The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 2009-2010 MusicNOW series, featuring music by living composers performed by musicians from the CSO and renowned guest artists, continues on Monday, Nov. 23 at 8pm, with works by CSO Mead Composer-in-Residence Mark-Anthony Turnage and Sir Richard Rodney Bennett.
Single tickets are only $20 (students, $10) and can be purchased online at cso.org, by calling 312-294-3000 or at the box office.
MusicNOW Principal Conductor Cliff Colnot leads the concert at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park. Mezzo-soprano Barbara Rearick, in her series debut, sings Twice Through the Heart, a chilling dramatic scena for soloist and 16 players by Mark-Anthony Turnage.
Based on a poem sequence by Scottish poet Jackie Kay, the 30-minute work tells the painful story of a woman imprisoned for the murder of her violently abusive husband. Turnage’s compassionate and visceral score incorporates alluring vocal lines with his trademark jazz-inspired harmonies, transforming from intimate to despondent in reflection of the suffering of the main character.
The program opens with Jazz Calendar, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett’s musical interpretation of the nursery rhyme “Monday’s Child Is Fair of Face.” Bennett, a native Briton and longtime New Yorker, studied at the Royal Academy of Music and with Pierre Boulez in Paris during the late 1950s.
He acquired an early reputation through his substantial vocal and instrumental scores, notably operas (The Ledge, The Mines), which made effective use of a progressive, expressionistic style. Also an accomplished jazz pianist, Bennett is equally at ease with all 20th-century musical styles, with a prolific output including avant-garde, jazz and large-scale, lush film scores (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Far from the Madding Crowd, Nicholas and Alexandra).
The concert is hosted by Mark-Anthony Turnage, who will introduce each piece from the stage with anecdotes and descriptions of the compositions. Following the performance, MusicNOW fans are invited to stay and socialize at a free reception with complimentary pizza and beer.
Offering audiences a unique chance to mingle with composers and musicians, the MusicNOW receptions have become a highlight of these events at the modern-chic Harris Theater.
A champion of 20th-century music, American mezzo-soprano Barbara Rearick achieved international acclaim for her interpretation of the title role in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia at the Aldeburgh Festival. This success led to her becoming a founding member of the prestigious Britten-Pears Ensemble.
Rearick has performed at major venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and Brooklyn Academy of Music; her orchestral performances this season include Messiah with the Indianapolis and Helena symphonies, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Colorado and Syracuse symphonies, Mozart’s Coronation Mass with the Eugene Symphony, and Falla’s El amor brujo and excerpts from Carmen with the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, England.
In an ongoing collaboration with Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, she has performed with the composer-pianist in arrangements of Gershwin songs and Bennett’s A History of the Thé Dansant, a cycle written especially for Rearick, at London’s Wigmore Hall and at festivals throughout the U.K.
In the past decade, Cliff Colnot has emerged as a distinguished conductor and a musician of uncommon range. He has been the principal conductor of the MusicNOW series since its inception, and in 2005 he also was named principal conductor of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, an orchestra he has conducted since 1994.
Having worked extensively with Daniel Barenboim and with Pierre Boulez, he regularly conducts the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), and he collaborates with the acclaimed ensemble eighth blackbird. Colnot also conducts Contempo at the University of Chicago, the DePaul University Symphony Orchestra and orchestras at Indiana University.
He has appeared as a guest conductor with the American Composers Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Utah Symphony.
In addition, Colnot is a master arranger and has composed music for film as well as for top rock-and-roll, pop and jazz artists. The Chicago Tribune named Cliff Colnot a Chicagoan of the Year in music in 2001 and again recognized his multifaceted work in 2007.
MusicNOW, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s nationally recognized and critically acclaimed new-music series, was created in 1998. The series provides a rare opportunity to experience concert programs completely dedicated to new music, offering works by some of today’s most prominent living composers, including Mark-Anthony Turnage, Osvaldo Golijov, Oliver Knussen, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Philip Glass and more.
Each program is performed by musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra alongside guest artists. Many of the composers whose works are presented attend the concert make remarks to the audience and mingle with concertgoers at receptions, with free pizza provided by Edwardo’s and Matilda from Goose Island.
The 2009-2010 MusicNOW season continues with a celebratory tribute to Pierre Boulez at 85, featuring works by Boulez and premieres by Dai Fujikura and Johannes Boris Borowski, with soloists Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Tamara Stefanovich, John Sharp and Nathan Cole, taking place at Symphony Center on Sunday, Jan. 24, at 3pm (there is no reception following this performance).
The series finishes with a program of music by John Luther Adams, Osvaldo Golijov and hyper-accordionist Michael Ward-Bergeman at the Harris Theater on Monday, March 15, at 8pm.
Complete program details follow:
- DATE: Monday, Nov. 23, 2009, 8 p.m.
- LOCATION: Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph Dr.
- WHO: Musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
- CONDUCTOR: Cliff Colnot
- Tickets: $20
TICKETS for all 2009-2010 Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Center Presents and Civic Orchestra of Chicago concerts can be purchased by calling CSO ticketing services at 312-294-3000 or 800-223-7114, online at cso.org, or by visiting the Symphony Center box office at 220 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60604.
Discounted student tickets can be purchased, subject to availability, online in advance or at the box office on the day of the concert.
For group rates, please call 312-294-3040. Artists, programs and ticket prices are subject to change.
