Embedded Files
HEARING PHILADELPHIA
March 29, 2025
Philadelphia City Hall
Hearing Philadelphia is a community music project that seeks to amplify the voices of those Philadelphians lost to gun violence and the voices of their loved ones still healing from this trauma. Through music and storytelling, the work seeks to tap into listeners' collective humanity and create a communal space for remembrance and reflection—one that enlivens the senses and renews listeners' collective awareness to those around them.
Program
Movement I
This movement is about carrying voices forward—letting memory, breath, and sound resonate together in a space where they can be heard. Musicians will stand in the arcades of City Hall filling the space with sound.
Movement II
This movement is a gradual build—a gathering of rhythm and sound, transitioning through the
space and uniting into a collective resonance. The three groups of musicians will snake around the inner courtyard around the attendees and interact, following
the pulse of the drumline while maintaining a focus on their sustained tones.
Movement III
Families remember their loved ones and speak their names. There will be no music. Please stand quietly surrounding the attendees and families.
Led by Terrez McCleary of Moms Bonded by Grief
Movement IV
In responses to the shared remembrances, performers and attendees shout "We love you and we miss you". Selected musicians freely solo above ensemble.
Movement V
Led by drumline, performers head North, chanting "We love you and we miss you".
Performers will lead willing attendees out of the arcade and return through the West arcade.
This piece is not finished. It will continue—repeated, adapted, and reimagined—until the epidemic of gun violence in our city and nation has ended — until we no longer lose lives to preventable violence.
Hearing Philadelphia Ensemble
*section leaders
Vocalists
Jay Fluellen*
Janeē Henderson
Joanna (Asia) Mieleszko
Rhyuhn Green
Skyy Brooks
Jan Krzywicki
Strings
Sepehr Pirasteh*
Chelsea Faulkner
Jianing Xie
Krysta Fogel
Madam PG Curry
Max Temnogorod
Rebecca Roland
Shelley Henderson
Woodwind
Chelsea Meynig*
Christine Salzmann
Mark Seidman
Stéfan Hoïmes
Eli Wynn
Ihba Baskette
Ryoko Ohara
Thomas Razler
Tom Rivers
Brass
Dan Noshey*
William Dougherty
Percussion
Tony Royster*
Don Wyne (PME)
Drew McKie (PME)
Karen "Magic Fingaz" Smith
Katherine Streit
Maya Rivers (PME)
Creative Director
William Dougherty is an American composer, sound artist, and writer. His creative work engages with elements of loss, decay, and memory through the sounds of audio recordings and audio recording technologies. With a particular interest in collaborative and community-based models of composition, Dougherty’s work questions notions of authorship, agency, and the work concept.
Project Manager
Skyy Brooks is a Philadelphia native jazz vocalist and musician in the Harvard- Berklee Joint Studies Program. At Harvard, she studies African and African American Studies, exploring the intersection of Black art and educational inequality. At Berklee, Skyy is pursuing a Master’s degree in Global Jazz studies. Using her voice, Skyy aims to preserve Black tradition and inspire memory through music.
Collaborators
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Carole Haas Gravagno and The Kreielsheimer/Jones Grant from the Arts Division of the College of Arts & Sciences at University of Washington in Seattle for their generous contributions to Hearing Philadelphia!
Special thanks to all those who shared their stories, Terrez McCleary and Moms Bonded by Grief for collaborating and helping coordinate, Positive Movement Drumline, The Hearing Philadelphia Ensemble and section leaders, Hayley Collins and The Church of St. Luke & The Epiphany, and Movies In Motion!
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