SWAN SONG combines a contemporary string quartet by prolific composer Adolphus Hailstork with the unforgettable Schubert cello quintet. Schubert's final work of chamber music is often regarded as one of the finest compositions of the art form.

With the rare instrumentation of a full standard string quartet plus an additional cello, this compelling work is a favorite of many chamber music lovers. Plus, hear living composer Adolphus Hailstork's beautiful Adagio for Strings, a contemporary addition to the wonderful adagio tradition. The Parker Quartet and Marcy Rosen perform.

New Music Gathering is an annual conference/festival hybrid dedicated to the performance, production, promotion, support, and creation of new and forward-thinking music.

With concerts, lecture/recitals, roundtable discussions, talks, and choreographed socializing like musician meet-ups and live action role playing games, NMG aims to be both a conference in the traditional sense but also quite literally a collective place for things to grow, improve, solidify, and above all get personal!

Aug. 12-14: Landmark Center, Landmark Plaza, Mears Park & Studio Z

Aug. 12-18: Online

Watch the Dame Myra Hess Memorial free concert series on the International Music Foundation website at imfchicago.org and listen to the broadcast on 98.7 WFMT

Ronaldo Rolim, piano

Francis Poulenc – Nocturne No. 1 in C Major
Claude Debussy – Ballade, L. 70
Gabriel Fauré – Impromptu No. 2 in F minor, Op.31
Maurice Ravel – Le Tombeau de Couperin

Thursday, July 8th, ISSUE is pleased to stream the debut collaboration between Diné composer, performer, and installation artist Raven Chacon and New Zealand Māori composer, performer, improvisor, and anthropologist Rob Thorne. The duo’s debut work will stream on ISSUE’s site.

Both Chacon and Thorne have extensive histories using various high-pitched Indingenous wind instruments from their respective territories. Recently, Chacon has composed chamber works including Sweet Land, co-composed with Du Yun (commissioned and produced by The Industry) as well as Owl Song, for sinfonietta and voice (commissioned by Borealis Festival for Bit20 Ensemble). In 2020, Chacon released An Anthology of Chants Operations on the Ouidah label, a body of recordings drawn from across the last decade of his output capturing live performance, installation, and composition. Rob Thorne has maintained a broad solo and collaborative practice that includes cross-disciplinary works with Berlin based electronic composer Fis, Athenian pianist Tania Giannouli, The NZ String Quartet, and Orchestra Wellington, and in 2017, reimagined a pre-colonial dawn chorus in the field-based acousmatic work Te Koki. Recent work includes contributions to short-film Super Special, chamber opera He Pūtōrino Mākutu with Celeste Oram, and the Unsettling Scores series with Liquid Architecture. Currently a Research Fellow at the NZ School of Music, he has an upcoming album release with improvisor David Rothenberg (US) and vocalist Anna Fält (Sweden/Finland), as well as a creative commission with NZ Crown Research Institute Manaaki Whenua that seeks to express people’s nationally surveyed perceptions of how they relate to trees.

Orchestra 2001 – Mark Loria, conducting

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) – Sexteto místico

Clarice Vasconcelos Assad (b. 1978) – The Book of Spells

Orlando Haddad (b. 1953) – Lendas Amazônicas (Amazon Legends) premiere

Orlando Haddad's commission generously funded by the Steven R. Gerber Trust.

Orchestra 2001 returns to Teatro Esperanza as part of Esperanza Arts Center’s VOCES series, featuring live-streamed performances that spotlight the arts and traditions of Brazil. Enjoy authentic Brazilian food while watching VOCES at home and support our local Latino-owned restaurants.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 2021 at 7pm
Virtual Livestreamed Event from Teatro Esperanza; recorded at World Cafe Live
Tickets $5 / FREE for Students & Seniors
Orchestra 2001 SOUNDING BOARD members can select a free ticket.

This is an online event with no live audience. We hope you will join us.

