For someone raised on thrash metal and punk rock, as I was, the idea of a musician, or a composer, coming into his or her own in their mid-fifties is kind of a foreign concept. There’s nothing live-fast/die-young about that, right? Where’s he been all this time? Well, earning a living, mostly; that’s the part that the punk rock handbook tends to gloss over. Now, though, former Fleisher Collection curator Kile Smith is starting to place his own stamp on the contemporary choral field; his 2008 breakthrough Vespers will be played twice in Philadelphia this weekend and Monday in New York. (FULL ARTICLE: David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer)