Northwestern Music in November

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Northwestern University’s Fall 2014 music season continues with a Nov. 5 recital by flutist Claire Chase, a collaborative artist and cultural activist who was praised by the Wall Street Journal for “a rare combination of grace and guts.” Chase’s performance will be followed by a Q-and-A session led by the artist.

The University’s Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music also will present a Nov. 13 program by the Russian Guitar Quartet -- the first of six 2014-15 Segovia Classical Guitar Series concerts at Northwestern.

Other highlights include a Nov. 8 Kids Fare Concert featuring the Northwestern University Chamber Orchestra and a pre-performance “instrument petting zoo”; a Nov. 21 and Nov. 22 opera program highlighting scenes from popular Mozart operas plus a complete performance of the comedic tale “The Impresario”; and a Nov. 25 concert by the Amadinda Percussion Group, celebrating the group’s 30th anniversary of world-wide traditional and new music performances.

All November 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; Alice Millar Chapel, 1870 Sheridan Road; and Cahn Auditorium, 600 Emerson St.

Concert ticket prices are offered at three levels: 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, contact the Bienen School of Music Concert Management Office at 847-491-5441 or visit www.pickstaiger.org. To order tickets, call 847-467-4000 or visit www.pickstaiger.org.

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 www.pickstaiger.org/construction.

NOVEMBER 2014

Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Victor Yampolsky will conduct the orchestra in a program featuring three 20th-century masterworks: Stravinsky’s ballet “Jeu de cartes,” Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 1, featuring violinist Lena Zeliszewska, and Hindemith’s symphony “Mathis der Maler.” Tickets are $8 for the general public and $5 for students with IDs.

Northwestern University Jazz Orchestra, “The Music of Blue Note Records,” 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Victor Goines will conduct a program of works that made one of jazz’s great recording labels famous. Selections will include Lee Morgan’s “Ceora,” Wayne Shorter’s “Fee Fi Fo Fum,” Woody Shaw’s “The Moontrane,” Clifford Brown’s “The Blues Walk” and Horace Silver’s “Senor Blues” Tickets are $6 for the general public and $4 for students with IDs.

Northwestern University Saxophone Ensembles and Quartets, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Timothy McAllister will direct a diverse program highlighting the saxophone and celebrating the 200th birthday of the instrument’s inventor, Adolphe Sax. Tickets are $6 for the general public and $4 for students with IDs.

Claire Chase, flute, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5, Lutkin Hall. Chase has premiered more than 100 works and given critically acclaimed recitals at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall. This year, she launched an ambitious 22-year project to commission and record an entirely new repertoire for solo flute --inspired by Edgard Varese’s “Density 21.5” -- between now and that work’s 100th anniversary in 2036. For the project’s first installment, and for her first solo performance as the Bienen School’s Institute for New Music’s 2014-15 resident artist, Chase will premiere a 70-minute program of newly commissioned works for flute and electronics by George Lewis, Matthias Pintscher, Felipe Lara and Du Yun. A post-concert Q-and-A with the artist will follow. Tickets are $8 for the general public and $5 for students with IDs.

Kids Fare, “Extraordinary Orchestra,” 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 8, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Children 3 to 8 years of age and their families will experience the sounds of strings, brass, woodwinds and percussion in this Northwestern University Chamber Orchestra program, led by Robert G. Hasty. Audience members are encouraged to arrive early for a pre-concert “instrument petting zoo” from 9:45 to 10:15 a.m. in the Pick-Staiger lobby, featuring Educational Strings provided by William Harris Lee & Co. (NOTE: Educational Strings is a specific brand of student-appropriate instruments that include basses, cellos, violins and violas. For more information, visit http://www.whlee.com/t-educationalstrings.aspx.) Tickets are $6 for the general public and $4 for children and students with IDs.

