News

Philadelphia Sinfonia is Heading to a New Home!

July 22, 2023

Four blocks north of Reading Terminal Market, stands a newly renovated building that houses a new arts facility for the historic Roman Catholic High School a block away.

The Howard Center for the Arts covers the entire second floor of a former warehouse, that stretches along most of a city block. Clean and filled with light, it houses wide hallways and multiple spaces devoted to the visual and performing arts – from a piano lab and band room to substantial classrooms, small lesson and practice rooms, to a huge black box theater for very large rehearsals, performances, and events.

The school does not use this space on Saturdays. Eager to form relationships with area arts groups, the school has embraced our program as a resident organization. Thus, Philadelphia Sinfonia has contracted with Roman Catholic High School for us to occupy the entire space on Saturdays from late August through early June.

In August, we move in — well in time for fall auditions and our opening rehearsals for the 2023 – 24 season on September 9, 2023.

This new home will provide many advantages for our program: additional spaces for sectionals, small master classes or rehearsals, student and parent meetings whenever we want or need them.

We can hold our PSS rehearsals simultaneously with our other rehearsals on Saturdays, and our equipment (percussion, music library, music stands and other operational equipment) will be stored in safe, private, climate controlled conditions.

Substantial information about parking, SEPTA transit, and area amenities will be sent to families later this summer. In the meantime, our artistic staff is super-excited about the prospects of this new home, while the administrative staff is preparing for a busy summer of moving.

We leave St. Stephen’s with many wonderful memories and huge appreciation for its beauty, its acoustics, its generous staff, and for its magnanimous shelter for the last twenty-three years, while we embrace the new with a sense of adventure, opportunity, and excitement.