Philadelphia Icons - Singing City Concert

Singing City Choir of Philadelphia performs at the Race Street Meetinghouse at Friends Center on Sunday, October 25, at 3 PM. This is part of their 2026-2027 Artistic Season, which spends the year looking at the Philadelphia voices, visionaries and changemakers who shaped the city's history.

The program centers on five figures who challenged injustice: anti-slavery abolitionists Lucretia Mott and Harriet Tubman, the minister and composer Charles Albert Tindley, and vocal artists Marian Anderson and Paul Robeson. You'll hear Stand Up from the movie Harriet as part of that. Mezzo-soprano and Philadelphia native Marietta Simpson joins the choir to perform movements from Mendelssohn's Elijah, and the concert features the Philadelphia premiere of Here I Stand, composed by Carlos Simon on the life of Paul Robeson.

Singing City has been around since 1948 and describes itself as an artistically driven, socially conscious and civically engaged vocal movement. To mark its 75th anniversary, the choir commissioned 27 composers to write short works for the Singing City Songbook. They also run a free weekly choral program for young singers of all ages, Singing City: Next Generation.

The concert is at the Race Street Meetinghouse at Friends Center, 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102, on Sunday, October 25, at 3 PM. Admission is free.