Fifty years ago, musicians from the Philadelphia Orchestra boarded a Pan Am jet bound for China—and history. Arriving in Beijing on Sept. 12, 1973, Conductor Eugene Ormandy and his musicians became the first American orchestra to perform in China.

Stafford Wavrek’s kitchen wall is plastered with concert schedules and he’s got the tickets to match. He rarely misses a concert in either Bucks County or the Lehigh Valley. Now retired, this …