PROGRAM
Jessie Montgomery Starburst
Alice Coltrane Prema for Harp and Strings
arranged by Tom Cunningham of Urban Playground Orchestra
Adolphus Hailstork TULSA 1921 (Pity Theses Ashes, Pity This Dust) for Mezzo-Soprano and Chamber Orchestra
*World Premiere - libretto by Herbert Woodward Martin
Trevor Weston The People Could Fly for Violin Solo, Narrator and Strings
(Based upon an African-American folktale by Virginia Hamilton; featuring dancers from Harlem School of the Arts)

FEATURING
Amadi Azikiwe, Music Director and Conductor
Terrance McKnight, Host and Performer
J’Nai Bridges, Mezzo-Soprano
Jessica (Lady Jess) McJunkins, Violin
Ashley Jackson, Harp
With an orchestra comprising members of The Harlem Chamber Players. Also featuring dancers from Harlem School of the Arts.

Let the power of the human voice transport you as Dame Jane Glover leads two exquisite Bach cantatas, “Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen,” BWV 51, and "Ich habe genug," BWV 82, alongside two works for strings by Purcell.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic and restrictions on gatherings, this concert will be streamed live from Faith, Hope, & Charity Church. Patrons can watch the concert live on June 6 or on demand beginning June 9.

Music of the Baroque Orchestra
Dame Jane Glover, conductor
Yulia Van Doren, soprano
Michael Sumuel, bass-baritone

PROGRAM

Piazzolla (arr. Steven Verhelst) Suite from Maria de Buenos Aires for Brass and Percussion
Valerie Coleman Suite: Portraits of Josephine
Victor Wooten La Lección Tres*
*World Premiere, Chicago Sinfonietta Commission

CONDUCTOR
Mei-Ann Chen

GUEST ARTIST
Victor Wooten, Bass

Chicago Sinfonietta closes its 2020-2021 season with a finale that honors the voice of the people in its many forms, tracing the line of stories told across time and place. Merging the present with the past, the orchestra presents a mesmerizing closing season concert. The orchestra welcomes back Grammy award-winning bassist and prized collaborator Victor Wooten for the commissioned world premiere of La Lección Tres, a merging of music and philosophy moved forward in exuberant bass lines. The orchestra marks the centenary of Astor Piazzolla's birth with an arrangement of the catchy Suite from his Tango Opera, Maria de Buenos Aires, followed by Valerie Coleman's musical portrayal of entertainer and activist Josephine Baker's life.

Scott Tucker, conductor

Brandon Straub, piano

Choral Arts Chamber Singers

Performing in person for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, singers from the Choral Arts Society of Washington and Music Director Scott Tucker showcase the wide-ranging influences that have shaped American choral music in a program of stunningly beautiful and rarely heard works. From the styles and languages of Asia and Europe to the tradition of African American spirituals that inspired pioneering Black composers Nathaniel Dett and Undine Moore Smith to a world premiere by B. Boykin celebrating Mary Church Terrell, an activist in the movements for civil rights and women’s suffrage, commissioned by Classical Movements

Location:

The Secret Garden at the Rectory

711 Princess Street 

Alexandria, VA 22314

The Department of Performing Arts and Arts Leaderships invites you to a conversation with Dr. Quinton Morris about his exciting new venture with KING FM, Unmute the Voices.

Dr. Morris will be interviewed by Maggie Molloy, Seattle University alum and the host of Second Inversion at KING FM.

Register for this free event to receive the Zoom link a few days prior to the event. (Remember to check your spam/junk folder if you don't see it in your inbox.)

Unmute The Voices is a national radio show, podcast and video series that celebrates the music and performances of BIPOC composers and performers with dedicated space for BIPOC artistry. The project highlights classical music written by composers from BIPOC communities and includes performances and interviews with artists of color.

World premiere of new work by Chicago-based composer Carlos Jaquez Gonzalez

A plea for understanding. A multi-media Immigrant Mass performance/film reflecting the lives and struggles of those who have sought better lives in America. The goal of the mass is to humanize immigrants and their experiences through real interviews, striking visuals, and music. Through this multi-media lense, this message can be better communicated and understood.

The six movement Immigrant Mass is a fusion of the mass ordinary and immigrant experiences (collected by photo-journalist Greg Constantine). The purpose of this exploration is to examine how religion and government affect the lives of those seeking a better life (from war, poverty, and more). The Roosevelt University Conservatory Choir led by Dr. Cheryl Frazes Hill, will be singing the standard Greek/Latin text of the mass ordinary and fulfilling the role of religion and government. Soloists; Corinne Costell, Tori Darnell, David Chavez, and Austin Sanders will be singing and embodying first-hand accounts of immigrants who have been held at border detention camps.

