October 2012 Music Calendar

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Visionary interpretations of works by Chopin and Liszt performed by world-renowned pianist Gabriela Montero and a Cello Fest featuring an ensemble of up to 60 cellists together on stage are among the Northwestern University events that will launch the 2012-13 music season. 

The annual Kids Fare “March with the Band” family program for children aged 3 to 8, a Keyboard Conversations program of Bach’s romantic compositions by guest pianist Jeffrey Siegel, and a concert by the Contemporary Music Ensemble celebrating John Cage will also take place in October. 

More of the late composer’s music will be featured at Northwestern this fall during the Bienen School’s John Cage Festival (Nov. 15 to 17). Celebrating the composer’s centennial, the festival will include concerts, a lecture, symposia and displays of music manuscripts from Northwestern University Music Library’s Cage Collection. For festival and ticket information, visit www.pickstaiger.org/events/john-cage-festival.

Presented by the Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music, all the programs listed below are open to the public. They take place on Northwestern’s Evanston campus at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 50 Arts Circle Drive; Lutkin Hall, 700 University Place; Cahn Auditorium, 600 Emerson St.; Regenstein Recital Hall, 60 Arts Circle Drive; Alice Millar Chapel, 1870 Sheridan Road; Welsh-Ryan Arena, 2705 Ashland Ave.; or Deering Meadow, the two acres of green space (between Deering Library and Sheridan Road) at 1937 Sheridan Road, as noted below. 

Due to construction on the south end of campus, Arts Circle Drive is currently closed to traffic. Free parking is still available on weekends and after 4 p.m. weekdays in the two-level lakefront structure located on Campus Drive. After turning onto Campus Drive from Sheridan Road, enter the parking structure on the right by way of ramps leading to the upper and lower levels. For vehicles with handicap placards, reserved spaces are available on weekends and after 4 p.m. weekdays in the same lot directly west of Louis Hall. For more construction and parking information, visit www.pickstaiger.org/construction.

Ticket prices are indicated in two ranges: the first for the general public and the second for full-time students with IDs. Northwestern faculty and staff with a valid WildCARD ID receive a 15 percent discount off the general public ticket price. 

For more information, call the Pick-Staiger Concert Office at (847) 491-5441 or visit the Pick-Staiger website at http://www.pickstaiger.org/. To order tickets by phone, call the Pick-Staiger Ticket Office at (847) 467-4000. 

OCTOBER 2012 EVENTS 

Faculty Musicale, 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 1, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Featuring distinguished Bienen School of Music faculty, this year’s musicale will welcome the school’s new associate professor of flute John Thorne and associate professor of saxophone Timothy McAllister. The programs will also feature pianists Sylvia Wang, James Giles, Elizabeth Buccheri and Alan Chow, and trombonists Michael Mulcahy, Peter Ellefson, Randall Hawes and Timothy Higgins. Admission is free.

Kids Fare, “March with the Band,” 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 6, Welsh-Ryan Arena. Children aged 3 to 8 are invited to bring their toy instruments and march with the Northwestern University Wildcat Marching Band. Free parking is available in the Ryan Field west lot on Ashland Avenue north of Central Street. Admission is $6 for adults and $4 for children and full-time students with IDs. 

Keyboard Conversations, “Spellbinding Bach,” 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 12, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Pianist Jeffrey Siegel will perform and discuss romantic compositions by Bach, including Toccata in D, the “Italian Concerto” and “Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue.” Admission is $22 for the general public and $16 for full-time students with IDs.

Guest artist, Murray Perahia Piano Master Class, 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Renowned pianist Murray Perahia, the 2012 recipient of Northwestern’s Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance, has also won the Avery Fisher Prize, the Royal Philharmonic’s Instrumentalist Award, and Gramophone and Grammy awards. In this master class he will coach Bienen School of Music piano students. Admission is free. 

Cello Fest, 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 14, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Danish-German conductor-cellist Hans Erik Deckert will conduct the Northwestern Cello Ensemble in a program featuring his own works as well as music by Bach, Per Norgard, Piazzolla, David Popper, Ravel and Rimsky-Korsakov. In several works the ensemble will be joined by young Chicago-area cellists to form a 60-cello orchestra. Admission is $6 for the general public and $4 for full-time students with IDs.

