The News Journal from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 178

12 SUNDAY NEWS JOURNAL MARCH 4, 2001 WWW.DELAWARE0NLINE.COM MARCH 4, 2001 SUNDAY NEWS JOURNAL 13 rtfttiiiftrn If '93 fflroa of tfcs Arts 'CI" What's Hot City of Cultural Love VINE ST. F5f Ricky Martin and Christina Aguilera have rerecorded "Nobody Wants to be Lonely" originally a ballad on Martin's latest LP, "Sound Loaded" as a danced-up duet. The song will be added to future pressings of the album, replacing the current version. Versions now in stores will be bundled with a separate copy of the new single. Sony Music says people already owning copies of "Sound Loaded" can get the single online or by mailing in a sticker from the album cover.

4 When the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts is completed, Philadelphia's Avenue of the Arts will have a beautiful new face and a vibrant new musical heart CE ST. Academy of Fin Arts CHERRY ST 1 IT ARCH a FILBERT ST. City 1 Hell a-- MARKET What's Coming Al Pacino has signed on to the Warner Bros, remake of the 1997 Norwegian film "Insomnia," Online reports. Pacino plays a police investigator who accidentally kills his partner while working on a murder case. The murderer then blackmails him into blaming an innocent person for the crime.

Filming begins in April. fir. 0 By BILL HAYDEN Staff reporter Wilmington lawyer Stuart Young and his wife, Toni, have regularly attended Philadelphia Orchestra concerts at the Academy of Music. Starting in December, they won't be going there. Nor will the orchestra.

The orchestra will be moving a block down Broad Street to an impressive new concert hall at the corner of Spruce Street in Center City Philadelphia. "The Academy is a classy, beautiful building," Young says, "but the new place looks elegant and exciting." Designed by Raphael Vignoly and under construction since November 1998, the $255 million Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts serves as a tangible exclamation Al Pacino CHESTNUT ST. ii mm m- Prince Music On the Calendar SANSOM ST. 'hter WALNUT ST. Academy of Music I CO LOCUST ST.

Photo courtesy of Philadelphia Orchestra; artist renderings courtesy of Regional Performing Arts Center The members of the Philadelphia Orchestra might be eager to move In, but they will have to wait until December to perform in their new digs at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, the grand addition to the Avenue of the Arts. Theater i t-trs cc CD Wllma Theater point that development of Broad Street as the Avenue of the Arts is blossoming. Actually two buildings covered by a 150-foot-tall, glass-arched roof and operated by the Performing Arts Center, the Kimmel will be the home of the orchestra, the Philadelphia Pops, Phildanco contemporary dance company, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and several other performing groups. When it opens its doors to the public with a weekend celebration starting Dec. 14, the Kimmel will join a growing number of arts venues stretching from the Academy of Music at Locust Street down Broad to the Pennsylvania Ballet's offices and studios at Washington Avenue.

In between are the Merriam Theater, where Broadway touring companies perform; the Wilma Theatre, a professional regional theater; the Arts Bank, a small theater run by the University of the Arts; Brandywine Workshop arts galleries and the Clef Club jazz club. There's also the University of the Arts and the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts. Just off Broad on Chestnut Street is the Hal Prince Music Theater, another regional company Many of these have opened since the nonprofit Avenue of the Arts Inc. was formed in 1993 to develop the areas as the city's cultural district. i "The performing arts center is evidence that the dis-s trict has reached critical mass," says Karen Lewis, the group's executive director.

A 1998 economic-impact study shows 1 million people attended cultural activities there. Lewis estimates that the number has grown by about 10 percent since and expects it to explode when the Kimmel opens. "We also have a good start on filling in around these institutions with restaurants, businesses and residential properties," Lewis says. "The diversity is important to keep the district vital and alive." She expects a major retailer to announce plans soon to locate on Broad Street. Most of the growth and attention has been centered on Broad Street south of City Hall, but the Avenue of the Arts extends another three miles north to include such facilities as the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Freedom Theatre regional theater and Temple University's performance halls.

That area is next on group's list for attention. However, the idea of Broad Street as a cultural mecca goes back before the group was formed. In the mid-'80s, the Philadelphia Orchestra bought the site at Broad and Spruce streets and announced plans to build a state-of-the-art concert hall. "For decades, the orchestra has wanted a concert hall," says orchestra spokeswoman Judith Kurnick. "The Academy of Music was built as an opera house.