The ultimate goal of this mass is to highlight the realities and resilience of humanity, particularly struggling families, and what our role and duty is to help them. Through this melting pot of sounds and visuals by the Chicago Composers Orchestra, Conservatory Choir, soloists, and Greg Constantine, it is my hope that this work - which has brought so many hard working people from different walks of life together - will inspire to aid the immigrant community through various organizations, donations, and change in perspective.

Join us for an intimate conversation with CSO Mead Composer-in-Residence Missy Mazzoli and Jessie Montgomery as they discuss what it means to be a composer working with symphony orchestras in 2021. 

Free and open to the public, this webinar will be followed by Q&A.

Hwayoung Shon performs Kim Juk Pa’s (1911-1989) "Scattered Melodies”, a work which accomplishes extreme beauty through the tension of altering rhythmic cycle and sequence. This is a live streamed event.

Sanjo, which translates to ‘scattered melodies’, is a form of music in which an organized rhythmic progression of movements is performed on a solo instrument. It was inspired by the popularity of improvised instrumental shaman music and narrative storytelling in the late 19th century in Korea. It was first developed for the gayageum and later written for many other instruments. In ‘scattered melodies’, the sections move from the slowest rhythm, taking up to half of the total performance time, followed by the increasingly faster movements.

Kim Juk Pa’s Scattered Melodies has its roots in the music of her grandfather Kim Chang Jo (1856-1919), who pioneered the sanjo form. In her work, she proudly contributes to the ongoing vitality of sanjo, accomplishing extreme beauty through the tension of altering rhythmic cycle and sequence.

Hwayoung Shon, a gayageum performer, was praised by Seong-Chun Lee, former director of the National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts, as an outstanding performer who appears once in several decades. Hwayoung Shon made her public debut at the age of 10 in 1986 with Korean Broadcasting System. She graduated from Seoul National University and is the winner of 11 national Korean music competitions. At the age of 17, she was awarded the grand prize at the national gayageum competition, the most prestigious gayageum competition in Korea. It was featured in newspapers, TV and acclaimed by media as the most beautiful and gorgeous-sounding performer despite her young age. She was also the first gayageum performer to collaborate with a K-pop band on TV in Korea.

As a soloist, she has been invited to many distinguished concert halls such as Herbst Theatre and performed on many prominent stages. She also performs in the United States, Japan, Europe, and her performances were broadcasted nationwide by KBS, MBC, EBS, SBS in Korea.

There is a growing sense of anticipation as performing arts organizations plan to emerge from pandemic closures and re-engage with their local communities in person this year. The communal nature of the arts, where audience members interact with one another in the course of collectively experiencing performances and events, holds great potential for bringing communities together and for reaffirming existential meaning after prolonged isolation and polarization? But do they have a history of equitably serving the diversity of their communities, and what influences help or hinder their efforts to do so?

SMU DataArts' recent research report The Intersection of Funding, Marketing, and Audience Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, we examine if and how donor priorities, an organization's location, its subscription base, and its marketing actions all affect the extent to which the organization's audience represents the diversity of its community. Join us to learn how funder priorities and strategic marketing choices enhance or inhibit opportunities for cultural exchange and understanding among the full spectrum of a community's diverse populations.

Closed captioning is available during the presentation.

Esperanza Arts Center presents a special streamed staged world premiere in partnership with Astral Artists featuring Brazilian Forró music, opera, dance, and storytelling traditions, as part of Voces 2021. Building on the sound of Forrópera, co-created by Chrystal E. Williams and Felipe Hostins, Forrópera Experiência features Chrystal E. Williams (mezzo-soprano) and Forró musicians Gabe Hall-Rodrigues (accordion), Davi Vieira (zabumba), and the Esperanza Academy Dance Ensemble. This unique production culminates a season-long residency, with performances of original stageworks created and performed by Esperanza Academy students, Ms. Williams, Mr. Hostins, Mr. Hall-Rodrigues, and Mr. Vieira.

Forrópera Experiência is generously supported by The Presser Foundation and the Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation

Make it Brazilian Night at Home!

Enjoy authentic Brazilian food while watching VOCES at home and support our local Latino-owned restaurants.

