If you have some free time this weekend and are interested in sampling much that the world of music has to offer, I invite you to Symphony Center for Macy's Day of Music. Our 10th annual free, daylong music marathon will feature performances and activities for families beginning at 1:00p, including a family-friendly concert featuring the Civic Orchestra of Chicago at 1:00p, with performances for our more mature patrons (8 and up) , beginning in the late afternoon and continuing until 10:00p, including a concert by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at 7:00p.
With four stages operating throughout the day, patrons will be able to check out music in a broad range of styles - classical, folk, world and jazz to list but a few - with especially rich offerings supporting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's leadership role in the dynamic Silk Road Chicago collaboration, involving Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project, The Art Institute of Chicago and Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs.
I wanted to give a bit more dimension to one of the concerts featured on Day of Music, namely the Civic concert that will kick-off the day's programming on Armour Stage. This program is designed, as are many others, to introduce the individual instruments and instrument families that comprise the orchestra. What is unique about our take on this, however, is that we will build the orchestra before the eyes of the audience - offering performances by chamber ensembles from each of the four instrument families until the full orchestra is assembled and ready to perform Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra.
As the orchestra is assembled, conductor Duain Wolfe will give the audience a chance to learn more about the musicians in the ensemble through short interviews with individual players.
The performances of musicians from the Civic - one of the world's great pre-professional training orchestras - will be complemented by performances by special guest artists from Hubbard Street 2, the training company of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and a treasure in its own right.
This unique program will be repeated in a bilingual format on Sunday, September 17 at 6:30p at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Pilsen. Tickets are not required for either the Day of Music or Cristo Rey concerts, and I expect a good turnout for both of these general admission events, so please plan to come early to save your seat!
As I think about the activities of this first week of the 2006/07 season, I am really thrilled that it will have launched with the CSO offering four days of free concerts - two at Millennium Park and one at Cristo Rey High School, with a daylong series of concerts at Symphony Center.
These concerts celebrate Chicago's local and simultaneously global musical community, highlighting the fact that, as Chicagoans we are really fortunate to live in such a varied and richly layered cultural, musical environment. We are able to access traditions that are familiar and dear to us, as well as to experience traditions new and inviting. In many ways, the cultural life of this city embodies the answer to the question often asked by Yo-Yo Ma: "What happens when strangers meet?". The answer, of course, is that great things can happen when strangers meet: friendships and discoveries are made, new journeys are taken. In connecting with concertgoers through this week's performances, the CSO is extending a welcoming hand to friends new and long-standing, offering opportunities to continue or start a musical journey to at least 15,000 people. Do I hear 15,001?
Posted in
