Lowell Liebermann is in Chicago as the featured guest composer with The Chicago Chamber Musicians' Composer Perspectives concert on Wednesday evening, December 7 in Ganz Hall.  Composer Perspectives concerts feature a pre-concert talk, performance with the composer presenting the program and post-concert reception with the composer and artists.

Here are Chicago Classical Music's five questions for Lowell, and his responses:

CCM:  What do you listen to on your iPod?

LL: I'm not even sure where it is right now! The only thing on it is actually my own complete works: I only use it when travelling to do a residency at whichever university so that I don't have to lug a suitcase of cds. Otherwise, since I spend my working days either composing or practicing for performances, I tend not to listen to a lot of music in my down time. And when I do, I prefer it live.

Summer chamber music means the Vermont Marlboro Music Festival, the spiritual home of thousands of musicians from several generations. Founded by pianist Rudolf Serkin, Marlboro is now a world renowned institution that has had substantial impact on music’s evolving landscape. It’s an idyllic place where artists eminent and emerging are invited to explore and discover side by side in a dynamic learning environment – and a place where several Chicago Chamber Musicians ensemble artists have had formative artistic experiences. This summer the festival celebrates its 60th anniversary season. Here’s our own Larry Combs leading a group two summers ago: Summer chamber music means the Vermont Marlboro Music Festival, the spiritual home of thousands of musicians from several generations.

Norman Pellegrini, long-time program director for WFMT radio, passed away early this morning.

Norm helped to launch the Chicago Chamber Musicians at the inception of the organization in the mid-1980s, recognizing immediately the quality of the founding artists, their unique vision and the potential for such an organization in Chicago.  He started by putting the artists on the air at WFMT on a monthly basis, and his fierce intelligence and keen passion were fodder for the seminal discussions and work that helped to build CCM in the early years.  Since that time, he has been an Honorary Director for CCM. 

After the performing musicians, the next most important person in a performance is...the pianist's page turner!  Who knew?!  Do you even notice the page turner at a concert?  (You shouldn't notice the good ones.)  Yet, the page turner is critical to a successful performance.  Practically every musician has page turner stories.  It most definitely takes a certain personality...see Tuesday's Wall Street Journal piece:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123905872759294777.html
 
For a different kind of page-turner drama, check out "La Tourneuse de Pages," http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/350358/The-Page-Turner/overview, which shows what a killer of a job page turning can be.
 

<!-- --> At the recent annual Chamber Music America conference, where musicians, composers, managers, presenters and others involved in the field gather each year, I had the opportunity to hear Oliver Sacks (author of, among other works, <