East Joins West

East Joins West comes to the Perelman Theater on Saturday, Nov 21, at 3 PM. It's a choral collaboration that brings together the Greater Philadelphia Choral Society and the A Different Key Singers Association, with the New Jersey Chamber Orchestra on accompaniment. It's also a Kimmel Center first for this particular pairing.

The program pulls from two very different traditions. One half is drawn from the Chinese folk tradition; the other is John Rutter's Magnificat. The two sit side by side in the same afternoon, with the New Jersey Chamber Orchestra providing the instrumental backing for both.

Conductor William Gorton is the one who brought it together. He's the founding artistic director of the Central Virginia Masterworks Chorale and former artistic director of the New Jersey MasterChorale, and he's prepared a wide range of composers for this run: Brahms, Durufle, Handel, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Schubert, and Rutter. The Magnificat is the Rutter piece on the bill.

Two other names feature on the program. Vince di Mura is a concert jazz pianist, composer, and music director at Princeton University's Lewis Center for the Arts. Lina Zha is a Chinese mezzo-soprano whose original works have won national recognition and who has performed at Carnegie Hall. The performance is at the Perelman Theater, in the Kimmel Center at 300 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102, starting at 3 PM.