aspect of life.

In the last four years, the Curtis Institute of Music has been alleviating the summer drought with its Summerfest faculty recitals. Summerfest is primarily an educational program, but faculty concerts are a traditional feature of music schools. The Summerfest teachers are all musicians with thriving careers, and their concerts demonstrate the expertise they offer a student roster that includes professionals, serious amateurs, and aspiring young people ages 14 to 22.

The last 2018 faculty concert will open with Benjamin Britten’s march-like Phantasy for oboe and strings and finish with a modern piece, Spiral Galaxy, by David Ludwig. The performers include the principal oboe of the Baltimore Orchestra, Katherine Needleman (Curtis ’99), and the distinguished violist Toby Appel (Curtis ’70). Appel will participate in one of the novelties on the program, a sonata for viola and double bass that teams him with a mainstay of the Philadelphia Baroque scene, double-bass player Heather Miller Lardin (Curtis ’96).

Curtis Summerfest presents Britten, Clarke, Dittersdorf, and Ludwig on Thursday, August 2, at 7pm at Curtis’s Field Concert Hall (1726 Locust Street, Philadelphia). Tickets are $28 and they’re available online and at the door.