The acoustics there are not meant for symphony performances." hall, the city of Philadelphia began planning a performing arts center in the next block of Broad Street. In 1996, the two projects were merged, with the Kimmel as a result. "We wanted a landmark piece of world-class architecture that says both culture and Philadelphia the instant people see it, like the Sydney Opera House in Australia," says Stephanie Naidoff, president of the Regional Performing Arts Center. "We also wanted the center to fit comfortably into its surroundings, providing a smooth transition from the towering office buildings around City Hall and the shorter ones to the south." Architect Vignoly whose work in New York, Boston, South Korea and Japan has earned praise gives the Kimmel its feel of matching the neighboring skyscrapers without an illusion of bulk by using the towering glass roof. Under this roof are two buildings.

One is the Verizon Hall, where the orchestra will be based. The other is the 650-seat Perelman Theater, to be used for Today's best The Kennett Symphony, along with the Longwood Dance Theatre and the Kennett Symphony Children's Chorus, performs "Carnival of the Animals," music for ages 4 and older. The free performances are at 2 and 3:30 p.m. at Kennett High School, 300 E. South Kennett Square, Pa.

(610) Coming Monday For almost 60 years, spoons decorated with images of birds were the rage during 1 8th- and 1 9th-century America. You can see plenty of them at "Flights of Fancy: American Silver Bird-Decorated Spoons," on view through April 20 at Winterthur. $8, $6 for students and seniors, $4 for ages 4-1 1 Winterthur is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through' Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday.

The museum is on Del. 52, six miles northwest of Wilmington. Call 888-4600. onni pt University I rU 1 i riiieoi. I 1st' 'V ft) I 1 i Mr I -'Y'J'J LOMBARD ST.

SOUTH ST. Philadelphia PI Arts Bank i-J Tonight's TV BAINBRIOGE ST. Brilliant hackers short on social skills investigate con-soiracies on the of "Tha I nn Oi mmpn At fl on Fox (WTTG5, WTXF29, WBFF45). am SWV i "in r-nm im Ml l-mmh, 1 Vim i hi "IMil hi' I i ii I Mij i ii i ma i i il Workshop Clef Club F1 Flrehouss Art Center FITZWATERST. The Last Word m- With Its 150-foot-tall arched glass roof, the Kimmel Cen- CATHARINE ST.

1 Philadelphia CHRISTIAN ST. HcrI.5Tv ndr Performing Arts The acoustics In Verizon Hall can be adjusted based on both who is performing and what music is being performed. cific programs being performed," Naidoff says. When the Kimmel opens, the Academy of Music will return to the purpose for which it was designed in 1854. It will be the home stage of the Philadelphia Opera and Pennsylvania Ballet.

Naidoff also would like to book tours of Broadway shows into it. "We'd like to have 6,000 people a night walking along Broad Street to use its cultural facilities," she says. Stuart Young intends to be among that number. "I think the orchestra sounds very good in the Academy" he says. "If what they are saying about the acoustics is true, I can hardly wait to hear it in the new place." 'oi uooignea io db an arcnueciurai lannmorn.

chamber music and by smaller performing groups. It also contains rehearsal space, a studio theater, classrooms, rooftop terrace, cafe and restaurant and an indoor public plaza. "The center is designed as a public space, an all-weather town square available all the time and not just when the performance halls are in use," Naidoff says. To ensure that those performance halls present the orchestra and other groups at their best, Naidoff 's organization brought in award-winning acoustic designer Russell Johnson. "The acoustics in Verizon Hall can be adjusted to fit not only whatever orchestra is playing there, but the spe- All babies might be born with perfect pitch, new research suggests.

Jenny R. Saffran and Gregory J. Griepentrog of the University of Wisconsin in Madison played streams of bell-like tones to 8-month-old babies. The infants focused their attention much more on the tones when played in perfect pitch. The researchers speculated that the same structure that people are born with that enables them to learn language might also enable babies to recognize perfect pitch.

"We certainly know that infants are not blank slates, and that they enter the world with a structure or hard-wiring that helps them learri," said Saffran. "We may not have dedicated hardware just for language. The structure is probably general to many complex forms of learning, including music." CARPENTER ST. The News JournalVERN A THOMPSON The glass arch covering the entire arts complex allows It to be used as an all-weather public space..