The 2024-2025 season opening concert for the Kennett Symphony Orchestra on Oct. 13, at the Uptown Knauer Performing Arts Center in West Chester, has once again proven this orchestra, under the direction of Michael Hall, can compete with any of the top regional professional orchestras in the U.S. Not only by the precision and excellence of its musicians, but by Hall’s skill of blending classics with newer repertoire.
The building that is now the Uptown Knauer Performing Arts Center was built in 1916 as a National Guard Armory, and for almost 100 years was home to the 1st Battalion, 111th Infantry and 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team. In May of 2012, when the Guard moved to their new facility near Coatesville, the historic armory was put up for sale.
The Uptown Theatre Alliance purchased the stately brick building in December 2015, and after a major year-long renovation project by Tevebaugh Architects, the now dramatic 327- seat theater opened with a glittering gala!
During Sunday’s introduction, orchestra Board President and former Dean of the School of Music at West Chester University, Dr. Timothy Blair, divulged a surprise. In October 2025, the orchestra has been invited to play in the legendary Carnegie Hall, New York City. Coincidentally it will be the orchestra’s 85th birthday. Much more of this in 2025.
Illustrating a penchant for blending classics with newer repertoire, Hall described the opening number Strum, as “frenetic”, and indeed it was. Composed in 2006 for string quartet and revised in 2012 for string orchestra, by 2024 Grammy Award winning violinist and composer Jessie Montgomery, the strings were alternately plucked, strummed like a guitar or bowed in dissonant harmonies and soaring melodies. Anyone new to the talent of this orchestra’s string section had no doubt of their brilliance and professionalism after the first selection.
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8 in F Major was a nod to the classics. With Beethoven’s heavy hand on the cellos, double basses and bassoons, matching his often-dark moods, Beethoven’s symphonies resonate in your whole body. It was nothing less than glorious.
But the highlight of the concert was Samuel Barber’s (1910- 1981) Concerto for Violin. Barber grew up at 107 South Church Street in West Chester and is buried on a remote shady hillside in Oakland Cemetery north of the borough. Most everyone reading this has heard his heart wrenching Adagio for Strings if only as the thematic music in Oliver Stone’s 1986 film, Platoon.
The amazing violin soloist was Lun Li, a 28-year-old phenomenon from Shanghai, China, who holds degrees from Curtis and Juilliard and plays a 1735 Stradivarius on generous loan from the Nippon Music Foundation. A breathless and spellbound audience leapt to their feet in an ovation at the end of the moto perpetuo third movement.
Oh – but did I mention the musical saw?
Many years ago, when this writer was student teaching in the old Warwick Elementary School in Knauertown in the Owen J. Roberts School District, the historic French Creek Falls Hotel in St. Peter’s Village was an easy walk. There one could hear Aunt Lena Knauer (1887-1978), a beautiful older lady, in Victorian dress, playing a saw with a violin bow! (Don’t you dare laugh). The sound was like an angel singing. Remember the soprano doing the melody over the old Star Trek theme? It was like that.
In October 2016, thanks to a generous contribution from Chris and Beth Knauer, the new theater was named The Uptown Knauer Performing Arts Center in honor of Chris Knauer’s grandmother, Laura Ellena “Aunt Lena” Kurtz Knauer.
And now you know.
PS- If you’re curious about what a saw sounds like, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE2nFMHRacg
About Sally Denk Hoey
Sally Denk Hoey, is a Gemini - one part music and one part history. She holds a masters degree cum laude from the School of Music at West Chester University. She taught 14 years in both public and private school. Her CD "Bard of the Brandywine" was critically received during her almost 30 years as a folk singer. She currently cantors masses at St Agnes Church in West Chester where she also performs with the select Motet Choir. A recognized historian, Sally serves as a judge-captain for the south-east Pennsylvania regionals of the National History Day Competition. She has served as president of the Brandywine Battlefield Park Associates as well as the Sanderson Museum in Chadds Ford where she now curates the violin collection. Sally re-enacted with the 43rd Regiment of Foot and the 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment for 19 years where she interpreted the role of a campfollower at encampments in Valley Forge, Williamsburg, Va., Monmouth, N.J. and Lexington and Concord, Mass. Sally is married to her college classmate, Thomas Hoey, otherwise known as "Mr. Sousa.”
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