2006 - 2007 Season
WP = World Premiere / AP = American Premiere / CP = Chicago Premiere
August 20, 2006
October 28 2006
"Picture Books Come to Life: Sadako"
Venue: Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL
4:00 p.m.
This is a free concert.
Family Concert as part of "Sonic Impact: Creating New Art Music in a Global
Culture." A co-production of New Music Chicago, Chicago Museum of
Contemporary Art and the Chicago Humanities Festival.
Enjoy a spectacular family concert featuring Fulcrum Point New Music Project
led by Stephen Burns.
The concert features composer Kevin James' world premiere musical adaptation of
the illustrated book "Sadako" by Eleanor Coerr and Ed Young.
A Japanese legend holds that if a person who is ill makes 1000 paper cranes,
the gods will grant that person’s wish to be well again. Based upon a real-life
story, "Sadako" shows one girl’s courage in the face of personal
struggle. Thousands of children all over the world have come to know about
Sadako and her message of peace.
Special Guest: Indiana University School of Music Contemporary Vocal Ensemble,
Carmen Tellez, Dir.
December 14, 2006
"Signals from Heaven"
Venue: Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph St., Chicago, IL
7:30 p.m.
Admission: $20
Buy a Ticket
The Ninth Annual Concert for Peace
"Signals from Heaven"
Signals from Heaven: Toru Takemitsu
Hikari (Light) Sômei Satoh
Echo Canyon: Karen Tanaka, Midwest Premiere
Sadako: Prayers for Peace Kevin James.
Encore Performance after the sold-out premiere during Sonic Impact
Commissioned by the Chicago Children's Humanities Festival and the Virginia S.
Gassel Family
Special Guests: Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Contemporary Vocal
Ensemble
Prof. Carmen Helena Téllez, Dir.
Vasiliki Tsousva, Asst. Dir.
"Based on the book by Eleanor Coerr and using the charming chalk illustrations
by Ed Young (flashed on a screen behind the ensemble) the 45 minute cantata
melds images, narration, and music by Kevin James to recount the poignant
real-life story of Sadako Sasaki, a spirited young Japanese girl. Music, song, image, and spoken word form a seamless and deeply moving
meditation. Unutterable sadness at last gives way to the hope that the warring
nations will learn to make a better, safer world for their own Sadakos...With
the threat of mass nuclear suicide again bullying its way to the center of the
world stage, 'Sadako: Prayers for Peace' could not be more timely."
-- John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune, 10/30/06
read the full review
January 30,
2007
"Burnin' Love"
Venue: Harris Theater for Music and Dance 205 E. Randolph St., Chicago, IL
7:30 p.m.
Admission $20
2007 Essential Art: Essential Elements IV- Fire
Explore the flames of passion through works by Donatoni, Andriessen, Param Vir,
Chen Yi and David Lang.
March 13, 2007
"Birth of the Phoenix"
Venue:
Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph St., Chicago, IL
7:30 p.m.
Admission: $20
Presented in partnership with The Nature Conservancy
Discover the restorative powers of fire in a World Premiere multi-media
music/video work by Paul Oehlers and Stefan Masurek in addition to the dramatic
music of Peter Maxwell Davies, Michael Torke, and Kaija Saariaho.
April 27, 2007
"Cool, Hot and Burnin'"
Venue:
Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL
www.artchicago.com
9:00 p.m.
New Art Music Inspired by Rock, Latin, Jazz, and World Music
Dead Elvis: Michael Daugherty
Lewis Kirk, solo bassoon
Quemar las Naves: Javier Alvarez
Hot: Franco Donatoni
Jeremy Ruthrauff, solo saxophones
(more)
subZERO: Daniel Schnyder
David Taylor, solo bass-trombone
Pop-Art brilliance and Darmstadt sophistication meet post-modern Latin Jazz in
4 Jaw-dropping virtuoso showpieces by international superstars, performed
by Fulcrum Point, Chicago’s “barrier-busting” leader of New Art Music.
This 75-minute Cabaret showcases the hottest New Art Music of the last 20
years. Inspired by Rock, Latin, Jazz, and World Music this music will transport
you from Elvis’ Graceland to Castañeda’s Mexico, through European “imaginary
jazz’ to the tribal sounds of Morocco.
Michael Daugherty is the Roy Lichtenstein of
music. He writes diamantine New Art Music inspired by American Pop icons—
Superman, Jackie O, Motown, J. Edgar Hoover, and, of course, The King of Rock
‘n’ Roll, Elvis.
("Dead Elvis")
Javier Alvarez composes
post-modernist deconstructed Salsa, Merengue, and Montuno—dark, funky and
mesmerizing.
("Quemar Las Naves")
Franco Donatoni’s "Hot" is a classic
modernist’s take on “imaginary Jazz” using Cool Jazz voicings and dark,
Darmstadt chromaticism.
("Hot")
subZERO is an amalgam of Blues, Rock, and World Music created by Jazz
saxophonist and composer Daniel
Schnyder (pronounced SHNEEder) as a vehicle for the outrageous
bass-trombone virtuoso David Taylor who has played with everyone from Gil Evans
to Pierre Boulez, Duke Ellington and the Rolling Stones.
("subZERO")
May 19, 2007 10:00 a.m.
Pritzker Pavillion, Millennium Park
Chicago School of the Art Institute Convocation
Free and open to the public
June 12, 2007 5:00 p.m.
St. James Episcopal Cathedral
Free and open to the public
Neo-Romantic and Jazz-inspired New Art Music
August 16, 2007 7:30 p.m.
Pritzker Pavillion, Millennium Park
Reginald Robinson, Ragtime Pianist/Composer and MacArthur Fellow
With the Fulcrum Point New Ragtime Project, orchestrations by Stephen Burns