Northwestern Music in September and October

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Northwestern University’s 2014-15 music season begins with a bang on Sept. 27 with “March with the Band,” the annual Kids Fare family event for children ages 3 to 8. The popular Saturday morning program provides blossoming young musicians with an opportunity to play their toy drums, trumpets and rhythm instruments as they parade with the Wildcat Marching Band. This fall, the event will be held at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. 

Presented by the University’s Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music, other programs will include an Oct. 8 performance by Hungarian pianist Peter Kiss; an Oct. 27 concert by Northwestern’s Jazz Small Ensembles that celebrates the songs of jazz vocalists Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday; and an Oct. 28 free master class led by Boston Symphony Orchestra flutist Cynthia Meyers.

The Bienen School also will host an Oct. 16 memorial concert in honor of the late award-winning composer and faculty member Lee Hyla. Hyla, the Bienen School’s Harry N. and Ruth F. Wyatt Professor of Theory and Composition, was fascinated by all types of musical styles and was a master at combining complex contemporary atonal idioms with elements of avant-garde jazz, rock and, at times, punk. The admission-free event will feature a selection of his works.

Two off-campus chorale performances by the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble of  music related to “Evensong” -- a liturgical work as arranged in the Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican Church -- will take place Oct. 19 at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in Chicago and Oct. 26 at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Evanston.

All September and October programs listed below are open to the public. They take place on the University’s Evanston campus at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 50 Arts Circle Drive; Lutkin Hall, 700 University Place; Regenstein Recital Hall, 60 Arts Circle Drive; or Alice Millar Chapel, 1870 Sheridan Road; or as noted.

Concert 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 receive a 15 percent discount off the general public ticket price.

For more information, call the Bienen School Concert Management Office at 847-491-5441 or visit Pick-Staiger. To order tickets, call 847-467-4000 or visit Pick-Staiger.

For series brochures or further information, call 847-491-5441 or email requests to pick-staiger@northwestern.edu.  To join the Bienen School’s concerts and events list and receive a monthly events newsletter as well as special discount offers, send your email address to pick-staiger@northwestern.edu. For updates on parking and directions, visit Pick-Staiger. 

SEPTEMBER 2014 

Kids Fare, “March with the Band,” 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 27, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. March with Northwestern’s Wildcat Marching Band during the first of a series of hourlong Kids Fare 2014-15 season concerts for children ages 3 to 8. Young participants may bring toy instruments for playing along. Tickets are $6 for the general public and $4 for children and full-time students.

OCTOBER 2014

Gail Williams, horn, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 5, Lutkin Hall. Principal horn of the Grand Teton Music Festival and a former member of the Chicago Symphony and Lyric Opera of Chicago orchestras, Williams has also performed with the Vermeer Quartet, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Joining her are Joseph Genualdi, professor of violin at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, and pianist Kay Kim, who has performed with members of the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony, Metropolitan Opera and Paris Opera orchestras. Tickets are $8 for the general public and $5 for students with valid IDs.

Guest artist: Peter Kiss, piano, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 8, Lutkin Hall. Hungarian pianist Peter Kiss has performed throughout Europe and the United States. Committed to contemporary music, he has given multiple world and national premieres and is a frequent collaborator with Hungary’s UMZE Ensemble. Kiss is also a member of Trio Inception and the Ludium Ensemble. His program includes Bartok’s “Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs,” Ligeti’s “Musica ricercata,” Peter Eotvos’ “Kosmos” and “Dances of the Brush-Footed Butterfly,” selections from Gyorgy Kurtag’s “Games” and the world premiere of Gregory Vajda’s “sol Etude.” The concert is sponsored by the Hungary Initiatives Foundation. Tickets are $8 for the general public and $5 for students with valid IDs.

Keyboard Conversations, “The Miracle of Mozart,” 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 10, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Pianist Jeffrey Siegel’s first 2014-15 season “concert with commentary” will feature witty variations on the popular English lullaby “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” the haunting Adagio in B Minor and the A Minor Sonata, written after the death of Mozart’s mother. Subscriptions to the 2014-15 season of Keyboard Conversations are available through Oct. 10. To subscribe, call 847-467-4000. Single tickets are $22 for the general public and $16 for full-time students with valid IDs. 