VISIT: https://www.esperanzaartscenter.us/make-it-brazilian-night-at-home/

“Virtuosity that is barely to be believed”
—Washington Post 

Longtime Washington Performing Arts audience favorite Zakir Hussain is the “indisputable tabla maestro” (Gramophone): an artist who has not only taken his instrument to its limits within its original discipline, Indian classical music, but who has vastly expanded the presence of both his instrument and musical heritage within other genres—including jazz, rock, and Irish and American folk music. In his Home Delivery Plus set on the Strathmore stage, leads his ensemble in a musical exploration of “The Story of the Tabla,” from the drum’s origins to its leading-edge expressions. The package also includes a Linger Longer “listening party,” in which Hussain shares and discusses some of his own works as well as recordings by other artists who have influenced his life and art. 

Featuring a Headline Artist performance plus: 

Soundcheck: (Video) Last summer, as part of our initial Home Delivery programming, we had the chance to sit down with Zakir Hussain to ask him a few burning questions for our A Night In series. Watch our Q&A, in which we both touch on broad topics and get in the weeds on music theory with the maestro.

Linger Longer: “Zakir Hussain Listening Party,” in which the maestro plays and discusses some of his own works as well as recordings by other artists who have influenced his life and art. See Soundcheck below for a Spotify playlist containing the recordings Zakir Hussain has picked to discuss.

Single-Event Price: $25
Student Price: $4 (with free Gateway Student Ticket Program registration)

Please Note: Sales for each Home Delivery Plus event conclude at 10PM ET on the final night of the streaming period. Patrons who have already purchased tickets can login and watch the stream until 11:59PM ET on the final night.

The Asian American Arts Alliance (A4) is proud to offer a third installment of our professional development series, Table Dish, to help further the careers of Asian Americans pursuing careers in the music industry.

With racial inequity at the forefront of our national conversation, this event is co-presented by Project STEP and Longwood Symphony to highlight the disproportionate effect of COVID-19 on communities of color and to celebrate these organizations working on the frontline for social justice and healing. This virtual gathering will include performances featuring Project STEP and Longwood Symphony musicians, a presentation from healthcare leaders working for equity, and a Q&A with some of the artists.

The Chicago Music Association presents an hour of choral music from various genres, including gospel, spirituals, contemporary & classical

A partnership between Castle of Our Skins, Winsor Music, and the Longy School of Music.

Celebrating historically underrepresented Black artists, this partnership presents Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Clarinet Quintet, Hannah Kendall’s string quartet “Vera”, and—aiming for “both raucous and exquisitely poised,” as New York Times critic Seth Colter Walls said of his work—an exciting new co-commission by David Sanford. The night features Rane Moore, clarinet, and Ashleigh Gordon, viola, the ensembles’ artistic directors and Longy faculty members, in a faculty recital duo debut. 

Acclaimed pianist Alexander Wu takes us on a musical journey spanning European classics to the birth of American music.

In the premiere of a new music film, dynamic violinist Jennifer Koh and pathbreaking opera singer Davóne Tines collaborate to distill the history of Asian American oppression, and highlight the untold story of solidarity between Asian Americans and the Black community. Images that document violence against Asian Americans are juxtaposed with video of Koh and Tines performing Ken Ueno’s arrangement of “Strange Fruit,” a song that has historically been an unflinching expression of Black oppression. This work is the result of a three-year collaborative journey between Koh, Tines, Ueno, and dramaturg Kee-Yoon Nahm.

Crowden Music Center is proud to present an online afternoon of masterworks performed by the award-winning Telegraph Quartet.

Eric Chin, violin
Joseph Maile, violin
Pei-Ling Lin, viola
Jeremiah Shaw, cello

PROGRAM:
Britten Three Divertimenti
Beethoven String Quartet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18 No. 1
Brahms String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 51 No. 2

Swapan Chaudhuri is a phenomenon in the arena of Indian Classical Music. Musicians honor him as one of the most respected Tabla players.

Recent STRINGS Magazine cover artist Thomas Mesa explores an unconventional duo designed with social distancing in mind - a collaboration with organist Greg Zelek. Lyrical and dance-based compositions by Debussy, Lecuona, and as well as an Astral Micro Commission from composer Carlos Simon.

The New York City Classical Guitar Society presents Thomas Flippin in an online concert.

“Sheer musicality … the depth, variety, and range of colors is astounding.” — Stereophile

Program: Works by Florence Price, Ben Verdery, Thomas Flippin, and others