The Philadelphia Orchestra is packing for China, and voting in advance

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On Tuesday morning, the musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra gathered at City Hall — but left their instruments at home.

Instead, they came with voting ballots in hand to make a public display of voting in absentee.

“I’d like to see instruments next time,” said City Commissioner Lisa Deeley. “But I love the orchestra, so this is a particularly special morning for me.”

The Philadelphia Orchestra will not be in Philadelphia on Election Day. The ensemble is leaving for a two-week tour of China on Oct. 27. So fifteen musicians lined up outside the drop-off box on the south side of City Hall to submit absentee ballots.

Principal bass Joseph Conyers hopes everyone is watching and similarly makes a plan to vote.

“It’s less about letting them know that Joseph Conyers is voting, and more about the fact that there is a group of citizens of the city who are not going to be in town, but are recognizing that our vote and our voice matters,” he said.

To expedite mail-in and absentee ballots, the City Commissioners office has opened 11 election offices across Philadelphia, which chair Omar Sabir called “unprecedented.”

“You’ll be able to get registered to vote, apply for your vote by mail ballot, and have a private area where you can cast it,” he said. “There will be someone in the office that can look and check and see if you signed it, it’s the right date, and whether or not your ballot is inside the secrecy envelope.”

The ballot count after the polls close will be livestreamed on the commissioners’ website, which the orchestra will be watching from Chengdu, China.

This is the 13th time the Orchestra will tour China, the most of any American orchestra. The tours have been praised as gestures of cultural and political diplomacy between the two world powers, as evidenced in the personal letters to the orchestra from both President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“I hope that with the vision of equality, mutual learning, dialogue and inclusiveness among cultures, the Orchestra and artists from China, the U.S. and across the world could move the art world forward through more dynamic exchange and cooperation,” Jinping wrote.

Philadelphia Orchestra CEO Matias Tarnopolsky said the orchestra is uniquely positioned to symbolize the values of democracy.

“Music is about bringing people together. Democracy is about all of society coming together to exercise their franchise,” he said. “Music and the performing arts — but music especially — can help us understand the importance of voting.”

Tarnopolsky did not personally exercise his franchise at City Hall Tuesday because he is a resident of Montgomery County. He will be voting in absentia there.