ZALON
About
The Salon, a renowned performance series modeled after the 19th Century European salons, was founded in September 1986 by composer Andrea Clearfield. The Salon was conceived with the idea of integrating different music genres as well as other arts. "One of the best-known music salons in the country" with "deep bench of topflight musicians" (The Philadelphia Inquirer), and winner of the "Best of Philly Award 2008" (Philadelphia Magazine), this Salon features high level performances of classical chamber music, opera, jazz, original contemporary compositions, electronic, folk, experimental, world music, spoken word, dance and multimedia works. Near the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, the Salon reflects the strong tradition of music in Philadelphia, builds audiences and fosters new art forms in an intimate and supportive atmosphere.
The first Salon of the COVID-19 pandemic was to take place in March 2020. It was the first event in the 34-year history of the series to be cancelled. It was a difficult choice, but the correct one.
By chance, Adam Vidiksis, a composer, technologist, and frequent performer on the Salon, had been scheduled to perform. He and Andrea quickly devised a way to share the Salon performances remotely via Zoom. Thus, the Zalon was born to continue the community and artistry of the Salon during a time when we could not easily be together. Currently there is a new and exciting hybrid. The SZALON = Zalon + Salon (remote and local performers streamed in and out to local and remote audiences), expanding the community.
Website
Programs
Zalon Team
Andrea Clearfield – Salon host and founder, composer
Adam Vidiksis – Technical Director
Lex Simakas – Engineer, Website Manager
Alex Glass – Engineer
Manu Gajanan – Engineer
Bill Houston – Video Engineer
Gerardo Razumney – Lead Engineer, Treasurer, Video Editor
Stephen Metzger – Video Editing
Andrew Litts – Engineer
Michael Schweisheimer – Audio Archival Engineer
