Events Calendar
October 2008 Music Department events
Thursday, October 2 • 12:15 pm
Noontime Concert Series
Dominique Gagnon and Jeremy Bell
Fulton Recital Hall, Free
At the season premiere of the Noontime Concert Series, Gagnon (flute) and Bell (piano) present a program featuring pieces by Bach, Muzcynski, Godard and more.
Thursday, October 2 at 7:30 pm
Dame Gillian Weir, organ
6:15 PM: Pre-concert lecture by Robert Fallon, PhD
Rockefeller Memorial Chapel
$32/$5 students
Performing on the newly restored E.M. Skinner organ, Dame Gillian’s program will include Messiaen’s Messe de la Pentecote, interspersed with movements by J.S. Bach and Couperin, which comment on the same liturgical ideas. Also included are Liszt’s St. Francis Walking on the Waves and Toccatas by Peeters, Slonimskly, Musehl and Lanquetuit.
Friday, October 3 7:30 pm
The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, conductor/piano
Tamara Stefanovich, piano
6:15 PM: Pre-concert conversation with Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Gerard McBurney
Works by Debussy, Messiaen, and Beethoven
Mandel Hall, $35/$5 students
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, newly appointed SPCO Artistic Partner, will make his Mandel Hall debut. The SPCO, kicking off its second three-year residency at the University, will present a program featuring one of the cornerstones of Messiaen’s life, closing with a piece Messiaen himself toured with in Europe during the 1950s.
Saturday, October 4 7:30 pm
Contempo: Spheres of Influence
Featuring members of eighth blackbird and the Pacifica Quartet
Stephen Gosling, piano
Works by Messiaen, Boulez, Takemitsu, Levinson, Benjamin, and Ptaszynska
Mandel Hall, $20/$5 students
The works of Messiaen’s students and those inspired by his music take center stage. Marta Ptaszynska’s piece, especially commissioned for this festival, is based on the Quartet for the End of Time plus percussion-the one change Messiaen told her he would have made to his piece had there been the opportunity in the POW camps where his piece was composed.
Sunday, October 5 3:00 pm
John Bruce Yeh, clarinet
Cho-Liang Lin, violin
Gary Hoffman, cello
Christopher Taylor, piano
2:00 PM: Pre-concert performance by New Budapest Orpheum Society
Works by Debussy, Ravel, and Messiaen
Mandel Hall, $32/$5 students
The contributions to chamber music by Messiaen and his contemporaries are highlighted in this concert featuring three of the genre’s most renowned works, including the Quartet for the End of Time. Four musical colleagues, each a successful soloist in his own right, come together in Chicago for this very special recital.
Monday, October 6 7:30 pm
Thomas Weisflog, organ
Rockefeller Chapel Choir
Works by Messiaen, Mathias, Eben, Boulanger, and Sowerby
Rockefeller Memorial Chapel
$15/$5 students
Written during the early period of his career, Messiaen’s profoundly personal and moving motet for a capella women’s voices. Ao sacrum convivium!, will begin this performance featuring Rockefeller Chapel’s resident organist, Thomas Weisflog, and the Rockefeller Chapel Choir.
Tuesday, October 7 7:30 pm
Marjorie Owens, soprano
Sibbi Bernhardsson, violin
Amy Briggs, piano
6:15 PM: Pre-concert lecture by David Bevington, Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Humanities
Fulton Recital Hall
$20/$5 students
This intimate evening is dedicated to music written expressly for the ones Messiaen loved, including his son and first wife. Performing in the evening’s lineup are musicians from Chicago’s Pacifica Quartet, as well as soprano Marjorie Owens, a 2008 graduate of Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Cener. Interspersed between pieces will be spoken poetry Messiaen’s mother wrote while pregnant with the composer.
Thursday, October 9 12:15 pm
Tony Arnold, soprano
Jacob Greenberg, piano
Fulton Recital Hall
Messiaen’s song cycle Harawi
Fulton Recital Hall, Free
Messiaen’s song cycle Harawi is his first of three works inspired by the theme of human love found in Tristan and Isolde. Highly acclaimed for the vocal artistry she brings to each performance, soprano Tony Arnold performs this work known for its demanding, extensive range and depth of emotion.
Thursday, October 9 6:15 pm
Alain Daboncourt, flute
Lei Wang, piano
Pre-concert lecture by Peter Hill, PhD
Works by Debussy, Messiaen, and Jolivet
Alliance Française de Chicago
$12/$5 students
Noted scholar, professor of music and editor of The Messiaen Companion, Peter Hill discuss Messiaen’s depiction of birdsongs in the 1950s, followed by performances of works by Messiaen and other French composers who took cues from the natural environment. French flutist Alain Daboncourt, lauded for his “soaring lyricism” and “immaculate interpretation” performs.
Friday, October 10 3:30 pm
Colloquium Series: Peter Hill
Pianist and Musicologist at University of Sheffield, UK
Messiaen and Birdsong in the 1950s
Fulton Recital Hall, Free
Peter Hill joins the Music Department Faculty and Visiting Committee for a Colloquium lecture on birdsong, one of Messiaen’s most profound influences, as it appears in his work.
