Philadelphia Orchestra’s Pride Concert is back in spite of DOGE cuts, this time with extra support and a doubly defiant mood
The program, hosted by drag queen Trixie Mattel, includes Madonna’s “Vogue,” Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way,” and works by Tchaikovsky and Bernstein.
Noted drag queen Trixie Mattel will host this year’s Philadelphia Orchestra Pride Concert, with conductor Carolyn Kuan leading the orchestra and four local choral groups.
The June 30 concert in Marian Anderson Hall, which includes works by Bernstein, Tchaikovsky, Lady Gaga, and Madonna, is free, but tickets are required and available starting Tuesday.
This is the orchestra’s fifth annual pride concert. Last year’s event gathered a groundswell of support after the Trump administration’s DOGE program cut a $25,000 grant already awarded to the orchestra from the National Endowment for the Arts.
That the concert would happen again was never in doubt, but the news of the lost money generated extra support from others and a defiant mood in the concert hall. Local philanthropist James F. Dougherty issued a $100,000 challenge grant, and music and artistic director Yannick Nézet-Séguin donated his fee for the concert back to the orchestra.
“What makes this concert — what makes this month of Pride so great,” said drag host Martha Graham Cracker to a full house last year, “is how it brings us all together to celebrate who we are and what we are. And that love trumps hate. Let me rephrase. Love beats hate.”
This year the orchestra is joined by the ANNACrusis Feminist Choir, Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus, Philadelphia Voices of Pride, and the Transcendent Choir of Philadelphia.
The program includes Madonna’s “Vogue,” Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way,” Sondheim’s “Sunday” from Sunday in the Park with George, and Carly Simon’s “Let the River Run” from Working Girl. Joining the concert are two performers from The Notebook, which opens at the Academy of Music in July.
Mattel has appeared on several nationally televised drag shows, including RuPaul’s Drag Race, and was the subject of the 2019 documentary Trixie Mattel: Moving Parts.
The orchestra’s June 30 Pride Concert. Marian Anderson Hall, Broad and Spruce Sts.,7 p.m. Tickets at philorch.org/pride. Seating is general admission and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
