In Tuesday’s (9/29) Philadelphia Inquirer, David Patrick Stearns writes, “A night on the town in Lansdale, a blue-collar borough of 17,000 people, hasn’t the widest range of options, but 60 or so more were just added—conveniently located between the hardware and health-food stores. The Lansdale Center for the Performing Arts, converted from the Montgomery County town’s longtime Masonic Temple, began its first full season on Friday with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.” The orchestra’s primary venue is the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. The Lansdale Center, 28 miles outside of Philadelphia, offers residents a more local option for hearing the ensemble. “Only the center’s first phase is ready for the public—a 240-seat chamber music hall designed with a distinctively wavy ceiling for acoustical purposes. An art gallery doubles as a reception room. An education room hosts workshops and master classes. The more-ambitious Phase 2 for a second hall twice as large as the present one has a fund-raising goal of $7 million—extremely modest by bigger-city standards. … For the Chamber Orchestra, the project represents outreach, with special, chamber-sized programs fashioned specifically for Lansdale.”
Posted September 29, 2009
