Philadelphia

Philadelphia (/ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə/) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the fifth-most-populous in the United States, with an estimated population in 2014 of 1,560,297. In the Northeastern United States, at the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill River, Philadelphia is the economic and cultural anchor of the Delaware Valley, a metropolitan area home to 7.2 million people and the eighth-largest combined statistical area in the United States.

In 1682, William Penn founded the city to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia played an instrumental role in the American Revolution as a meeting place for the Founding Fathers of the United States, who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the Constitution in 1787. Philadelphia was one of the nation's capitals in the Revolutionary War, and served as temporary U.S. capital while Washington, D.C., was under construction. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became a major industrial center and railroad hub that grew from an influx of European immigrants. It became a prime destination for African-Americans in the Great Migration and surpassed two million occupants by 1950.

All in the Timing

All in the Timing is a collection of one-act plays by the American playwright David Ives, written between 1987 and 1993. It had its premiere Off-Broadway in 1993 at Primary Stages, and was revived at Primary Stages in 2013. It was first published by Dramatists Play Service in 1994, with a collection of six plays; however, the updated collection contains fourteen. The short plays are almost all comedies (or comedy-dramas), focusing mainly on language and wordplay, existentialist perspectives on life and meaning, and the complications involved in romantic relationships. High-school and college students frequently perform the plays, often due to their brevity and undemanding staging requirements.

The Original Six Plays

The Philadelphia Singers

The Philadelphia Singers was a choir in Philadelphia, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The group was founded by Michael Korn in 1972 and was currently directed by David Hayes. In 2001, The Philadelphia Singers was named "Resident Chorus of The Philadelphia Orchestra" and was the only chorus to receive this distinction.

The Philadelphia Singers appeared twice at the Lincoln Center Festival with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic, premiering for the first time in the United States works by Krysztof Penderecki and Dov Seltzer. The choir also appeared with The Philadelphia Orchestra, premiering in the United States works by Sir James MacMillan, Luciano Berio, and Augusta Read Thomas as well as world premieres of works by Daniel Kellogg and Jennifer Higdon.

The Philadelphia Singers maintained its own annual subscription series and was the only Philadelphia ensemble to have a regular national radio broadcast on Public Radio International called "Christmas with The Philadelphia Singers". The program was a live broadcast of its annual concert, "Christmas on Logan Square", at St. Clement's Church. The ensemble was devoted to presenting choral music from all periods with a particular focus on American choral music.

Singing

Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of tonality, rhythm, the use of sustained tones and a variety of vocal techniques. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung without accompaniment or with accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is often done in a group of other musicians, such as in a choir of singers with different voice ranges, or in an ensemble with instrumentalists, such as a rock group or baroque ensemble. Singers may also perform as soloist with accompaniment from a piano (as in art song and in some jazz styles) or with a symphony orchestra or big band. There are a range of different singing styles, including art music styles such as opera and Chinese opera, religious music styles such as Gospel, traditional music styles, world music, jazz, blues and popular music styles such as pop and rock.

Singing can be formal or informal, arranged or improvised. It may be done for religious devotion, as a hobby, as a source of pleasure, comfort, or ritual, as part of music education, or as a profession. Excellence in singing requires time, dedication, instruction, and regular practice. If practice is done on a regular basis then the sounds can become more clear and strong. Professional singers usually build their careers around one specific musical genre, such as classical or rock, although there are singers with crossover success (singing in more than one genre). They typically take voice training provided by voice teachers or vocal coaches throughout their careers.

David Hayes

David Hayes may refer to:

See also