Residency as part of Music of the America’s Series. Workshop and performance with the new music ensemble. Preview performance of José-Luis Hurtado’s Untitled S.
Steven Banks (b. 1993) - Come As You Are (2020)
Mel Bonis (1858-1937) - Sonate for Flute and Piano Op. 64 (1904)
World Premiere of Bebop Riddle V by Augusta Read Thomas. Julian with Katie Jimoh
Witness the 1951 MGM musical — starring Gene Kelly as an American ex-GI who falls for a Parisian woman played by Leslie Caron — on the big screen while the CSO performs the score live. Featuring the treasured songs of George and Ira Gershwin, the movie culminates in an iconic ballet sequence, choreographed by Kelly himself. Paris never felt so magnificent.
Modest Mussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain
Felix Mendelssohn: The First Walpurgis Night
Sergei Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances
Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
Marin Alsop, conductor
Valentina Peleggi, conductor
Gabriela Montero, piano
Gabriela Ortiz: Antrópolis
Gabriela Montero: Latin Piano Concerto
Roxanna Panufnik: Across the Line of Dreams
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Chôros No. 10 (Rasga o Coração)
Grant Park Orchestra
Kevin John Edusei, conductor
Joyce Yang, piano
Anna Clyne: This Midnight Hour
Franz Liszt: Totentanz
Sergei Prokofiev: Suite from Romeo and Juliet
Grant Park Orchestra
Christopher Bell, conductor
Michelle Cann, piano
Joan Tower: Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman
Aaron Copland: Variations on a Shaker Theme
Morton Gould: American Salute
Edmond Dédé: Chicago: Grande valse à l'Américaine
George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
Leonard Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
arr. Carmen Dragon: America the Beautiful
John Philip Sousa: Stars and Stripes Forever
Winner of Cedille Records’ inaugural Emerging Artist Competition in 2021, saxophonist Julian Velasco is a Chicago-based soloist, collaborative artist, educator, and fierce advocate for contemporary arts whose artistic vision aspires to celebrate the plurality of our society. When Julian makes his Live From WFMT debut alongside his collaborative partner, pianist Winston Choi, they’ll play selections from their album, As We Are, which broke out at number 4 on Billboard’s Traditional Classical Album Charts.
Performing Ralph Vaughan WIlliams’s 3 Vocalises with Patrice Michaels
Afternoon masterclass for LU Saxophone Studio. More information coming soon.
Premiere of new work by Elliott Lupp
Coming together to play music and celebrate the release of the new 'Nowhere To Run' EP by Next Paperback Hero (out everywhere Sept 13) at the historic Linneman's Riverwest Inn.
$10 cover at the door, show starts at 7:30 pm
Second Night with the Chicago Sinfonietta
PROGRAM
Nkeiru OKOYE: Voices Shouting Out
Roberto SIERRA: Saxophone Concerto with guest artist Julian Velasco
George GERSHWIN: Cuban Overture
Ottorino RESPIGHI: Pines of Rome
Approximately 100 mins
Performance at the annual benefit for Chicago's classical record label, Cedille Records.
Our 35th Season celebrates both the incredible legacy of Chicago Sinfonietta, while also looking forward to the NEXT 35 years! This opening concert starts with Nkeiru Okoye’s Voices Shouting Out, an optimistic response to 9/11, full of hope and promise. In the composer’s own words, it’s “a sparkling celebration of life for those of us who continue living” – a fitting sentiment as we emerge from the pandemic. Next, the program highlights Cedille Records Emerging Artists Competition Winner, Julian Velasco, and his debut with Sinfonietta on Roberto Sierra’s jazz-infused Saxophone Concerto. Gershwin’s rousing Cuban Overture follows with a wonderful exploration from the jazzy master immersed in Latin colors. The concert finishes with Respighi’s beloved Pines of Rome, a piece Maestra Mei-Ann Chen calls “a mesmerizing symphonic masterwork”.
A truly magnificent concert program, showcasing the best of Chicago Sinfonietta.
PROGRAM
Nkeiru OKOYE: Voices Shouting Out
Roberto SIERRA: Saxophone Concerto with guest artist Julian Velasco
George GERSHWIN: Cuban Overture
Ottorino RESPIGHI: Pines of Rome
Approximately 100 mins
For her Roulette residency, Cassie Wieland presents a collection of new works including a work in progress for chamber ensemble Bearthoven, the world premiere of Hometown with Isabelle O’Connell and Adam Holmes, and the NYC premiere of her new project Vines performing Birthday Party with ~Nois.
Luis Fernando Amaya’s piece that aims to challenge the very idea of "personhood" and to whom it is granted in many societies. Scored for twenty-four voices, saxophone quartet, percussion, multi-channel electronics, and two soloists, Árbol de Bocas (“Tree of Mouths”) is a one-hour-long opera that depicts a year in the life of its only character: a tree.
Presenting the saxophone quartet works written for ~Nois by Mathew:
Apertures (2017) & Metasomatic V (2021)
“Right now – this minute – is an amazing time to love music. Musicians and listeners from every corner of the music world are pushing beyond their boundaries, questioning their roots, searching and stretching for the new. There has never been a time when music contained so much innovation and diversity, so much audacity and so much courage. And we want to show you all of it. With the creation of LONG PLAY we are presenting more kinds of musicians, playing more kinds of music, bending more kinds of minds. LONG PLAY expands and enlarges our scope and our reach, and puts more new faces on stages than ever before. It’s a lot of music!”
Michael Gordon, David Lang & Julia Wolfe
Premiere of Elijah Daniel Smith’s new solo alto saxophone & electronics work, Meridians & Gemma Peacocke's newest saxophone quartet Hazel.
The Beckwith Recital Series inaugural recital: celebrating outstanding instrumental and vocal guest artists and faculty performing in solo and chamber music settings.
Live in concert and live-streamed on the Department of Music YouTube channel.
Free & Open to the Public
Dwalm (2018) Gemma Peacocke
Perihelion (2020) Elijah Daniel Smith
Gossamer (2019) Cassie Wieland
BIG Talk (2016) Shelley Washington
I Tell You Me (2021) Annika Socolofsky (feat. Andrea Edith Moore ~ Soprano)
Recital, Masterclasses, and concerto performance of David Maslanka’s “Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Wind Ensemble”
Brooklyn-based composer/vocalist Cassie Wieland joins Chicago’s own ~Nois for “Birthday Party”, a collection of songs that serve as a doleful celebration of growing up. Praised by The New York Times as “sweetly shimmering,” Wieland masterfully experiments with timbre and texture by exploring intimate and fragile sounds to achieve the “hand-made” sound she is often looking for: imperfect, but intentional.
Performing student premiers, composition recital, and recording of Annika Socolofsky’s new feminist-rager lullaby “I Tell You Me”
Guest soprano saxophonist with PRISM Quartet.
Continuing the tradition of presenting new works for the small orchestra, James Aikman’s ALARM!: Concerto for Saxophone Quartet will feature the PRISM Quartet. Hailed as a “bold ensemble that set the standard for contemporary-classical saxophone quartets” by The New York Times, PRISM has 200 premiere works to its credit and will be complemented with works by celebrated French composers.
Julian represents the only woodwind contestant for Cedille Records’ 30th anniversary Emerging Artist Competition.
Music of Osnat Netzer, Augusta Read Thomas, Elijah Daniel Smith, Justin Weiss, Evan Williams
$15, Proof of vaccination required for in-person attendance
