Earlier this week, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s new Mead Composers-in-Residence Mark-Anthony Turnage and Osvaldo Golijov were in town get better acquainted with Chicago and to share news of Symphony Center’s MusicNOW new music series programming for 2006-2007.  Beginning in September, Mark and Osvaldo will succeed Augusta Read Thomas, who is now completing her impressive nine (!) years in residence with the CSO. Augusta’s achievements in Chicago have been remarkable. She’s been a tireless advocate for new music and composers.  The CSO has commissioned and premiered five of her works since 1996; a sixth, Astral Canticle gets its world premiere performances with the CSO and Daniel Barenboim at Symphony Center on June 1 through 3. Both Mark and Osvaldo credit Augusta with the launch, growth, care-and-feeding of MusicNOW, the CSO’s new music series. This series launched in Symphony Center’s Buntrock Hall in 1998 and quickly outgrew its original home.  All four concerts next season will take place at the Harris Theater. MusicNOW has become a really important part of the CSO’s overall programming mix, a chance to hear programs dedicated not only contemporary music, but music by living composers, many of whom come to Chicago for the performances, interacting with concertgoers and talking about their music. For next season, Mark and Osvaldo have curated two MusicNOW concerts each, working in close collaboration with the series’ principal conductor Cliff Colnot.  Their repertoire selections represent an eclectic mix of international composers from György Ligeti and Jonathan Harvey and Gerardo Gandini to Shirish Korde and György Kurtág and Hans Werner Henze.  Through their personal repertoire selections, I think we will have the chance to get to know these two gentlemen better and hear interesting music by composers who have not been so well known or well-represented in Chicago. We will also hear music by Golijov and Turnage on the series. A sure highlight in October program will Mark’s own composition Kai; Scored for cello and ensemble, CSO cellist Katinka Kleijn will be soloist.  MusicNOW in June will bring us Osvaldo’s Ayre, written especially for soprano Dawn Upshaw, who appears as soloist.  Ayre—meaning “air” and “melody” in medieval Spanish—is a 40-minute cycle of 11 songs drawn primarily from a large body of 15th century Spanish folk songs. The music is a lush mix of Spanish and Mediterranean influences incorporating everything from Sephardic folk tunes to Semitic electronica to Arabic poetry. Chicago audiences can catch a first hearing of Osvaldo’s music this summer at Ravinia, where his one-act opera Ainadamar (Fountain of Tears) will be performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and soprano Dawn Upshaw. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra will present a semi-staged version of Ainadamar as part of its 2007-2008 subscription season. Osvaldo is also now finishing a cello concerto to be premiered by Yo-Yo Ma and the CSO at Ravinia in August.  We’ll hear more from him during the CSO’s 2006-2007 subscription concert season when the Orchestra performs his Last Round and Night of the Flying Horses. Mark reports that he is very very very close to finishing his new work commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  Esa-Pekka Salonen, the CSO, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago with choreographer Jorma Elo are scheduled to give the world premiere of this new work in January 2007 at Symphony Center.  It will be the fourth consecutive season that the CSO and Hubbard Street will perform together and this new piece was commissioned especially for this special partnership.  While choreographers have used Mark’s music in their work before, he has never before written a work specifically for dancers and he seems really to love the creative challenge its specificity and structure present, requiring tremendous discipline and resourefulness on his part.  It won’t be long before we are temporarily adjusting the orchestra set-up at Orchestra Hall, making room for dance, transforming the space, and bringing this new work to life. Both composers also took time this week meeting with potential community and cultural partners and exploring ideas, especially in the area of education.  They have told us they love spending time in Chicago and they are very much looking forward getting to know the city better.  Interesting – the two of them had never met until this visit!  They spent their time sharing ideas about their residencies and although much of their time in 2006-2007 will be spent coming individually, they have now decided, based on this visit, that some future visits together are in order. If you are not familiar with Osvaldo and Mark’s work and would like to learn more, I would encourage you to visit their Web sites at www.osvaldogolijov.com and www.markanthonyturnage.com.  Definitely worth checking out!