Performance
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.
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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.
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I just returned from New York and had an opportunity to talk with my counterpart at the NY Phil about their performance in North Korea. While the general press has been great, they have been criticized in some circles, which is completely misplaced.
I lived in Romania for four years after the fall of communism. They had every bit as cruel a leader in Nicolae Ceausescu who in fact implemented many of his cruelist policies after a visit to Kim Il Sung, the former North Korean leader. I talked with many of my friends there about music and they shared stories about the bootleg Led Zeppelin albums among others that they kept hidden. It was to them just a taste of music and inspiration that was beyond their borders (a place very few of them had the opportunity to see).
I also had the pleasure of meeting many of the young musicians that comprise Daniel Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra when they came through Chicago. This is the youth orchestra of Arabs and Israelis that Barenboim established to bring together young people from these different cultures to show how music can truly bridge cultural chasms. Every one of them was delighted with the experience. To see a Lebanese violinist, a Syrian Clarinet player and an Israeli bass player play together in a late-night open jam session was something to behold. Making music together broke down all the perceived barriers and they all reveled in their new friendships.
I tip my hat to the NY Phil for reaching across the divide. Music can't solve the grand problems of our time, but it can be a way to bring people together, even if for a short respite.
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Tonight at 7:30pm, a new recording project by Chicago a cappella will take its first steps in the studio. We don't have a title for the new release, but the album will be a "Holidays a cappella" compilation of the best from our popular December concerts. Jim Ginsburg of Cedille Records will be in the booth as executive producer, and our music director Patrick Sinozich will be leading the sessions. We don't have a conductor, so the ensemble will be self-led as we are on stage.
The recording will take place at a secret location, because we don't want people knocking on the doors; we need our concentration. Recording is hard work! There are sessions this month and next, and we anticipate a fall 2008 release. Watch this page for more on the recording and editing process, and thanks to Cedille Records for taking us on for a second CD release on that fabulous label.
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This week, the CSO is performing
Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar for the first time. It was such a mind-blowing experience that it motivated me to begin blogging about “Classical” music in Chicago here at CCM.
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Submitted by Jim Hirsch on Thu, 01/31/2008 - 3:23pm.
There has been some nice coverage of a few events that relate to diversity in classical music recently. Last week John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune wrote an
article about a Chicago Sinfonietta diversity initiative entitled Project Inclusion that we launched on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. day. There has been further coverage of this important new initiative in the
Chicago Sun-Times and The Strad Magazine will soon print an article, as well.
The Sphinx Organization, headquartered in Detroit, also made an announcement about a consortium of orchestras they have pulled together (including the Chicago Sinfonietta) that will award a major commission each year to a composer of color. Check out this
article from Crain’s Detroit Business for more details.
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This week's guest blogger is the renowned composer Stacy Garrop, whom we have had the pleasure and privilege of commissioning to write two pieces for Chicago a cappella this season. Her very brief bio is that she's an Associate Professor in Composition at the Chicago College of Performing Arts of Roosevelt University. Her more substantial bio is at her website, www.garrop.com. She writes below about being commissioned to write new choral music. Enjoy her eloquence! -- Jonathan Miller, Artistic Director, Chicago a cappella
Getting Back to My Roots: Adventures in Writing Jewish Music for Chicago a cappella
An Offer I Couldn't Refuse
Last spring, Jonathan Miller asked me if I'd accept a commission to write two new religious-themed works for Chicago a cappella's 2007-08 season. Busy as my composing schedule is these days, I have a distinct weakness for writing choral works and will find a way to squeeze more time out of a day to write them. And who can refuse an opportunity to work with the singers of Chicago a cappella?!
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Submitted by Jim Hirsch on Wed, 10/31/2007 - 10:39am.
Last week Daniel J. Levitin wrote
an Op-Ed piece for the New York Times about how odd it is that classical music audiences are discouraged from expressing their enjoyment of music through movement. Levitin asserts that moving to music is innate and that we would probably have more fun if we moved freely.
I couldn’t agree more. For me, it follows the “don’t clap in between movements” rule at classical music concerts that I sometimes find so counter-intuitive. Would it be distracting if half of the people at a concert got up to dance or sway to the music? In some instances, yes. But there are times when the enjoyment of a piece is enhanced by moving to the beat, and if the entire audience joins in doing so, then it can ascend to a higher level altogether.
