When The Rite of Spring premiered in 1913, the reception from the audience was slightly less than warm. Men exchanged blows, hissed and shouted insults (among which were the summons for a dentist), and the choreographer Nijinsky was required to yell instructions from the side of the stage as the dancers could no longer hear the orchestra above the fracas. Though I can't really think of many times when fighting in public is appropriate, part of me respects these concert hall rebels for their passionate commitment to what they viewed as art. Not only did they decide that what they were seeing was offensive, but they protested immediately to protect what they held sacred - the art of ballet.

"It's been said that musicians should not meddle in politics. It is significantly less dangerous to engage in pure art." - Gidon Kremer
 
When musicians step beyond the role of artist and into the role of activist, they bring attention to themselves in a way that almost certainly alienates some part of their audience. Matt Haimovitz supports the Occupy Wall Street movement. Does that impact your decision to listen or not listen to his music?
 
Musicians have the monumental task of learning how to effectively reach people with their art. This requires a great deal of introspection and strong sense of identity unique to them based on their life experiences. With such developed means of communication and defined awareness of self, it makes sense that they use their talent to overtly express more than strictly musical content.
 

One of the things that is particularly exciting to me about Chicago is learning about the classical music and cultural history here.  Many of the organizations have been established for decades, and it is so interesting to learn about how each has grown, changed, and make their mark in the community.

This week, I caught up with a co-artistic director and trumpeter of Chicago Chamber Musicians, Charlie Geyer, to chat about the organization’s twenty-fifth anniversary and what audiences can look forward to during the remainder of the 2011-2012 season and in the future.  The Chamber will be performing several pieces in the “Memories of Vienna” concert scheduled for November 6-7. For details visit www.chicagochambermusic.org.


How is Chicago Chamber Musicians celebrating its 25 anniversary?

We really tied our season around this idea of “collaboration”.  We thought about collaboration as a vision for the future of our organization also.

Chicago a cappella presents "Roll, Jordan, Roll" on Feb. 6, 7, 13, and 14. 
 
How did the African-American spiritual come about?  Here are some thoughts about the social background and history of the spiritual, from my program notes for these upcoming performances.   
 
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This is the first in a series of blogs to provide historical context for Chicago a cappella's upcoming February performances of spirituals, Roll, Jordan, Roll.  Some of this material didn't make it into the program notes and so is unique to this blog and this website.  Enjoy, and don't be shy about commenting if you have something to say.