Small Jazz Ensembles, “Original Jazz Classics,” 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 17, Regenstein Recital Hall. Victor Goines, Northwestern’s director of jazz studies, will conduct a program that will explore music from the archives of Original Jazz Classics, one of jazz’s most important record labels, as interpreted by Bienen School jazz students. Admission is $6 for the general public and $4 for full-time students with IDs. 

Guest artist, pianist Gabriela Montero, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 18, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Montero’s program will begin with visionary interpretations of works by Chopin and Liszt and continue after intermission with improvisations on themes suggested by the audience. Admission is $18 for the general public and $10 for full-time students with IDs.

Symphonic Wind Ensemble, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Timothy McAllister, soprano saxophonist with the PRISM Quartet and the Bienen School’s new associate professor of saxophone, has premiered more than 100 new works by major and emerging composers, performing with conductors John Adams, Marin Alsop, Michael Tilson Thomas, Neeme Jarvi and Gustavo Dudamel. Mallory Thompson will conduct a program featuring Gabrieli’s “Sonata pian’ e forte,” John Mackey’s Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Wind Ensemble, Grainger’s “Children’s March: Over the Hills and Far Away” and Maslanka’s “A Child’s Garden of Dreams.” Admission is $6 for the general public and $4 for full-time students with IDs. 

Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra, “Copenhagen and Rome,” 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Robert G. Hasty and graduate student Yuchi Chou conduct a program featuring Berlioz’s “Roman Carnival Overture,” Nielsen’s Violin Concerto and Respighi’s “Fountains of Rome” and “Roman Festivals.” The concert will feature violin soloist Jing Qiao. Admission is $8 for the general public and $5 for full-time students with IDs.

Homecoming Pep Rally, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26, Deering Meadow. Celebrate Northwestern’s 2012 Homecoming in high spirits outdoors as the Wildcat Marching Band brings the sights and sounds of Ryan Field to Deering Meadow. Daniel J. Farris will conduct the program. If it rains, the concert will take place in Cahn Auditorium. Admission is free.

Ensemble In Residence, Newberry Consort, “La harpe de melodie: The Subtle Musical Art of France,” 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28 (2 p.m. preconcert lecture), Lutkin Hall. One of the most precious holdings in the Newberry Library’s music archive is “La harpe de melodie,” a 14th-century song by Jacob de Senleches. The music appears within the beautiful illustration of a harp, notated on the harp’s strings. With its intricate, florid and beguiling melody, the song represents the apex of the “ars subtilior” repertoire -- the “subtle art,” a perfect blend of medieval intellect and modern sensibilities. The rare work will be performed by the Newberry Consort’s acclaimed medieval specialists, including vielle (a bowed string instrument) and rebec player David Douglass; vocalist Ellen Hargis; vielle player and harpist Shira Kammen; recorder player, flutist and harpist Tom Zajac; and citole (a medieval string instrument) player, lutenist and vocalist Mark Rimple. The concert will be preceded by a 2 p.m. lecture. Admission is $35 at the door (or $28 for advance tickets) for the general public and $5 for full-time students with IDs.

Hymnfest XI, “Earth and All Stars,” 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28, Alice Millar Chapel. The Chapel Choir, Millar Brass Ensemble and attendees will join the 100-rank Aeolian-Skinner organ to “raise the roof” in hymn arrangements by Stephen Alltop, Eric Budzynski, Larry Cook, Jeffrey Blersch, David Cherwien and Richard Webster. Admission is a freewill offering.

New Music, Contemporary Music Ensemble, “Unlocking Cage,” 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 30, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. A Contemporary Music Ensemble concert celebrating John Cage’s centennial will explore composers who influenced Cage. The concert will feature commentary by D.J. Hoek, head of Northwestern University’s Music Library. The program will include Satie’s “Musique d’ameublement,” Ives’ “In the Cage” from “A Set of Pieces,” Webern’s “Variationen,” Varese’s “Offrandes,” Boulez’s “Derive 1” and Cage’s “Fourteen.” Admission is $6 for the general public and $4 for full-time students with IDs.