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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.
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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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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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Submitted by Ravinia on Thu, 10/25/2007 - 3:09pm.
World premiere will be part of Ravinia’s 2009 celebration of the Lincoln Bicentennial under the banner: “Mystic Chords of Memory”
Ravinia Festival has commissioned award-winning choreographer Bill T. Jones, who most recently won a Tony for his choreography for Spring Awakening, to create a new full-evening work, tentatively titled A Good Man, inspired by Abraham Lincoln and celebrating the slain president’s 2009 bicentennial. The announcement was made today by Jones and Ravinia Festival President and CEO Welz Kauffman in a joint press conference before the Lincoln death bed at the Chicago History Museum. The work will be performed by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company.
“The image of Abraham Lincoln’s long, broken body stretched across what was to become his death bed will be at the heart of the work,” Jones said. “I wonder about the paradise our country could have been if Lincoln had lived to complete the reconstruction of America, but which we are only left to imagine. I would like to share that vision with audiences and then remove it in order to expose that great distance between what is and what could have been.”
The press conference concluded Jones’s daylong trip to Springfield and Chicago that provided him the opportunity to connect with real locations and relics from Lincoln’s life in Illinois, including the old state Capitol, Lincoln’s home, tomb and the Lincoln Library and Museum. Jones also was introduced to the Illinois Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. As a member of the commission, Kauffman sees the bicentennial as an opportunity for community involvement that will encourage guests and artists from the entire “Land of Lincoln” to seek out Ravinia, which for years has worked toward diversifying audiences and programming with an eye toward commissions and premieres by such luminaries as John Adams, Osvaldo Golijov, Mark Morris, the Joffrey Ballet and Philip Glass—not to mention the first opera from South Africa, Princess Magogo.
“Bicentennial celebrations by their very definition are about a single moment in time, but any artistic celebration of the great Abraham Lincoln requires something truly timeless. That’s why we sought out Bill T. Jones,” Kauffman said. “Bill is emblematic of Ravinia as he, too, thrives on music, dance, theater, community development and reaching out to diverse audiences. There’s also a bit of Lincoln in him—not just his charisma but also his respect of the past and demands of the future. He and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company enjoy international acclaim, and I would love to see his view of Lincoln shared on distant shores. I can’t wait to experience Lincoln through his eyes.”
Kauffman said that because Lincoln looms so large as a historical figure, it’s easy to forget just how recently Lincoln lived and made decisions that will forever impact this land. Lincoln was killed less than 40 years before Ravinia, North America’s oldest music festival, was founded by a railroad company.
Details on the project, which is under development, will be released as the work progresses, but the work will be central to Ravinia’s 2009 celebration of Lincoln’s life and legacy (which will include other events throughout the season).
Jones said, “I live with the uneasy feeling that society has shaped me as a result of something that was stolen from us when Abraham Lincoln was killed. The cynicism and alienation that I have to cope with in my own head and heart arose as a result of a climate built systematically by such a strange turn of destiny as his assassination. Libraries are full of scholarly texts dedicated to the legacy of this singularly American man. I want to create a dance theater work that investigates a handful of key moments from his remarkable life and subject them to a process whereby song and memory deliver us beyond the boundaries of space and time.”
After working together for more than a decade as a critically lauded dance team,
Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane (1948-1988) formed their own company in 1982. Since then, the 10-member company has performed in more than 200 cities around the world and is recognized for its collaborative work with artists ranging from painter Keith Haring to the Orion String Quartet. The Harlem-based company is also celebrated for its educational endeavors. Its acclaimed dance works include Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land, Still/Here, Blind Date and last year’s Chapel/Chapter.
In addition to winning the Tony for Spring Awakening, Jones received the 2007 Obie Award and 2006 Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Callaway Award. He’s also received the 2006 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreography for The Seven; the 2005 Wexner Prize, the 2005 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Harlem Renaissance Award, the 2003 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize and the 1994 MacArthur “genius” grant. In 2000 The Dance Heritage Coalition named Jones “an irreplaceable dance treasure.” Jones began his dance training at the State University of New York at Binghamton (SUNY), studying classical ballet and modern dance.
The San Francisco Chronicle says, “Some choreographers are born dance-makers whose genius manifests in the steps themselves. And some choreographers are geniuses who just happen to choose dance for their primary mode of expression. Bill T. Jones is of the latter variety, and the dance world is fortunate to have him.” The Chicago Tribune concurs, “Bill T. Jones is a dancer abundantly blessed with musicality. Whether he is poised in classical ballet positions or sashaying about in a quick vaudeville buck-and-wing, he appears to find the best movement for the right moment.”
