In Wednesday's (12/4) Philadelphia Inquirer, Peter Dobrin and David Patrick Stearns report: "Fire sprinkler systems in Verizon Hall went off yesterday morning at a Philadelphia Orchestra rehearsal, sending musicians - including incoming music director Christoph Eschenbach - for cover, and ruining a $75,000 Steinway grand piano. The orchestra was playing Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring when water began pouring down, soaking the stage, balconies and seats in the front portion of the main hall in the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts." They write, "Musicians sheltered their instruments and ran off stage, some drenched and others merely sprinkled, while Eschenbach emerged surprisingly dry." Kimmel Center president Janice C. Price said that the hall, "suffered no immediate apparent damage." Within five minutes, "enough water was produced to fill the Steinway grand on stage with several inches of water." Eschenbach called it "The Rite of the Sprinkler."
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