The Philly Pops Neighborhood Concerts continue this weekend with two more May offerings, bringing world-class music into Philadelphia neighborhoods at a deliberate $5 to $15 ticket range. Now in its second season of partnership with Artcinia and funded by a grant from the William Penn Foundation, the program is structured as a civic gesture: Philly Pops ensembles — Big Bands, Little Big Band, Big Brass, Jazz Combos — performing in churches, music schools, and community venues across the city rather than only at the Kimmel Center.
Friday, May 15 brings the Philly Pops Little Big Band to Church of St. Luke and the Epiphany in Center City for a Motown tribute. Saturday, May 16 brings the Philly Pops Jazz Combo to Calvary-St. Augustine Episcopal Church in West Philadelphia for a centennial tribute to John Coltrane.
The pricing tells you what kind of program this is. Ten dollars for individuals, fifteen for families, five for seniors and students. That isn’t a marketing detail. It’s the program’s thesis statement.
Paula Holloway and the Philly Pops Little Big Band Bring Motown to Center City
The Philly Pops Neighborhood Concerts on Friday, May 15 land at Church of St. Luke and the Epiphany in Center City at 7:00 PM, with vocalist Paula Holloway fronting the Philly Pops Little Big Band for a Motown tribute led by bandleader Jeffrey R. Smith. The program leans into the iconic hits that defined the Motown era — a “Dancing in the Street” framing that gives the ensemble a high-energy showcase format.
This isn’t a tribute act. It’s the actual Philly Pops Little Big Band in a small-venue format, which changes how the music lands. Church of St. Luke and the Epiphany is a historic Center City venue with the kind of acoustic warmth that pulls Motown’s rhythmic punch into focus rather than letting it dissolve into a concert-hall ambience. The same band, the same singer, in a 200-year-old church a few blocks from Broad Street, is a meaningfully different listening experience than the Kimmel main stage.
A Coltrane Centennial Matinee Anchors the Philly Pops Neighborhood Concerts at Calvary-St. Augustine
Saturday, May 16 at 2:00 PM, the Philly Pops Jazz Combo brings its Coltrane centennial tribute to Calvary-St. Augustine Episcopal Church in West Philadelphia. John Coltrane was born September 23, 1926, in Hamlet, North Carolina, but came of age as a musician in Philadelphia — living in the city from 1952 to 1958, the years he played with Miles Davis, developed his foundational style, and recorded the work that would define modern jazz. The John Coltrane House in Strawberry Mansion has been a National Historic Landmark since 1999.
The Philly Pops doing a Coltrane centennial in a Philadelphia church is not generic anniversary programming. It is the centennial of a Philadelphia-rooted artist, performed in a Philadelphia neighborhood, at neighborhood prices. The May 7 evening Coltrane performance at Settlement Music School in Wynnefield already happened — May 16 is the program’s second and final opportunity to catch the tribute in May.
How Artcinia Has Built the Infrastructure for the Philly Pops Neighborhood Concerts
Artcinia, founded in 2021, has brought music into eighteen neighborhood venues across Philadelphia since its founding, ranging from classical string quartets and swing bands to Brazilian jazz and spiritual song recitals. The 2026 partnership with the Philly Pops is the second season of their collaboration, building on a March 15 kickoff at Resurrection of Our Lord in Northeast Philly with Philly Pops Big Brass and an April 26 appearance at the Germantown Jazz Festival with the Philly Pops Big Band. The William Penn Foundation grant making the 2026 spring season of the Philly Pops Neighborhood Concerts possible is institutional Philadelphia recognizing what the program is doing.
Some context on the Philly Pops themselves is worth surfacing here. Founded in 2023, Liberty Bell Pops — doing business as the Philly Pops — is composed of the former musicians of the pre-2023 Philly Pops, gifted the Philly Pops name by the estate of music director emeritus Peter Nero. Music Director Christopher Dragon leads the reborn ensemble.
Hearing the same musicians who built the original Philly Pops perform in a 300-seat church for a $10 ticket is the kind of cultural-access story that argues for the program’s significance on its own terms. The deeper editorial logic: Artcinia is doing for live music what other Philadelphia infrastructure has done for the visual arts and contemplative practice along the broader May 2026 cultural calendar — building access at the neighborhood scale rather than concentrating it downtown.
Tickets and Venues for the Philly Pops Neighborhood Concerts
The May 15 Motown program runs Friday from 7:00 to 8:00 PM at Church of St. Luke and the Epiphany at 330 South 13th Street in Center City. The May 16 Coltrane centennial matinee runs Saturday from 2:00 to 3:00 PM at Calvary-St. Augustine Episcopal Church at 814 North 41st Street in West Philadelphia. Tickets are $10 for individuals, $15 for families, and $5 for seniors and students at both venues. The Philly Pops Neighborhood Concerts program continues beyond May with additional Artcinia partnerships scheduled throughout 2026.
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