Concert

In an annual rite known as Upfront Week, NBC, Fox, ABC, CBS, and the CW just presented their lineups for the 2012-13 TV season to advertisers in New York. The ceremonies took place in some of the city's most august concert Halls (Carnegie, Avery Fisher, Radio City Music) over four days. The broadcast companies introduced only 20 new series for the fall (down from 27 last season). NBC led the pack with six new shows. Fox and the CW had half that many. Like it or not, an awful lot of familiar faces will be returning in the fall.

THIS YEAR'S CONCERT SEASON, called the "Essence of Entertainment," will run from July 7 to Aug. 25. The 2011 Dell summer concert series is as follows: July 7: Angie Stone and Joe July 14: Stephanie Mills and Keith Washington July 21: The Delfonics, Jerry Butler, Jean Carne, the Jones Girls, Russell Thompkins and the Stylistics July 28: Ginuwine, Tank and Avant Aug. 4: Fred Hammond and Martha Munizzi Aug.11: Jeffrey...

Part of the original exterior design of the University of Pennsylvania's venerable Palestra are vertical bands of rusticated limestone that offset the building's brick facade. The stonework, obviously intended to be ornamental, can look like a ladder of sorts, with exaggerated joints between the stones, just deep enough to stick a shoe in. Since this is Philadelphia, if it looks like a ladder, it will be used as a ladder. Getting into sports events and concerts, or just into a gym to play ball, is a fine Philly tradition.

Concert promoters and the city are still a long way from working out logistics for the Labor Day weekend Made in America music festival unveiled Monday, the first Parkway event ever to require paid admission. But with audiences limited to 50,000 people each day, the festival will be just one-tenth of the estimated size of past Parkway mega-events, like the Live 8 concert to help African nations and Elton John's July Fourth appearance for AIDS relief, both in 2005. "If you compare this to Wawa Welcome America, we have hundreds of thousands there for that event, so we have a bit of a track record there to guide all of the agencies - the police, L&I, the managing director's office, Public Property, and others - that would be participating in something like this," said Mayor Nutter's press secretary, Mark McDonald.

THE QUARTET OF thirtysomething women chatted happily as they wandered through the lobby of the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, talking about the acts they'd see at this year's Lilith women's music festival. But on entering the "shed" a look of horror came over one gal's face. She gazed upon the sea of empty seats and despaired, "Hey, where is everybody?" Where, indeed? For some concertgoers - and even more so, some concert promoters - summer 2010 is proving a season of discontent and disappointment.

Few voices have ever been so pervasive on the classical music landscape as Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's — but even fewer singers disappeared so far into art as to leave minimal personal footprints. In the wake of his death Friday at 86, one can't help but stand back, amid his warmer vocal descendants, and ask: Who was this tall, contained, controlled man who emerged from the ruins of World War II with Olympian vocal perfection that seemed to transcend even his own humanity? "His audience — a large one — received the songs as if they were divine truth," wrote Inquirer music critic Daniel Webster, Fischer-Dieskau's 1974 recital at the Academy of Music, one of many he gave here from the mid-1950s into the '80s.

What inspires a Broadway and Hollywood great to return to concert performing after an eight-year absence? "It was now or never," said Julie Andrews of the concert tour bringing her to Valley Forge Music Fair tonight through Sunday. "I reckoned that in another five or 10 years, I might regret not having done it. If I could say, 'I had the chance and I didn't take it,' I'd feel a bit of a fool. " Andrews is one of the most versatile and charming women ever to grace the stage, screen and telly.

SHANGHAI, China - The heat was on. Having landed a spectacularly high-profile concert in the first week of Shanghai's Expo 2010 on Friday, the Philadelphia Orchestra and various partner organizations sweated bullets to get maximum mileage out of the situation, under the kind of inexplicably restrictive circumstances that prompt an oh-well-that's-China shrug. To prepare for Friday's rehearsals, news conference, lavish reception, and concert - tailored for the expansive, architecturally spectacular Expo Culture Center - the orchestra's staff pulled all-night work sessions and improvised last-minute remedies for potentially fatal problems.

Now that Maestro Riccardo Muti is the music director of La Scala, will he strive to replace Milan's beautiful opera house with a modern facility? Mr. Muti has, on several occasions, expressed disdain for his Philadelphia audience and has made it very clear that Italy is his home. Why are we allowing him to convince us that we must replace the venerable Academy of Music for a contemporary music hall? I believe that the concert patrons of Philadelphia, if asked, would prefer to enjoy their orchestra in the academy's beautiful surroundings.

