It has been all over the news since Monday, but the CSO is still buzzing with excitement after the announcement that Riccardo Muti will take over as Music Director in 2010/11. Andrew Patner was on WTTW talking about the appointment. Steve Lester from the CSO's bass section and chair of the Members Committee of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra also discussed the partnership on NPR's Performance Today. Steve also talked about how fortunate we've been to also have established such a wonderful connection with Bernard Haitink. His leadership has been and continues to be rewarding and enriching for the orchestra and institution overall and the recordings we've made with Mr. Haitink document that great legacy. The CSO goes on tour with Mr. Haitink to Carnegie Hall next week and he will also take them to China for the first time in early 2009.
While great things are on the horizon, great things are happening right now.
Click here to continue reading
Posted in
Some very exciting news from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra! In a note to the CSO family, also posted on our Web site, CSO Association President Deborah Rutter Card shared the news:
Dear Friends,
It is my extreme pleasure to share with you some very exciting news!
We have just announced the appointment of Riccardo Muti—one of the most extraordinary and respected conductors of all time—to the position of music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His unparalleled musicianship, steadfast commitment to the highest level of music making, and dedication to preserving the rich history of the CSO while continuing to propel the organization into the future perfectly complement the world-class stature of our Orchestra and its musicians. He will begin his tenure in September 2010.
Our goal was to bring the best musical leader to Chicago, an extraordinary musician that would match the international profile of our Orchestra, and we have found this in Maestro Muti. I would like to thank all of you for your support, advice, guidance and input throughout the search. Your enthusiasm and passion for our great Orchestra inspired us all. I know that Maestro Muti looks forward to getting to know our wonderful city and community. If you would like to read more about Maestro. Muti’s appointment, please click here.
Most sincerely,
Deborah Rutter Card
President, Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association
Click here to continue reading
Posted in
Submitted by Jim Hirsch on Tue, 04/29/2008 - 7:19am.
A couple of strange things have crossed my computer screen this week and I would really love to get your opinion about them.
Earlier this week a friend emailed me an article about a robot conducting an orchestra. Okay, hold the jokes about conductors for a second. Honda’s ASIMO humanoid robot will take command of the baton in Detroit on May 13 and will conduct the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as it performs Impossible Dream to open a concert performance featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
I think we can all agree that robots are unlikely to replace humans on the podium anytime soon. What’s interesting about this is that Honda is a major donor to DSO, and one gets the feeling that putting ASIMO on the podium might somehow be tied to the sponsorship. I’m all for acknowledging the wonderful corporate partners who support our work, but does this go too far?
Another item that caught my eye was from the League of American Orchestra’s newsletter. Apparently classical composers and folk musicians are collaborating on creating new music for orchestras. Not exactly a new idea given the use of folk music themes throughout classical music history, but up until recently, using folk influences was considered déclassé. How do you feel about this renewed interest in vernacular music?
Finally, speaking of traditional music, the Chicago Sinfonietta will be presenting the world premiere of Three Songs for Blues Singer and Orchestra created by composer/arranger Larry Hoffman on May 11th and 12th featuring Muddy Water’s long-time guitarist, John Primer. We are pleased to offer registered users of this site a “hot deal” to attend this concert that will also feature pianist Leon Bates performing Rhapsody in Blue and Pictures at an Exhibition performed with a never-before-seen video created by astronomer and video artist José Francisco Salgado.
Click here to continue reading
Posted in
The epic 2008 edition of Musical America features an unlikely, full color two-page photograph of The Princeton Laptop Orchestra a.k.a. PLOrk. The accompanying caption begins “the Computer Age throws down a gauntlet.” The implied threat is that electronic devices are encroaching on the territory of traditional orchestras. Leaving aside the irony of using an object from the Middle Ages to describe the increasing integration of 21st century technology into musical performance, this “challenge” is nothing to fear.
A recent performance by PLOrk on the Sonic Divergence Festival at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall featured twenty laptopists, five conductors, acoustic violin and percussion soloists, and members of the Northwestern University Percussion Ensemble. Ample ingredients for an interesting evening of music were in place. And it was very interesting, up to a point.
The big question going in, even taking into account the brilliant minds at work on this project, was “how great will the distance be between what is musically possible and what we will actually hear?” While many of the elements for success were present, there is a long interesting journey ahead to close the existing gap between the two.
The technical creativity, innovative language allowing real time interaction among ensemble members, individual speaker systems, and obvious commitment by the performers produced a series of different “soundscapes” that, nevertheless, ran the emotional gamut from A to B. The technical wizardry is still in need of a way to make contact with the senses. Operational sequencing dominated the proceeding leaving a longing by the audience for phrasing, melody, and musical entry points.
Some of the best moments involved the acoustic instrumental interaction. We could see what they were doing and how they were doing it. Those moments were pregnant with the possibility that anything could go very right or very wrong at any time, making the audience a partner in the live performance experience. This was a welcome sensation.
Just as a great concert hall is only as good as the artists who perform on its stage, laptop orchestras will always be dependent on the quality of the music written for it and its ability to engage the audience as a partner. In that regard, there is much to do, and there is little to fear as far as usurpation of performance opportunities by armies of laptop-toting computer science majors.
