Classical Music – Page 5 – 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.

Classical Music Music

Elgin Symphony Orchestra Welcomes Marc Thayer as Executive Director

July 24, 2021 Leslie Price Elgin Symphony Orchestra

The Elgin Symphony Orchestra welcomes Marc Thayer as executive director effective July 1. He was selected following a nationwide search involving dozens of candidates.

Classical Music

Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra Announces Public Phase of $5.1M Campaign for the Future

November 27, 2020 Vickie Moore Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, The Davee Foundation

Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO), named 2020 Professional Orchestra of the Year by the Illinois Council of Orchestras, recently announced the public phase of its $5.1 million Campaign for the Future. The Campaign is supported in large part by The Davee Foundation, which donated $3 million to IPO in March 2018, creating IPO’s first-ever endowment. Building on this transformational investment, IPO’s Executive Director Christina Salerno and Board of Directors sought to use the endowment as a launching pad to increase the overall financial stability of IPO while cementing artistic director Stilian Kirov’s vision for the orchestra’s artistic relevance and importance in Chicago’s Southland region.

Architecture Classical Music Music

Architecture and Music Meld in New University of Chicago Series

October 23, 2020 Vickie Moore UChicago Presents, University of Chicago

As one of the world’s leading institutions of higher learning, the University of Chicago is renowned for combining critical research and understanding of the past with free and open inquiry that drives new ways of thinking. The University’s campus reflects this duality with dramatic neogothic structures juxtaposed with provocative modern architecture conceived by some of the most forward-thinking designers in the world. In a new series called Sound Sites, the University of Chicago Department of Music and UChicago Presents will join past and present in music and architecture with performances by the Department’s performance faculty in some of the University’s most notable spaces.

Classical Music Music

“For the Love of Lyric,” a Virtual Concert to Open Lyric Opera’s New “Reimagined” Season

August 11, 2020 Vickie Moore Lyric Opera of Chicago, Renee Fleming

Lyric Opera of Chicago will open the company’s reimagined fall season with “For the Love of Lyric,” a virtual concert from the stage of the Lyric Opera House, on Sunday, September 13, available for free streaming starting at 6:00 p.m. CDT.

“Lyric’s Opening Night Opera Ball has long been a signature project of Lyric’s Women’s Board,” says Lyric’s general director, president and CEO, Anthony Freud.

Classical Music Music

Lyric Opera to Cancel Remainder of 2020 Programming

June 17, 2020 Vickie Moore COVID-19, Lyric Opera of Chicago

Based on guidance from the city, state, and federal agencies regarding the ongoing health crisis, Lyric Opera of Chicago’s general director, president, and CEO, Anthony Freud, has announced the decision to cancel performances in the Lyric Opera House from September to December in Lyric’s 2020/21 Season.

Classical Music Music

Elgin Symphony Names Erik Malmquist Executive Director

June 17, 2020 Vickie Moore Elgin Symphony Orchestra

The Elgin Symphony Orchestra has named Erik Malmquist to the post of executive director effective May 15th. Erik has been the ESO’s director of artistic planning and operations since January 2020. Prior to joining the ESO, he spent six years as artist manager and director of operations at Zemsky Green Artists Management in New York City, managing a roster of some of today’s most prominent operatic talents, and general manager of Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity on New York’s Upper West Side.

Classical Music Music

Ravinia Cancels 2020 Festival Season Due to COVID-19 Concerns

May 7, 2020 David Henley Grant Park Music Festival, Ravinia

In response to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Ravinia, the oldest music festival in the country, has been forced to cancel its 2020 season. Ravinia has operated continually since its 1904 opening except for 1932–1935, when the park was silenced by the Great Depression. The not-for-profit festival was to have presented more than 120 events from June 12 through September 16, including the annual summer residency of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The festival’s summer conservatory, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, will also be closed this summer.

Classical Music Music

Spektral Quartet Posptones Summer World Premiere of Solar Eclipse Inspired Work ENIGMA at Adler Planetarium

April 28, 2020 Vickie Moore Adler Planetarium, Spektral Quartet

Out of an abundance of caution, and prioritizing the safety and wellbeing of its artists and guests, the Grammy-nominated Spektral Quartet has postponed its world premiere of the multimedia work ENIGMA, in partnership with the Adler Planetarium. The work was to be presented June 11 and 12 in the Adler’s Grainger Sky Theater. A new premiere date will be announced later this year.

Classical Music Music

Ravinia’s Acclaimed Bernstein Mass Performance to Receive Broadcast Premiere on “Great Performances”

April 28, 2020 Vickie Moore Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Great Performances, Leonard Bernstein, Marin Alsop, Ravinia

When Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman and Chief Conductor and Curator Marin Alsop presented Leonard Bernstein’s little-seen music theater masterwork Mass as the centerpiece of Ravinia’s 2018 celebration of the iconic conductor and composer’s centennial, the Chicago Tribune declared it one of the best concerts of 2018, and audiences clamored for a repeat performance. Ravinia obliged, reuniting more than 200 onstage artists—including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Vocality, a cast of “Street Singers,” and even the local high school marching band—for a single 2019 encore that Ravinia arranged to have filmed.