A MORE PERFECT UNION will present concerts across the city, leading up to America’s 250th anniversary in Summer 2026. It will celebrate Philadelphia’s role as the birthplace of our nation, and the Constitution’s progress in achieving a more equitable blueprint for democracy. The issues that Orchestra 2001 will address are more relevant now than ever, exploring both profound and lighthearted music by dozens of composers, past and present.

First Amendment:

Freedom of Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly, and Petition

Second Amendment:

Right to Bear Arms

Thirteenth Amendment:

Abolition of Slavery

Fifteenth Amendment:

Right to Vote Not Denied by Race

Nineteenth Amendment:

Women’s Right to Vote

Twenty-First Amendment:

Repeal of Prohibition

(Amendment summaries from the National Constitution Center, Philadelphia)

The Spring 2025 launch of A MORE PERFECT UNION will be inspired by three Amendments:

• Second Amendment discourse starting with the Colonial American fife and drum corps music that accompanied musket-armed militias, paired with contemporary music painting modern day gun violence and gun control debates

• Newly-commissioned flash mob music celebrating the Freedom of Assembly

• Our initial Repeal of Prohibition events featuring drinking songs of many cultures and culminating in 2026 with citywide “musical bar crawls” at pubs, wine tastings, and distilleries
  

Lead support for "A MORE PERFECT UNION" from the Philadelphia Funder Collaborative for the Semiquincentennial:

Connelly Foundation

Pew Charitable Trusts

William Penn Foundation

Neubauer Family Foundation

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