A great example of this takes place every January at the Chicago Sinfonietta’s Annual Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Maestro Freeman closes this concert every year by inviting the audience to stand up, hold hands, sing, and sway to the pulse of “We Shall Overcome”. The act of moving as a group, and singing together makes this one of the most emotional moments of the season, year after year.
Maybe there are other opportunities like this that would make our concerts more fun and fulfilling. Can any of you share similar moments that you may have experienced in the concert hall?
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Okay, I know the choral world is incestuous. Chicago a cappella, for example, started with a bunch of singers from Holy Name Cathedral and Congregation B'nai Jacob, and people they knew. I called everyone I knew, mostly Holy Name people, to start finding the singers who would make up that original team of nine. CAC has morphed over time and now is largely composed of Chicago Symphony Chorus and Grant Park Chorus people.
But this week I found out (see if you can follow this one) that Jayson Rodovsky, who is the editor at the Jewish press -- this is the man who both sold me a bunch of pieces for the recent CAC concert AND is the distributor for the Max Janowski scores I represent -- also happened to be the roommate of my dear friend Rick Childress, who founded His Majestie's Clerkes, which is now Bella Voce.
How did I learn of this world-shrinking connection? Total quirkiness.
Two nights ago I found myself in Manhattan with about four hours to kill. I was between a meeting in Westchester County and another in New Jersey. I had turned in my rental car at 49th and 8th, and had to get myself to Penn Station to take a train. I wanted something unusual and stimulating to relax and recharge me after a tough few weeks. So I asked the guy at the rental place what would be a fun way to spend an hour, and where would be fun to walk, between where I was and where I was going (the train station is at 33rd and 8th, a little less than a mile away). The dreadlocked attendant said, "Well, just walk down Eighth Avenue, slowly. It's total New York. You'll go through Times Square and all that."
Well, it seemed like a waste of a lovely Tuesday night in New York to just go to the train, but I decided to saunter after all. Pretty soon, my eye caught the cover of Time Out New York, so I paid $2.99 for a copy and turned to the classical music listings. Wouldn'tcha know it, but the Winchester Cathedral Choir, which I hadn't heard in 14 years, was singing at St. Thomas Church on 5th Avenue at 7:30. I called up and asked if my dear old friend Rick Childress was on the roster, and was assured that he was. So that made up my mind: I would go hear the Cathedral Choir.
The concert was lovely. The church itself is magnificent, home to the only church-based choir school in the USA. The singers (12 men and 15 boys) sang music from Byrd and Bach to Poulenc to James MacMillan. They even did Bach's "Komm, Jesu, Komm," the double-choir motet that I put on "Baroque and Beatles," and acquitted themselves admirably with impeccable German diction. I must say that I do favor women's voices over boys, though I can certainly understand the appeal and the tradition that the male-only choir carries forward.
And I couldn't help chuckling through it all at what a small world it really is.
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Submitted by Jim Hirsch on Wed, 10/17/2007 - 9:42am.
I was contacted a few weeks ago by Georgia Rivers, the Marketing Manager of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. 
It turns out that Ms. Rivers was going to be on holiday in the United States and her itinerary had her spending a few days in Chicago checking out our classical music scene. Apparently she found this website during her research for the trip and wanted to meet with someone to discuss how chicagoclassicalmusic.org came to be, and how the classical music community in Sydney might create a similar partnership.
Angela Golden and I met with Georgia yesterday for almost an hour to share some of our experiences with chicagoclassicalmusic.org and answer some of her questions. It was also a great opportunity to hear about the challenges Australian orchestras are facing, many very similar to those that US orchestras are grappling with.
We did the best we could to answer Georgia’s questions, but perhaps you, our readers and contributors can help our colleagues down under. If you were to advise the Sydney classical music organizations on how best to create a website that could serve the interests of the classical music community including audience members, musicians, etc., what would you advise them to include or exclude? Should they have blogs? Live chats? A calendar section? Forums? Other functions?
Okay Chicago, this is your chance to design the perfect classical music website. The floor is yours!
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