New Paragraph
Coming – May-June 2026!
“A MORE PERFECT UNION: Musical Reflections on Five Amendments to the U.S. Constitution” will present concerts in months prior to America's 250th, interpreting constitutional amendments through the lens of contemporary music. New commissions and existing works by 30 diverse American composers – including 7 Pulitzer- and Grammy-winners, and 15 Philadelphians – will examine our nation’s blueprint for democracy, provoking both profoundly serious and light-hearted thoughts on freedoms of speech, religion, press, assembly, and petition; the right to bear arms; the abolition of slavery; women’s suffrage; and the repeal of prohibition.
The U.S. Constitution was authored by forward-thinking “Founding Fathers,” who were in hindsight, far from perfect men. It therefore comes as no surprise that some extremely important and blatantly obvious rights were omitted in their first edition! A MORE PERFECT UNION will explore legislation that was necessary to improve the foundational structure of our government, penned here in Philadelphia, with a series of free and pay-as-you-wish events at historic sites and indoor/outdoor venues, concluding with a musical bar-crawl.
First Amendment:
Freedom of Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly, and Petition
Second Amendment:
Right to Bear Arms
Thirteenth Amendment:
Abolition of Slavery
Nineteenth Amendment:
Women’s Right to Vote
Twenty-First Amendment:
Repeal of Prohibition
(Amendment summaries from the National Constitution Center, Philadelphia)
A MORE PERFECT UNION
Event Schedule UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Tuesday, May 26, 2026, repeated lunch-hour concerts; 12:30 pm & 1:15 pm
Women’s Right to Vote
Valerie Gay – Unfinished Chorus: What They Started
An all-woman ensemble from Orchestra 2001 with 25 members of the Girls High School Chorus
Dilworth Plaza – City Hall
1 S. 15th Street, Philadelphia 19102
Sunday, May 31, 2026, 7:30 pm
Freedom of Religion
Mark Loria, conductor/organist
Ned Rorem – A Quaker Reader
Kurt Weill – Kiddush
Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate – Oshta, on a Choctaw church hymn
Reena Esmail – Testament from the Vishwas
Tan Dun – Prayer and Blessing
Other TBA
Christ Church
20 N. American Street, Philadelphia 19106
Friday, June 5, 7:00 pm
Other Dates/Locations to be announced soon!
Right to Bear Arms
Anonymous – My Dog and Gun
Anonymous – Philadelphia March
William Billings – Chester
Anonymous – Three Camps
Anonymous – The Congress
Philly Fife and Drum Company
Anonymous – Civil War Bugle Calls
Jennifer Higdon – rapid•fire
David DiGiacobbe, flute
Raven Chacon – Report
Thomas Whitman – Fanfare for the Second Amendment / Say It Loud!
Fort Mifflin on the Delaware River
6400 Hog Island Road, Philadelphia 19153
Sunday, June 7, 2026, 7:00 pm
Abolition of Slavery
Rhiannon Giddens – At the Purchaser's Option
Jessie Montgomery – Passage
Valerie Coleman – Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes
Carlos Simon – Requiem for the Enslaved
African American Museum in Philadelphia
701 Arch Street, Philadelphia 19106
Thursday, June 11, 2026, 7:30 pm
Freedoms of Petition, Speech, and Assembly
Charles Ives – Nov. 2, An Election
Fredric Rzewski – The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!)
Hugh Sung and Madalina Danila, pianists
Settlement School of Music, Queen Village
416 Queen Street, Philadelphia 19147
Freedom of the Press
Chuck Butler – Stop The Presses
For string quartet (the press), heavy metal band (government), soprano saxophone (left-wing pundit), and French horn (right-wing pundit)
Freedom of Assembly
Jay Krush – Some Assembly Required
For musical flash mob
Repeal of Prohibition (a musical bar-crawl)
Thomas Whitman – A Hummingbird Flies to Mars*
*In 1930, Texas Senator Morris Sheppard famously said, “There is as much chance of repealing the 18th Amendment as there is for a hummingbird to fly to the planet Mars with the Washington Monument tied to its tail.”
Chuck Holdeman – In vino veritas (In wine, there is truth)
Darin Kelly – Irish drinking song
Kile Smith – German drinking song
Nina Siniakova – Russian drinking song
Shinjoo Cho – Korean drinking song
Susan Watts – Klezmer/Jewish drinking song
Robert Maggio – Sicilian drinking song
Other TBA
