Mission Statement

(COFE) Chamber Orchestra FIRST EDITIONS’ mission is to present public concerts and on-stage discussions of new commissioned works by Philadelphia-area composers and of early works by W.A. Mozart.  We seek to explore Mozart’s early progress and process as a composer, and at the same time to present new works by composers of our own time.  How these two different themes converge and intersect provides the focus for every FIRST EDITIONS concert.

In addition, COFE’s mission is to combine world-class professional musicians with outstanding, young pre-professional players from Swarthmore, Haverford, and Bryn Mawr Colleges. It also explores and experiments with innovative ideas regarding concert
format: audience interaction with the musicians, orchestra seating, and various methods of combining brief presentations of non-classical, sometimes non-western, music with more traditional approaches to performance.

All COFE concerts are free and open to the public without ticket.