2002 - 2003 Season
WP = World Premiere / AP = American Premiere / CP = Chicago Premiere
November 12, 2002
Classical meets Jazz & Rock & World Fusion Concert / Dance Party
@ Ballroom of the School of the Art Institute
December 16, 2002
5th Annual Candlelight Concert for Peace
@ St. James Cathedral
Celebrate the Season, the solstice and the New Year Honoring Musical America's Musician of the Year, Lou Harrison on his 85th birthday
Bubaran Robert
Solstice
Traditional Gamelan Music
New Moon
Concerto for Violin, Cello and Gamelan
Special Guests - University of Chicago Javanese Gamelan Ensemble
Carolyn Johnson, Director
Soloists - Mark Brandfonbrener, cello & Sahron Polifrone, violin
Lou Harrison's haunting music is colored by curiousity about ancient cultures, a devotion to Buddhism, pacifism, vibrant rhythym and exuberant melody. From the proud processional of Bubaran Robert to the ecstatic Estample (Stampede) in the concerto. Harrison's music will be intermingled with traditional Gamelan music and invocations for peace. Join us to celebrate fresh beginnings with musical influences drawn from Native American and Asian percussion.
March 04, 2003
Reclamation: Post-Revolutionary Chinese Composers
@ Ballroom of the School of the Art Institute
During the "Cultural Revolution", artistry itself was subject to attack. The ruling party sent talented young composers, now internationally recognized, to labor in the country. Academy Award winning composer Tan Dun ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") uses a provacative single word translated in 19 different languages asa plea for artistic freedom. Bright Sheng's Tibetan Dance is a richly scored trio invoking the vibrant power of Tibetan traditional culture. Aenon Loo, raised in Hong Kong, represents a new generation - winner of the Asian Composers League's Young Composers Awards for 2000. Qu's softly pitched pieces bridge traditions ancient and new, while Chen Yi's work is a rush of colorful trills and percussive explosions.
March 18, 2003
Repression: Russion Modernists in Music, Art & Poetry
@ Ballroom of the School of the Art Institute
Under Stalin, works of overt political allegiance were riddled with potent sarcasm. Private despair was often cloaked in public rejoicing. This program of music and poetry investigates the personal spiritual domains of three women contemporary composers inspired by one of the 20th century's most profoundly powerful works; Shostakovich's 8th Quartet. Shostakovich's most popular string quartet (here arranged for brass) was first labeled a protest against fascism; now it's understood as a musical suicide note. lera Auerbach, just 27 years old, one of the last artisits to defect from the Soviet Union, has been composing music and poetry since she was young.
April 27, 2003
Resistence: Degenerate Art, Then and Now
@ Fullerton Hall of the Art Institute of Chicago
In the years before World War II, Nazi officials purged cultural institutions of works, which they considered of lowbrow content, undesireable creators or corrupting influence. The artists were threatened, exiled and slaughtered; the art survives. Weill teamed with Bertolt Brecht to create works, like the "Threepenny opera', meant to provoke the populace. Krasa composed his string trio, Dance, while interred in Terezin. The contemporary composers on the program (both receiving Chicago premieres) carry on the defiant spirit. Gruber has been dubbed "the most dangerous composer alive" by Pierre Boulez, while Zorn's obsessive, quick shifting style is knife sharp.