Newberry Consort, “Musica Barocca Mexicana -- Music from the Durango Cathedral Archives,” 2 p.m. preconcert lecture and 3 p.m. concert, Sunday, Nov. 9, Alice Millar Chapel. More than a decade of research by Northwestern musicology professor Drew Edward Davies has brought to light these 18th-century New World treasures -- composed and performed by Italian and Mexican musicians at the cathedral in Durango, one of Mexico’s most important musical centers. The program will include U.S. premieres of many works by Ignacio Jerusalem, Santiago Billoni, Manuel de Sumaya and others. Violinists David Douglass and Brandi Berry, soprano Ellen Hargis, mezzo-soprano Raquel Winneca Young, guitarist and theorbo player Daniel Swenburg, harpsichordist Charles Metz and cellist Jeremy David Ward will perform. (Editor’s note: a theorbo is a large, long-necked lute.) Tickets are $38 for the general public and $5 for students with IDs ($45 for preferred seating, $35 for general-admission orders made in advance of the concert.)

Russian Guitar Quartet, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, Lutkin Hall. The Russian Guitar Quartet is devoted to preserving the rare seven-string Russian guitar. Virtually no music for this instrument has survived, so the group has based its repertoire on transcriptions and paraphrases of orchestral, operatic and piano music. Founder Oleg Timofeyev has focused his research, recordings, concerts and festivals on \"Moguchaia Kuchka\" (“The Mighty Handful”), the influential “Russian Five” composers: Mussorgsky, Borodin, Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov and Balakirev. The program’s solos, duets and quartets will highlight the riches of the Russian repertoire. Single tickets are $18 for the general public and $10 for students with IDs.

Symphonic Wind Ensemble, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. The ensemble will perform Strauss’ Serenade in E-flat Major, Beethoven’s “Geschwindmarsch” and Hindemith’s Paraphrase of Beethoven’s “Geschwindmarsch” from “Symphonia Serena.” Warren Benson’s “The Leaves Are Falling,” Frank Zappa’s “Dog Breath Variations” and Schoenberg’s “Theme and Variations” are also on the program. Mallory Thompson will conduct. Tickets are $6 for the general public and $4 for students with IDs.

Christopher Davis, trombone, 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15, Lutkin Hall. Formerly bass trombonist with the New World Symphony Orchestra and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Davis, a Northwestern music faculty member and alumnus, has performed regularly with the Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Minnesota, Pittsburgh and St. Paul chamber orchestras. He is one of the founding members of the CT3 Trombone Quartet, winner of the International Trombone Association’s Quartet Competition. Tickets are $8 for the general public and $5 for students with IDs.

University Chorale and Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Donald Nally will conduct a program that explores the human condition heard in diverse musical approaches -- from longing and celebration to division. Gerald Finzi’s exuberant “For St. Cecilia” hails the patron saint of music, while Ted Hearne’s 2011 “Partition” considers the history of the United States as a nation of immigrants. Mendelssohn turns yearning into jubilation in his iconic Psalm 42, “Wie der Hirsch schreit.” Tickets are $12 for the general public and $6 for students with IDs.

Baroque Music Ensemble, “Concertos from the Age of Enlightenment,” 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16, Alice Millar Chapel. From Vivaldi’s Concerto “La tempesta” to Bach’s Concerto for Oboe and Violin in C Minor, Northwestern student soloists will perform early 18th-century works. Violins, flutes, oboes and horns will be among the featured instruments. Special treats include Johann David Heinichen’s Concerto for Four Flutes and Orchestra and Telemann’s Suite for Two Horns, Strings and Continuo. Stephen Alltop will conduct and David Douglass will be the violin soloist. Tickets are $8 for the general public and $5 for students with IDs.

Bienen Strings, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16, Lutkin Hall. Victor Yampolsky will conduct a concert that includes Handel’s Concerto Grosso in F Major, Vivaldi’s Sinfonia in B Minor (“Al santo sepolcro”), Bach’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in A Minor featuring violin soloist Miki Nagahara and Mozart’s “Eine kleine Nachtmusik.” Tickets are $8 for the general public and $5 for students with IDs.