Ravinia Festival’s 2009 season will reflect many aspects of the celebrated and sometimes controversial 16th president through programming across the many genres and disciplines regularly presented at America’s oldest music festival, including classical, jazz, gospel, music theater and dance. These programs will be united under the banner “Mystic Chords of Memory,” a quote from Lincoln’s first inaugural address. Ravinia received a $70,000 grant from the Illinois Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. The grant will help Ravinia commission up to 10 chamber music compositions, each setting or framed by Lincoln’s words. Other programs will look at the music and composers from Lincoln’s era; the global influence of this important leader; the legacy of poet Walt Whitman; and jazz, gospel and spirituals.
The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
---Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address
-submitted by Adriana Avila, Marketing Manger, Ravinia Festival
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Gustav Mahler. Composer, conductor, graffiti artist?
I first read about this online, saw it on Alex Ross’ blog, Torontoist.com and am frankly quite curious about the whole thing. I don’t know what this graffiti is supposed to represent, if it is in fact supposed to say something about Mahler, or if it is just a mindless joke.
What is this all about? What does it mean to you? Is it just vandalism or 
is this person trying to say something? Any thoughts?
As a side note, I found a really interesting contextual historical timeline of what was going on in the world while Mahler was composing. Check it out.
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Submitted by Jim Hirsch on Thu, 09/27/2007 - 10:01am.
Last week the Sinfonietta opened its season with concerts in River Forest and at Symphony Center. 
We performed the works of Grieg and Ellington in collaboration with the truly wonderful Chicago Jazz Ensemble under the leadership of Jon Faddis. We were delighted to receive very positive reviews from both major dailies.
The second half of the program began with “Harmonic Rhythm: Concerto for Timpani and 
Orchestra” by Russell Peck that featured the Sinfonietta’s own timpanist, Bobby Everson. This show-stopping work put Bobby at the front of the stage where everyone in the audience could watch him perform this technically challenging piece. At times, the timpanist holds two mallets in each hand – very much like a marimba or vibes player might do – to create harmonic textures not usually heard from the timpani. There are other sections of the piece where the timpanist is performing complicated “call and response” melodies with the orchestra.
It was fun to see Bobby perform the piece and earn the standing ovation he received from the audience.
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In the same vein of having aspirations of being an astronaut or a princess, when I was young, I dreamed that one day I would perform on Orchestra Hall’s stage.
Fast-forward twenty years later. I will be playing my trumpet with the Chicago Sinfonietta for the first concert of their 2007-2008 season this coming Sunday and Monday. Yes, it is my professional Chicago debut and I will be playing at one of my favorite venues - Orchestra Hall. Not bad, not bad at all. 
Its just one of those things - you go through life trying to steer in the right direction, but you never really know where it’s going to take you. I’m very encouraged; I feel like the musical possibilities in this city are endless and doors keep on opening.
For the September 17th concert, the Sinfonietta is presenting “Salute to Sir Duke” with the Chicago Jazz Ensemble. This should be a great collaboration. How often does an audience member get to hear the original orchestral Peer Gynt Suite by Grieg and then get another shot at listening to this piece in a swinging rendition by the Duke? With this A and B musical comparison, electric energy will flow through these wonderful pieces. In addition to Peer Gynt, the Sinfonietta is performing a rhythmically riveting Timpani concerto by Russell Peck with Timpanist, Bobby Everson. The program will close with Harlem by Duke Ellington. It should be great fun.
So of course, I am very excited about this concert and the whole season that the Chicago Sinfonietta is performing this year. Each concert is fresh and out of the ordinary. This orchestra is pushing the norm for classical concerts, but still sticking to quality orchestral experiences.
I’m so glad to be part of a group that offers an exploratory approach to music. Each concert is so different that it just can’t be heard (and in some cases seen) anywhere else in the world.
So check out Concert One - Salute to Sir Duke at Orchestra Hall. And if you see a short, brunette trumpet player- wave! It’s me!
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Today is the 10 year anniversary of Sir Georg Solti's death. Yesterday I interviewed CSO president Deborah Card and Martha Gilmer to get their reaction, as well as information on today's tribute to take place at noon.
If you missed the piece on today's morning show, you can
listen here.
(it's about 3-4 items down the list)
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Submitted by Jim Hirsch on Wed, 08/22/2007 - 11:11am.
Everyone loves a good contest, right?
I was recently contacted by Alex Davison of Gramaphone Magazine about a world-wide contest to name the classical
music artist of the year, and honor other notable achievements in our field. There are a group of nominees that were chosen by Gramophone Magazine's own critics as well as respected members of the industry, including retailers, broadcasters, arts administrators, and musicians. Sure, it feels a bit like our favourite pop music TV show on Fox, but if it helps raise the profile of classical music artists and orchestras, I'm all for it.
Want to have your voice heard? Click on to the Gramaphone website and cast your vote. The results will be published in real time on the Gramophone website, as well as in the special November Gramophone Awards Issue of the magazine, out on the 3rd of October.
Don't forget that age-old Chicago tradition of voting early and voting often. And if you happen to write in the Chicago Sinfonietta, or any of the partner organizations on ccm.org, we won't mind at all.
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