Melting Pot of Music: How the Pennsylvania Chamber Orchestra Uses Music to Connect Us

This story originally appeared in the November 2026 issue of Town Gown magazine. A room packed with the young and young at heart, all gathered for a story. Instead of solely relying on words, the narrator guides audience members through a series of sounds. A bird flies through the fluttering of a flute. A duck waddles and swims through the oboe, while a cat playfully struts through a clarinet. The audience is cautious as a wolf growls through a French horn. The Pennsylvania Chamber Orchestra’s performance of “Peter and the Wolf” is one of five concerts the group plays each year, executive director Brooke Greybush says. “Their mission is to bring communities together around music,” she says. The Pennsylvania Chamber Orchestra has around 35 professional musicians who play in four sections: strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion. Founded in 1990 by Dr. Douglas Meyer, Daryl Durran, and Lois Durran, the orchestra is the first all-professional chamber orchestra in central P