The Score | Music to Vote By

This November, long lines were expected on Election Day around the country, and performing arts centers and concert halls embraced a new civic role by serving as polling places, and musicians provided inspiration by playing music to vote by. At the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, a quartet from the Philadelphia Orchestra performed for voters and poll workers. Seated at a safe distance in the balcony were violinist Elina Kalendarova and Miyo Curnow, Assistant Principal Viola Kerri Ryan, and cellist Kathryn Picht Read, who performed classics and patriotic music including America the Beautiful and Lift Every Voice and Sing. The Philadelphia Orchestra also posted a free online concert honoring poll workers and ballot counters, and other orchestras offered similar tributes. In Boston, cellist Mike Block launched Play for the Vote, a multi-state initiative enlisting musicians to perform outside polling stations on Election Day. Hundreds of musicians signed up, representing 32 states and the District of Columbia. The Brooklyn-based Experiential Orchestra commissioned five digital projects to promote voting, featuring video and music by Lembit Beecher, Joseph Bologne, Judd Greenstein, Patrick Castillo, Gordon Monahan, and James Blachly, Experiential’s music director. On the West Coast, the Los Angeles Philharmonic turned the Hollywood Bowl, designed to accommodate thousands of concertgoers and their cars, into a voting center.