Chicago Symphony Orchestra Mead Composer-Curator Daniel Bernard Roumain Hosts Opening Program of CSO MusicNOW

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) announced that their acclaimed contemporary music series CSO MusicNOW will continue in the 2024-2025 season with a November 24, 2024, program hosted by Mead Composer-Curator Daniel Bernard Roumain titled “Voices of Migration & Innovation.”

The program features the world premiere of Uncertainty, Our Country, a CSO MusicNOW commissioned work by Roumain, as well as his String Quartet No. 5 (Parks) and Voodoo Violin Concerto No. 1, in which he is the featured soloist. Completing the program are works by Allison Loggins-Hull and Brittany J. Green. The performance will be followed by an opportunity to mix and mingle with the artists and fellow concertgoers, hosted by the CSO’s African American Network (AAN).

Chicago native Roumain  has been praised for his “inventive and energetic music” by The New York Times, which declared him to be “about as omnivorous as a contemporary artist gets.” Roumain has worked with artists from Philip Glass to Bill T. Jones to Lady Gaga, as well as institutions including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Kennedy Center, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Sydney Opera House. In collaboration with Anna Deavere Smith, his opera The Walkers premiered at Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2023, the first of three works in the new multi-composer opera trilogy, Proximity.

Roumain’s CSO MusicNOW program opens with his String Quartet No. 5 (Parks), written in 2005 and dedicated to the memory of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks and to courageous women everywhere. The program continues with Brittany J. Green’s 2022 work shift.unravel.BREAK for clarinet, violin, cello and piano, which takes on the form of its title as the musical material comes together out of silence and then shifts around the ensemble. Homeland, written by Allison Loggins-Hull shortly after the devastation of Hurricane Maria surged through Puerto Rico in 2017, explores the concept of home during a crisis. Composed for solo flute, Homeland features CSO Principal Flute Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson as soloist.

The program concludes with two works by Roumain: the world premiere of Uncertainty, Our Country, a CSO MusicNOW commission written for violin, viola, cello and piano; and his Voodoo Violin Concerto No. 1, with Roumain as the featured violinist on both works. Drawing on influences from jazz, blues and folk music, the concerto was composed in 2002 for solo violin and chamber ensemble. The performance also features musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kedrick Armstrong, named one of “22 for ’22: Composers and performers to watch” by The Washington Post and the new Music Director of the Oakland Symphony.

“I am looking forward to sharing the ‘Voices of Migration & Innovation’ program to open the 2024/25 CSO MusicNOW,” Roumain commented. “It is an honor to return to Chicago and collaborate with musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on this program that includes my music and music of fellow composers I admire. I hope audiences will remain open to the exploration and innovation that is happening in new music today.”

Subscriptions for the 2024/25 CSO MusicNOW series at Symphony Center are now available for $45. Patron services representatives are available to assist with ticket packages by web chat at cso.org, by calling 312-294-3000 (Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m.– 5 p.m.), or by emailing [email protected].