Ben Folds is coming to celebrate the Kimmel Center’s 25 years
The singer-songwriter will perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Steven Reineke.
Ben Folds will be on hand in December to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Kimmel Center. The singer-songwriter will perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Steven Reineke in the center’s Marian Anderson Hall Dec. 16 in a concert benefiting the orchestra musicians’ retirement fund.
Philadelphia’s arts center opened Dec. 14, 2001 with a series of concerts that included Elton John, Denyce Graves, and Yo-Yo Ma.
Folds has been a frequent visitor to Philadelphia ensembles, most recently in 2025 for the Independence Day concert by the reconstituted Philly Pops. This will be his third performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra. His first, in 2014, featured his Piano Concerto and orchestral arrangements of his songs.
Folds was artistic adviser to the National Symphony Orchestra and was among a number of artists who canceled appearances or ended relationships with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after Pres. Trump took control of the center.
Folds ended his 2025 appearance on Independence Mall prematurely when rained arrived and he broke into “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.” He did have time to perform “Kristine From the 7th Grade,” a work about a one-time classmate who begins sending him all-cap emails laced with dark memes and pseudoscience.
“Oh, what a shame, Kristine, this disease that makes strangers of friends,” the song went. “It’s such a short and sad and beautiful life. Do you ever see it that way?”
The program for Folds’s upcoming Philadelphia Orchestra concert is still under development, a spokesperson said. His 2019 program featured his own tunes, including “Brick,” “Zak and Sara,” “Jesusland,” “You Don’t Know Me” and “The Luckiest.”
Tickets — which range in price from $69 to $159 (plus fees) — go on sale for subscribers and members Oct. 5 at noon, with general tickets available beginning Thursday at noon. philorch.org, 215-893-1999.