Lee Hyla Memorial Concert, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16, Lutkin Hall. A concert honoring the late Bienen School professor Lee Hyla, an award-winning composer who wrote for the Kronos Quartet, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, will feature a selection from his many works. Hyla’s honors included the Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, the Goddard Lieberson Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the St. Botolph Club Award and the Rome Prize. The program will feature Hyla’s “We Speak Etruscan,” “Passeggiata,” “Winter/Fall,” “Pre-Amnesia,” “Basic Training” and String Quartet No. 4. Saxophonists Ryan Muncy and Thomas Snydacker; clarinetist Joshua Rubin; violinist Austin Wulliman; cellist Chris Wild; the Spektral Quartet; and pianist Nolan Pearson will perform. Admission is free.

Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble, “Evensong,” 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 19, at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, 2335 North Orchard St., Chicago and repeated at 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 26, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 939 Hinman Ave., Evanston. Donald Nally will conduct the choral ensemble in the ancient liturgy of “Evensong” in two Chicago area churches with grand organs and excellent acoustics. Both programs will include Howells’ “Magnificat and Nunc dimittis” (“Collegium Regale”) and “Now Abideth Faith, Hope and Charity,” Will Todd’s “The Call of Wisdom” and Hancock’s “Preces and Responses.” Eric Budzynski will be the featured organist. Admission is free.

Contemporary Music Ensemble, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. The program will include Frank Zappa’s “G-Spot Tornado,” Lee Hyla’s “Pre-Pulse Suspended,” Michael Gordon’s “Yo Shakespeare” and Schoenberg’s “Chamber Symphony.” Tickets are $6 for the general public and $4 for students.

Symphonic Wind Ensemble, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Mallory Thompson will conduct the Northwestern student ensemble in a program that includes Michael Torke’s “Charcoal” from New York City ballet master Peter Martin’s ballet “Black and White,” Eric Whitacre’s “Sleep” and Brian Balmages’ “Pele” for solo horn and wind ensemble featuring Concerto Competition winner Ryan Little. Strauss’ “Vienna Philharmonic Fanfare” and Hindemith’s Symphony in B-flat Major will also be performed. Tickets are $6 for the general public and $4 for students with IDs.

Hynmnfest XII, “Hark, a Thrilling Voice is Sounding,” 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 26, Alice Millar Chapel. The 12th annual Hymnfest will offer arrangements and anthems for brass, organ, timpani, chorus and congregation. Stephen Alltop will conduct the Alice Millar Chapel Choir and the Millar Brass Ensemble and Eric Budzynski will play the 100-rank Aeolian-Skinner organ in hymns by Martin Dicke, John Ferguson, Vaclav Nelhybel, Richard Webster and others. Admission is free; an offering will be accepted.

Jazz Small Ensembles, “Ella and Billie,” 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 27, Regenstein Recital Hall. Victor Goines and Marlene Rosenberg will conduct a celebration of Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, two singers whose voices shaped the sounds of jazz for decades. Tickets are $6 for the general public and $4 for students with IDs.

Cynthia Meyers, Flute Master Class, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 28, Lutkin Hall. Meyers, a piccolo player of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, will coach Northwestern students in the Bienen School’s woodwinds program. She previously served as principal piccolo of the Houston Symphony and principal flute of the Omaha Symphony. Meyers also has performed with the Grand Teton Music Festival and the Minnesota and Chicago Symphony orchestras. Admission is free.

Northwestern University Chamber Orchestra, “Baroque -- Old and New,” 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Robert G. Hasty will conduct members of New Comma Baroque, comprised of baroque violinist Peter Lekx; viola da gambist Phillip Serna and harpsichordist Emily J. Katayama, in works from the period. The program will feature Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major; Graun’s Concerto for Violin and Viola da Gamba in C Minor; Villa-Lobos’ “Bachianas brasileiras” No. 2 and Respighi’s “Ancient Airs and Dances,” Suite II. Tickets are $6 for the general public and $4 for students with IDs.

Northwestern University Symphonic Band, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 31, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Shawn Vondran will conduct the band in a colorful variety of works for winds and percussion. Tickets are $6 for the general public and $4 for students with IDs.