Friday, October 10 7:30 pm
Christopher Taylor, piano
Messiaen’s Vingt regards sur l’enfant Jésus
Ganz Hall, Roosevelt University
$20/$5 students
Performing this monumental work entirely from memory, MIT mathematician-turned-piano-soloist Christopher Taylor will perform Messiaen’s devoutly powerful piano work in Roosevelt University’s Ganz Hall, a cultural and architectural gem located in downtown Chicago.
Saturday, October 11 1:00 pm
Master Class: Peter Hill, piano
Fulton Recital Hall, Free
Peter Hill joins select students from the Music Department to offer feedback and advice on some of their most challenging pieces. This is a unique and informative opportunity for professional musicians and students to engage meaningfully in an open setting.
Saturday, October 11 7:30 pm
Pacifica Quartet
Julia Bentley, soprano
6:00 PM: Pre-concert performance and lecture by Peter Hill
Works by Ravel, Berg, and Beethoven
Mandel Hall
$20/$5 students
The ten-day tribute to Messiaen comes to a poignant close as Artist-in-Residence Pacifica Quartet performs works by three composers whose works resonated deeply with Messiaen. Berg’s Lyric Suite was a work in Messiaen’s possession when captured and taken to a POW camp during World War II. The version here is a 1970s discovery by George Perle featuring soprano.
Sunday, October 12 5:00 pm
Rockefeller Chapel Choir
Choral Evensong: Cathedral Classics
Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, Free
The Rockefeller Chapel Choir participates in a traditional Evensong service, offering classic selections in the majestic setting of Rockefeller Chapel.
Thursday, October 16 • 12:15 PM
Noontime Concert Series
University of Chicago Piano Showcase
Fulton Recital Hall, Free
Join the Music Department’s piano students for a dynamic and varied showcase.
Friday, October 17 3:30 pm
Master Class: Jennifer Stumm, viola and Michi Wiancko, violin
Fulton Recital Hall, Free
Stumm and Wiancko, two of today’s most lauded musicians, will join forces with university students and lend their expertise to some of the students’ current excerpts. This is a unique and informative opportunity for professional musicians and students to engage meaningfully in an open setting.
Saturday, October 18 8:00 pm
Newberry Consort: Handel in Miniature
7:00 PM Pre-concert lecture
The Oriental Institute
Tickets $11-40, (312) 255-3700
Sunday, October 19 4:00 pm
The Newberry Consort will present some of Handel’s greatest hits, in miniature, through the artistry of Dutch recorder virtuoso Marion Verbruggen, Baroque Diva Ellen Hargis, Handel specialist and Newberry audience favorite, Drew Minter, harpsichord wizard David Schrader, and Consort Director and gambist David Douglass.
Thursday, October 23 • 12:15 PM
Noontime Concert Series
Alex Djokic and Robert Gajdos
Fulton Recital Hall, Free
Djokic (violin) and Gajdos (piano) give a performance featuring pieces by Saint Saens and Cesar Franck.
Friday, October 24 3:30 pm
Colloquium Series: Roger Moseley,
Musicology Post-Doctorate at University of Chicago
Between Work and Play: Brahms as Performer of His Own Music
Fulton Recital Hall, Free
Roger Moseley joins the Music Department Faculty and Visiting Committee for a Colloquium lecture on Brahms in performance, and the nuanced characteristics of the composer as performer.
Friday, October 24 7:30 pm
University of Chicago Presents
Edgar Meyer, bass and Chris Thile, mandolin
Mandel Hall, $30/$10 students
Punch Brothers mandolist Chris Thile joins Meyer for a two-man jam that in past team-ups has run the gamut from Back to bluegrass within one concert. Hear two gifted soloists in a performance critics have called “freewheeling fusions of acoustic music.”
Saturday, October 25 7:00 pm / 9:00 pm
University Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Motet Choir, and Hyde Park School of Dance
Legends of Fright
Mandel Hall
Suggested Donation: $8/$4 students
Costumes, storytelling, and special effects haunt the stage at the USO season premiere! Joined by the University Chorus and Hyde Park School of Dance, the orchestra will perform spooky music of the season, including Stravinksy’s Infernal Dance of King Kashchei, Wendel’s The Headless Horesman, and Mussorgsky’s Dream of the Peasant Gritzko (Night on Bald Mountain).
Thursday, October 30 • 12:15 PM
Noontime Concert Series
Brad Brickner and guests
Fulton Recital Hall, Free
Brickner (clarinet) is joined by composer and clarinetist James Falzone, and cellist Tomeka Reid.
Friday, October 31 7:30 pm
University of Chicago Presents
Guarneri String Quartet
The Farewell Performance featuring quartets by Kodály, Mozart, and Dvorák
Mandel Hall, $32/$5 students
Through its history, the renowned Guarneri Sring Quartet has been the subject of television and radio specials, books, and a feature film. After 45 years of award-winning recordings and premieres, the acclaimed quartet will bid a fond farewell. In their final Mandel Hall performance, hear why critics have dubbed Guarneri, “the dean of American quartets.”