Northwestern University Percussion Ensemble, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 18, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. She-e Wu will direct the ensemble in a program of eclectic rhythms. Tickets are $6 for the general public and $4 for students with IDs.

Evening of Brass, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 19, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Gail Williams will direct a program of music written and arranged for brass ensemble. Tickets are $6 for the general public and $4 for students with IDs.

Steve Cohen, clarinet and Gail Williams, horn, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, Lutkin Hall. Active as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States and around the world, Cohen is the former principal clarinetist of the New Orleans Symphony. Recent performances and master classes have taken him to China, Taiwan and Portugal. Williams has appeared as featured horn soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony, New World Symphony Orchestra, Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra and Syracuse Symphony. She also premiered a commissioned concerto by James Stephenson at the 2012 International Horn Symposium. The program will include Carl Reinecke’s Trio in B-flat Major, George Rochberg’s Trio and Mozart’s Trio in E-flat Major (“Kegelstatt”). Andrea Swan will be the featured pianist. Tickets are $8 for the general public and $5 for students with IDs.

Fall Opera, “Mozart Magic: The Impresario and Scenes from Great Mozart Operas,” 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21, and Saturday, Nov. 22, Cahn Auditorium. Michael M. Ehrman, the Bienen School’s artist-in-residence and director of opera, will stage a double bill featuring scenes from favorite Mozart operas plus a complete performance of  “The Impresario,” the comedic tale of two divas competing for a prime role while a producer struggles to manage their rivalry and cope with the stresses of show business. “The Impresario” will be performed in English; additional scenes will be performed in their original languages with supertitles. Tickets are $12 for the general public and $6 for students with IDs.

Women’s Chorus, “ Hope, Faith, Life, Love,” 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23, Lutkin Hall. Christopher Walsh will conduct the chorus in works by Holst, Clausen, Sametz and Szymko in a program based on a stanza of poetry by E. E. Cummings. Tickets are $6 for the general public and $4 for students with IDs.

Concert Band, 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Daniel J. Farris will conduct students from across the Northwestern campus in a program of band standards. Tickets are $6 for the general public and $4 for students with IDs.

Philharmonia: Symphonic Dances, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Robert G. Hasty will conduct the ensemble in a program featuring Strauss’ “Emperor Waltz,” Gounod’s Ballet music from “Faust” and Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances, Op. 72. Tickets are $6 for the general public and $4 for students with IDs.

Jazz Small Ensembles, “The Different Shades of Bobby Hutcherson,” 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 24, Regenstein Recital Hall. Hutcherson’s vibraphone and marimba playing was, and still is, suggestive of the styles of all the great performers who preceded him. His compositions and arrangements exhibit a free-flowing melodicism, harmonic sensitivity and rhythmic complexity that are uniquely his. Victor Goines and Marlene Rosenberg will direct a program featuring some of Hutcherson’s best works. Tickets are $6 for the general public and $4 for students with IDs.

University Singers, “Journey,” 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 24, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Emily Ellsworth will conduct a diverse program that will focus on life’s pathways, from “Three 16th-Century Spanish Pieces” to Sweelinck’s “Gaudete Omnes,” Brahms’ “Der Gang zum Liebchen,” Schubert’s “Lebenslust,” Paulus’ “The Road Home” and Dello Joio’s “Song of the Open Road” for trumpet and chorus. Tickets are $6 for the general public and $4 for students with IDs.

Amadinda Percussion Group, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 25, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Celebrating the group’s 30th anniversary this year, the members of the Amadinda Percussion Group have been counted “among the most dazzling percussionists you might hear this side of Bali” (The Guardian, London). Committed to performing both traditional percussion music and new compositions, the group has appeared at London’s Royal Albert Hall, Taipei’s National Concert Hall, Sydney’s Eugene Goossens Hall and New York’s Carnegie Hall. Amadinda has premiered works by John Cage, Gyorgy Ligeti and Steve Reich. Tickets are $8 for the general public and $5 for students with IDs.