Bach to Bernstein on Bienen School Annual Millennium Park Program

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Holst’s arrangement of Bach’s “Fugue a la Gigue” and Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story” -- performed by Northwestern University’s Symphonic Wind Ensemble -- will provide the audience with free outdoor entertainment Memorial Day weekend.

Presented by the Northwestern University Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music, this year’s annual concert will take place at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, May 25, at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, 201 E. Randolph St., in Chicago’s Millennium Park.

The program is presented in conjunction with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events as part of Millennium Park Presents, Summer 2014.

Free and open to the public, the concert will feature faculty trumpet soloist Robert Sullivan. It will be conducted by Mallory Thompson, professor of conducting and ensembles and director of Northwestern’s bands.

The Symphonic Wind Ensemble, the Bienen School of Music’s most intimate and selective wind ensemble, emphasizes the performance of major original works for band. In addition to the works by Bach and Bernstein, their May 25 program will include Alfred Reed’s arrangement of Elgar’s “Nimrod” from “Enigma Variations,” Bohme’s Trumpet Concerto and Giancarlo Castro D’Addona’s “Grand Fanfare.”

ROBERT SULLIVAN

Sullivan, a professor of trumpet at the Bienen School, was appointed principal trumpet of the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops Orchestra in 2008, and has served on the faculties of the Cleveland Institute of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Mannes College of Music, Charleston Southern University and the College of Charleston. He is former assistant principal trumpet of the Cleveland Orchestra (2003-2008), associate principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic (1993-2004) and the associate principal trumpet of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. He was a member of the United States Air Force Band and Orchestra and solo trumpet of the Chicago Chamber Brass. Sullivan’s two solo albums with pianist James Rensink, “Treasures for Trumpet” and “Kaleidoscope,” are available on the Summit Records label.

MALLORY THOMPSON

Thompson has appeared as a guest conductor with the United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own,” United States Army Field Band, United States Air Force Band, West Point Band, United States Navy Band, Dallas Wind Symphony and Symphony Silicon Valley. She has appeared as a conductor or clinician at College Band Directors National Association conventions, the Midwest Clinic, the Interlochen Arts Academy, numerous state music conventions and the Aspen Music Festival. A Charles Deering McCormick Professor at Northwestern, she was formerly on the faculties of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, University of South Florida and Oberlin Conservatory. Thompson’s most recent album “rising” is her fourth compact disc with the Symphonic Wind Ensemble on the Summit Records label.

MILLENNIUM PARK

Millennium Park is an award-winning center for art, music, architecture and landscape design. The result of a partnership between the city of Chicago and the philanthropic community, the 24.5-acre park features the work of world-renowned architects, planners, artists and designers. One of Millennium Park’s most prominent features is the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the most sophisticated outdoor concert venue of its kind in the United States. National Medal of Art winner Frank Gehry applied his signature style to the design of Millennium Park’s revolutionary outdoor concert venue. The Pavilion stands 120 feet high, with a billowing headdress of brushed steel ribbons that frame the opening and connect to an overhead trellis of crisscrossing steel pipes. The trellis supports a sound system that spans the 4,000 fixed seats and the Great Lawn, which accommodates an additional 7,000 people. This state-of-the-art sound system was designed to mimic the acoustics of an indoor concert hall by distributing enhanced sound equally over both the fixed seats and the lawn.

For more information on this performance, call the Pick-Staiger Concert Office at (847) 491-5441 or visit www.pickstaiger.org.