Also this issue: Trading Spaces Fleisher/Ollman Gallery celebrates a milestone anniversary with a change of location. -Susan Hagen Degas Vu The Art Museum transports you back to Degas' world. -Robin Rice Ballet Lessons A dance critic's perspective on “Degas and the Dance.” -Janet Anderson 19th Annual Celebration of Black Writing -Elisa Ludwig Tango Buenos Aires -Deni Kasrel Jeanne Ruddy Dance -Deni Kasrel The Magic Flute -Steve Cohen The Dreyfuss Affair: A Love Story -David Anthony Fox

February 13-19, 2003

artpicks

Concerts for the Community

The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, one of the most civic-minded of Philly's arts groups, joins with the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia to present a fine series of low-priced but high-octane "Concerts for the Community." Wednesday's offering showcases dynamic locally based performers with international reputations. Mezzo Marietta Simpson has followed in the footsteps of fellow Philadelphians Marian Anderson and Florence Quivar to become one of the most sought-after concert artists in the country. She collaborated many times with the late choral guru Robert Shaw. Bass Eric Owens, fondly remembered for a mellow Sarastro in the Opera Company of Philadelphia's Magic Flute, is one of a new generation of young African-American male singers finding the international gigs that eluded many of their elders. These two splendid vocalists join the Temple University Concert Choir in a diverse program of intriguing, too-little-heard music spanning several centuries and cultures.

Concerts for the Community, Wed., Feb. 19, 8 p.m., $7.50-$15, Pennsylvania Convention Center, 13th and Cherry sts., 215-569-8080.

—David Shengold