MUSI

The South Asian Music Ensemble explores a variety of classical, vernacular, and popular song repertories from the Indian Subcontinent, with membership open to beginners as well as to more experienced performers with a background in South Asian music. The ensemble will focus on teaching vocal techniques, stylistic features, compositional forms, improvisational practices, and performance conventions specific to India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and South Asian diasporas. In addition to participating in weekly ensemble rehearsals, members will have the option of attending voice coaching sessions and/or engaging the instructor for private lessons. Membership is open to students, faculty, and staff of the University, as well as community members interested in South Asian music.

The Middle East Music Ensemble explores a variety of classical, neo-classical, and popular musical forms from throughout the Middle East, encompassing compositional and improvisational techniques unique to non-Western musical culture. Members perform on traditional instruments, often in company with noted guest artists, and present multiple concerts both on and off campus. No previous experience in the genre is required, but the ability to read music is necessary. Membership includes students, faculty, and staff of the University, as well as community members interested in the art and music of the Middle East.

In addition to the Jazz X-tet, several small jazz combo groups are set up each year to provide training and experience to interested musicians and to perform informally on campus.

Lauded for its boldness in showcasing cutting-edge compositions, the Jazz X-tet is a versatile collection of 12 to 15 musicians, frequently joined in performance by noted Chicago-area professionals. The X-tet's three-concert season offers a variety of pieces, from jazz standards to hip-hop, often in arrangements that are custom-designed for the ensemble by its own members. In rehearsal and performance, the X-tet focuses on developing the improvisational skills of its musicians, as well as on deepening their understanding of the wide-ranging jazz idiom. The group has issued two CDs and frequently performs for University events on campus and elsewhere in the city. In addition to the Jazz X-tet itself, several small jazz combo groups are set up each year to provide training and experience to interested musicians and to perform informally on campus.

The Early Music Ensemble is an historically oriented performance and study group led by members of the Newberry Consort. Participation in the group is open to anyone in the University community with music-reading experience; private lessons and coaching in voice and early instruments are likewise available through the Newberry Consort. Repertoire is drawn from 15th- to 17th-century sources, with special emphasis given to historically informed performance practices such as reading from original notation, improvisation, and ornamentation. The Early Music Ensemble also provides a forum for undergraduate majors and graduate students in Music who wish to explore repertories particular to their scholarly research. Collaborations with professional performers take place throughout the year, culminating in the Early Music Ensemble's year-end spring concert.

The University Wind Ensemble is an auditioned group of fifty to sixty instrumentalists with a diverse range of musical interests and experience. The UWE presents one concert per quarter, after an intensive preparation period of six to seven weeks. With a focus on modern literature conceived specifically for the wind ensemble medium, the UWE provides its members with an opportunity to perform music by such renowned wind composers as Malcolm Arnold, Percy Grainger, Gustav Holst, and Frank Ticheli, as well as transcriptions of orchestral masterpieces by J. S. Bach, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, and others. Membership includes talented undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff, and community members who are dedicated to bringing a wide array of music to the University community.

The University Chamber Orchestra is a 40-member ensemble of strings, woodwinds, and horns that specializes in Baroque, Classical, and 20th-century repertoire for smaller orchestra. The group presents three concerts per year, often pairing a major symphony by Mozart or Haydn with an overture, suite, or concerto for similar forces. The Chamber Orchestra also serves as the pit orchestra for the Music Department's annual collaboration with the Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company.

The 100-member University Symphony Orchestra presents an ambitious season of six major concerts per year (two each quarter). Known for its imaginative presentations of unusual repertoire as well as for its powerful performances of major symphonic literature, the University Symphony opens each year with a costumed Halloween concert-a family-friendly event enhanced by storytelling, dancing, and special effects-and closes with a celebratory year-end collaboration with the combined choirs. Repertoire generally encompasses 19th- and 20th-century works written for large orchestral forces, including masterpieces by Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorák, Mahler, Shostakovich, Sibelius, Vaughan Williams, and more. In recent years the USO has presented several silent films with live orchestral accompaniment, including Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, and performed with acclaimed professional soloists every season. USO string sections are coached by the Pacifica Quartet. Membership is chosen on the basis of competitive auditions, and includes both undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff, alumni, and some community members.

The Rockefeller Chapel Choir and its professional subset, the Decani, sing at Sunday services and festivals throughout the academic year and also in Rockefeller's signature Quire & Place concert series, presenting major works from the entire historical canon, lesser-known gems, and the premières of new work by distinguished composers. The choir's members come from diverse spiritual and cultural backgrounds, sharing together the rich musical experience of singing an array of choral music in the unique religious and cultural contexts of a chapel to which students of all world traditions are drawn.

The Women's Ensemble is made up primarily of undergraduate women at the University of Chicago. We explore classical repertoire from the Medieval era up through the present day and music from polyphonic singing traditions across the world, including South Africa, Zimbabwe, the Republic of Georgia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Sweden, and Norway, as well as a variety of American singing traditions. Through diverse repertoire, we strive to bring our voices together in powerful ways.