Equally clear is the potential for new technology to compliment and embellish the music and musicians we have come to love, enjoy, and respect. I have little doubt that evolving technical innovations will one day blossom into the reality of something more artistically and emotionally engaging. It will be an exciting new addition to the lexicon of the arts when it happens. The battle has begun and the troops are energized.
Click here to continue reading
Posted in
Submitted by Jim Hirsch on Thu, 04/17/2008 - 11:13am.
I haven’t posted for a while but I do have a good excuse. In the last few weeks the Chicago Sinfonietta presented it’s Celebration of Women in Classical Music concerts that generated one of the best reviews we’ve ever received, Paul Freeman and I traveled to San Francisco to participate in a meeting convened by the Wallace Foundation, and last weekend, we hosted our Annual Ball that featured a scintillating performance by international superstar, Denyce Graves. Today feels like the first time I’ve been able to take a breath for weeks!
Click here to continue reading
Posted in
Last Saturday (April 5) marked the premiere of Introductions, a brand-new weekly program on 98.7 WFMT (Saturdays from 11:00am-12:00pm) which features Chicago-area pre-collegiate musicians doing what they love most; playing classical music.
"It's important to reach out specifically to this younger audience which is enthusiastic about classical music, that we hadn't tried to explicitly attract until now," said David Polk, the show's producer. "I'm excited that I get to expand WFMT's reach and pioneer new ways to connect with audiences via the airwaves and also the internet."
Read more about Introductions and Polk in this article in the recent TimeOut! Magazine.
Click here to continue reading
Posted in
Social network services on the Internet come and go; a while ago MySpace was the dominant service, now it is equaled, and soon undoubtedly surpassed, by Facebook in traffic. There are dozens of other popular services, such as Orkut and Friendster, and probably thousands of small, niche-market sites.
What’s an arts organization to do with all this new media? Jason Heath
talks about it in a video (in which he mentions Chicago Classical Music as an excellent example). In the last section, he talks about Facebook (“more and more Facebook over Myspace,” according to Jason).
Facebook didn’t start out very business friendly, but there have always been ways for fans of different organizations to express their love. The most commonly used way was Facebook Groups. Some of CCM’s Participating Organizations have these groups (I’m not sure which were started by fans and which were started by the organization:
Ars Antiqua;
Chicago Chamber Musicians;
Grand Park Music Festival;
Ravinia Festival). The CSO has several, all started by fans.
Then in November of last year, Facebook launched Facebook Pages. Two CCM organizations have already established a presence:
Chicago Opera Theater and
WFMT. Today, we launched
our own Facebook page. There are obvious marketing benefits to having a page for your own organization, but I believe the main strength is building a community and participate (just like CCM aims to do).
So go explore Facebook and if you have an account, be sure to
become a fan of the CSO. If you do so before this Friday, April 11, you enter for a chance to win the latest recording from our new CSO Resound label,
Mahler’s Symphony No. 6,
signed by Principal Conductor Bernard Haitink.
Click here to continue reading
Posted in
In my previous post,
Where to Record, I discussed the factors to be weighed in choosing a place to record. Today, I will introduce the members of the recording team.
The person who oversees the whole process of making the recording from beginning to end is the recording producer. This is usually the person (or people – you'll sometimes see two people credited as co-producers of a disc) who runs the recording sessions, although sometimes a separate "session director" may be employed for this purpose. For Cedille Records, I act as producer for the great majority of our recordings. Even for the discs where we use an outside producer – usually Grammy-winning producer Judith Sherman – I act as an uncredited "executive producer," attending the recording sessions when possible and personally weighing in during the various stages of the post-recording process to maintain the quality for which Cedille Records is known.
The other key person at a recording session is the recording engineer. Sometimes the producer and engineer are the same person (Judith Sherman usually engineers the recordings she produces, for example). The engineer is the person who achieves the sound at the sessions – including choosing and positioning the microphones (and often the players around the microphones) and balancing the levels to achieve the ultimate sound "mix." For almost all of Cedille's recordings, veteran engineer Bill Maylone performs this function.
Click here to continue reading
Posted in
Okay, the annual ritual of program selection is done. Another year is set for Chicago a cappella. Woo hoo!
What are we going to sing? I want to tell you about the research part, and I'll give you a sneak peek in the process.
In the fall of 2008, we're doing a new program called The British are Coming! -- a celebration of the finest English a cappella choral music, reaching all the way back to the 15th century and going to the present day. Actually, we'll start with recent music, work our way backwards in time, and then return to the present.
Click here to continue reading
Posted in
The Chicago Symphony Chorus is turning 50! They are a remarkable group and the CSO will be celebrating with a program dedicated to this incredible ensemble of virtuoso voices. The performance has been sold out for quite some time as their loyal fan base has come out in force and extremely early to get tickets to this one-night-only event.
There is another opportunity to hear the Chorus in a more traditional role with the phenomenal Valery Gergiev conducting the CSO and Chorus for Berlioz' wonderful Romeo and Juliet.
Click here to continue reading
Posted in