Mary, Mother of the Redeemer Church in North Wales will present a holiday concert featuring internationally known Irish tenor Mark Forrest at 3:30 p.m. Sunday. Forrest will be joined by the parish chorale and other musical ministries in a performance that will include traditional Christmas music, Irish songs and popular holiday music. Admission is $10 for adults. There is no charge for children younger than 12. For advance tickets, call 215-362-7400. The church is at 1325 Upper State Rd. Evening events The Norristown New Life Church of Nazarene, 115 W. Freedley St., will present a live Nativity program next Thursday.

In Concert 2301 Boardwalk, Atlantic City; 609-348-7000. www.boardwalkhall.com . New Edition. $46-$127. 5/27. 8 pm.   9 S. Bryn Mawr Ave., Bryn Mawr; 610-864-4303. www.brynmawrtwilightconcerts.com . Beats Walkin'. $10; free 16 and under. 5/26. 7 pm.   1853 Wrightstown Rd., Washington Crossing; 215-493-6500. www.crossingvineyards.com . Fridays Unplugged. $10. 5/25.   421 N. Seventh St.; 215-569-9400. www.livenation.com . Thrice.

Anders Osborne He was born in Sweden in 1966, but for nearly three decades, Anders Osborne's home is in New Orleans, absorbing the Crescent City's rich musical gumbo - and other influences. The singer and guitarist's new album, Black Eye Galaxy , traces a harrowing, but ultimately uplifting, personal journey from darkness to light. It's one that the family man and recovering addict tells with a mastery of both heavy hard rock and gentle, rootsy acoustic music, the two divergent styles merging to tell one powerful story.

Few voices have ever been so pervasive on the classical music landscape as Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's — but even fewer singers disappeared so far into art as to leave minimal personal footprints. In the wake of his death Friday at 86, one can't help but stand back, amid his warmer vocal descendants, and ask: Who was this tall, contained, controlled man who emerged from the ruins of World War II with Olympian vocal perfection that seemed to transcend even his own humanity? "His audience — a large one — received the songs as if they were divine truth," wrote Inquirer music critic Daniel Webster, Fischer-Dieskau's 1974 recital at the Academy of Music, one of many he gave here from the mid-1950s into the '80s.

Concert promoters and the city are still a long way from working out logistics for the Labor Day weekend Made in America music festival unveiled Monday, the first Parkway event ever to require paid admission. But with audiences limited to 50,000 people each day, the festival will be just one-tenth of the estimated size of past Parkway mega-events, like the Live 8 concert to help African nations and Elton John's July Fourth appearance for AIDS relief, both in 2005. "If you compare this to Wawa Welcome America, we have hundreds of thousands there for that event, so we have a bit of a track record there to guide all of the agencies - the police, L&I, the managing director's office, Public Property, and others - that would be participating in something like this," said Mayor Nutter's press secretary, Mark McDonald.

JAY-Z WILL join Mayor Nutter atop the Art Museum steps at 10:30 Monday morning to announce a multiday concert festival on Labor Day weekend called Made in America. The New York Times reported Sunday night that the Budweiser Made in America festival will feature 28 bands over two nights, Sept. 1 and 2, in Fairmount Park. The location of Monday morning's announcement could indicate the Parkway. A portion of proceeds are to benefit the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey.

How is a two-day concert on the Parkway gonna charge for tickets and keep people from just standing around watching free? We're still waiting for the city and concert promoter Live Nation to answer this one. But Monday morning, Jay-Z joined Mayor Nutter atop the Art Museum steps to announce what we reported Saturday at PhillyGossip.com and had in print Monday, that the Budweiser Made in America festival will take place Sept. 1 and 2. Tickets are $99 for a two-day pass and are on sale May 23 at LiveNation.com and Ticketmaster.com.

Part of the original exterior design of the University of Pennsylvania's venerable Palestra are vertical bands of rusticated limestone that offset the building's brick facade. The stonework, obviously intended to be ornamental, can look like a ladder of sorts, with exaggerated joints between the stones, just deep enough to stick a shoe in. Since this is Philadelphia, if it looks like a ladder, it will be used as a ladder. Getting into sports events and concerts, or just into a gym to play ball, is a fine Philly tradition.

Though the program had its oddities and performances could be tentative, Christian Gerhaher left no doubt Thursday at his Philadelphia debut recital that he possesses a Stradivarius among voices and is one of the most cultivated singers in the new generation of German art-song interpreters. You could have guessed that by the Andras Schiff stamp of approval: The in-demand pianist only occasionally accompanies singers, but there he was, playing a secondary role to this Bavaria-born baritone, so little known in the United States.