Fred Cummings – Page 15 – Clef Notes Chicagoland Journal for the Arts

Music of the Baroque to Present “The Chevalier”

August 1, 2021 Fred Cummings Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Music of the Baroque

Music of the Baroque will present the Midwest premiere of The Chevalier, a new concert theater work written and directed by Bill Barclay. The Chevalier is about the life and music of 18th-century Black composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a master composer, virtuoso violinist, a friend of Mozart’s, music teacher to Marie Antoinette, the finest fencer in Europe, general of Europe’s first Black regiment and a crusader for the abolishment of slavery. Taking a “concert theater” approach, featuring the interplay of four actors with orchestral and chamber music excerpts, Barclay blends Bologne’s remarkable history with his own compositions, ultimately conflating the French Revolution with the social and political unrest in society today.

Dance Summer 2021

New Horizons

July 6, 2021 Fred Cummings Auditorium Theatre, Deeply Rooted Dance Theatre, University of Chicago

The 2021-2022 season is getting off to a fabulous start for Deeply Rooted Dance Theater and Auditorium Theatre, which are launching a new partnership together beginning this year and extending at least through the 2024-2025 season.

“It’s always been a dream of mine,” says Deeply Rooted’s co-founder and executive director, Kevin Iega Jeff. “We first self-presented at the Auditorium in 1999 when we produced an evening with Roberta Flack—it was a wonderful collaboration. It was my hope to plant seeds for the relationship we’re beginning now.”

Music Spring 2021

LUMINARY: Q&A with Singer Marc Broussard

June 15, 2021 Fred Cummings City Winery, Marc Broussard

Some of the best discoveries are made in the most unconventional places. Fans of emerging singer/songwriter Marc Broussard know this well. They first made their acquaintance with the artist when his catchy tune, “Must Be The Water,” was featured in television commercials for the 2008 NBA All-Start game. The independent artist had been hard at work for years releasing his own music including 2002’s Momentary Setback, which gave listeners the introspective “The Wanderer.” Broussard re-released an updated version of the song years later with Island Def Jam Records on his subsequent album, Carencro (2004). The album also featured one of the artist’s best-known songs, “Home.”

Music

Ravinia Appoints Steve Wilson Co-Director of Jazz Program

May 14, 2021 Fred Cummings Billy Childs, Bridges Competition, Ravinia Festival, Steans Music Institute, Steve Wilson

In anticipation of the reopening of its gates for the 2021 season, the Ravinia Festival has announced the appointment of saxophonist Steve Wilson as a co-program director of the Ravinia Steans Music Institute (RSMI) Program for Jazz. Wilson joined the program for Jazz faculty in 2019, bringing his extensive performance expertise and a deep respect for jazz education to the role. A talented multi-instrumentalist specializing in alto and soprano saxophone performance, he has served as the director of Jazz Studies at City College of New York and conducts clinics and master classes around the world. Jazz Times calls him “the consummate saxophonist-composer” and “one of the finest alto and soprano saxophonists of our time.”

Greg-Cameron-Raymond-Rodriguez-Joffrey-Academy-Team

Ballet Dance

Joffrey Ballet Expands Growing Footprint into Chicago’s South Loop

May 14, 2021 Fred Cummings Ashley Wheater, Joffrey Ballet

The Joffrey Ballet has announced the establishment of new studio space and training facilities at 1920 South Wabash Avenue (formerly

Music

Chicago Children’s Theatre Appoints Sam Mauceri Inclusive Education and Programs Manager

May 12, 2021 Fred Cummings Chicago Children's Choir

Chicago Children’s Theatre has announced the appointment of Sam Mauceri (they/them/theirs) to a new full-time staff position: Inclusive Education and Programs Manager. Mauceri’s responsibilities include creating and ensuring an open and inclusive environment for all education programming at Chicago Children’s Theatre, including its full, year-round roster of performing arts classes and camps for children 0 to 18.

Dance

Ensemble Español Embraces New Era with “Zafiro Flamenco”

May 12, 2021 Fred Cummings Ensemble Espanol Spanish Dance Theatre

Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theatre in residence at Northeastern Illinois University, will present three performances as part of the “Zafiro Flamenco” 45th Anniversary Festival at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie.

Arts Theater

Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation Fastrack Second Wave of Grants to Chicago and South Carolina Arts Organizations

May 12, 2021 Fred Cummings Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelly Foundation, League of Chicago Theatres

A year after its April 2020 announcement of nearly $3 million in expedited funding, the Chicago-based Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation (the Foundation) has announced a second wave of support, expediting an additional $3 million that includes: $1.4 million in general operating funds to its current roster of 175 arts grantees in the Chicago region and 40 in the Lowcountry of South Carolina; $705,000 to grantees wishing to renew multi-year grants; and $75,000 to be provided to five regional arts service organizations including the Chicago-based institutions Arts Alliance Illinois, Lawyers for the Creative Arts, and League of Chicago Theatres.

Music Winter 2021

LUMINARY: Q&A with Singer/Songwriter Kelly Hunt

February 20, 2021 Fred Cummings Americana, Folk Music

When it comes to the core artistic tenants of the Folk/Americana genre, Kansas City-based singer/songwriter Kelly Hunt is what they call the genuine article. In a musical landscape that is in any given year ripe for reflection and authenticity, Hunt is an artist’s artist who revels in the stuff. And why should that surprise? Her entire ecosystem from an early age has fed a sensitivity to diverse musical voices impacting her trajectory, from her mother who sang professional opera and saxophonist father who marinated in the hottest jazz, all amid the musical ethos of Memphis, Tennessee, no less. It’s almost as if necessity dictated she evolve into a professional musician or something 180 degrees removed from the space. When that evolution did materialize, Hunt harnessed her considerable artistic resources to produce her debut album, Even the Sparrow, a stunning, stripped down acoustic paean to modern Southern roots music and the near-raw, evocative intimacy and immediacy that makes that sound so well beloved.

Raymond-Rodriguez-Joffrey-Academy-of-Dance

Ballet Dance Winter 2021

Out of the Ashes: A New Role At Joffrey Academy

January 11, 2021 Fred Cummings Abbot Fund, Joffrey Academy of Dance, Joffrey Ballet, Raymond Rodriguez

Queen Elizabeth dubbed 1992 “Annus Horribilis” (horrible year) because of the various tumultuous events that had wreaked havoc within her royal family that year. Annus horribilis might also be an accurate description of the year 2020, when a once-in-a-century global pandemic wrought havoc upon our nation’s economy and social distancing mandates forced the closure of most of the nation’s arts and cultural institutions.