CONCERTS
Branford Marsalis with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
October 12 at 8:00
October 16 at 7:30
Symphony Center
The range of Branford Marsalis's extraordinary talent is on full display as the popular virtuoso performs in Debussy's Rhapsody for the Alto Saxophone and Copland's jazzy Clarinet Concerto on soprano saxophone. Tickets required.
Chamber Music Series on Art and Music
Art Institute
This joint program between the Art Institute and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra explores the influences of European composers on American artists during the past two centuries. Each concert, highlighting one painter and music that relates to the featured artist, begins with an art commentary and concludes with a gallery walk. For tickets call (312) 294-3000 or visit www.cso.org.
MusicNOW
November 5 at 8:00
Harris Theater, 205 East Randolph Dr.
This concert features a MusicNOW commission and world premiere by 26-year-old American composer Nico Muhly, who has worked with Björk, Philip Glass, VisionIntoArt, and composer Rachel Portman. Tickets required.
In My Mind: Monk at Town Hall 1959
November 16 at 8:00
Symphony Center
As a tribute to the 90th anniversary of Thelonious Monk's birthday, pianist Jason Moran performs "In My Mind: Monk at Town Hall 1959," an original multimedia performance piece. Moran and an expanded version of his acclaimed group, the Bandwagon, play some of the original Town Hall compositions while reinterpreting others in a unique multisensory perspective on the legacy of Monk. Tickets required.
Discovering John Cage
November 18 at 2:00
Art Institute
Members and students with ID: $10, public, $5
Pianist Margaret Leng Tan, the renowned interpreter of Cage's music, explores the work of this American composer, philosopher, poet, and printmaker. Both she and Cage worked with Jasper Johns. Tickets required.
MusicNOW
March 10 at 8:00
Harris Theater, 205 East Randolph Dr.
MusicNOW principal conductor Cliff Colnot leads this concert, which explores the give-and-take between musical genres. The highlight of the program, Maria Schneider's Bulería, Soleá y Rumba, blurs the line between classical and jazz music. Tickets required.
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MusicNOW
April 7 at 8:00
Harris Theater, 205 East Randolph Dr.
The MusicNOW season concludes with a performance of Philip Glass's Academy Award®-nominated suite from the acclaimed film The Hours and music by Osvaldo Golijov from Youth without Youth, a new film by director Francis Ford Coppola. Tickets required.
New Orleans Jazz Orchestra with Irvin Mayfield
April 11 at 8:00
Symphony Center
Directed by Irvin Mayfield, one of the latest in a long line of brilliant trumpeters to emerge from the Louisiana Delta in the past century, the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra truly embodies the resilient spirit of New Orleans. The performance covers a wide range of styles—jazz, blues, swing, and spirituals—that have emerged from the birthplace of American jazz. Tickets required.
Ahmad Jamal Trio and the Chicago Jazz Orchestra
April 18 at 8:00
Symphony Center
NEA Jazz Master and American icon Ahmad Jamal has created bold and transcendent sounds since forming his first trio in 1950. After intermission, the trio will serve as the rhythm section for the Chicago Jazz Orchestra and explore arrangements of Jamal's greatest works. Tickets required.
Charles Ives's New England Holidays
May 29 and 31 at 8:00
May 30 at 1:30
Symphony Center
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Ives's bold and colorful symphonic portraits of great American holidays. Tickets required.
The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater
June 1 at 3:00
June 3 at 7:30
Symphony Center
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas re-creates the lives and times of his grandparents, Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky, two giants of the Yiddish Theater. This engaging tribute presentation tells their story through performances of original songs, excerpts from their autobiographies and plays, vintage recordings, family photos, and Thomas's own personal anecdotes. Tickets required.
Sacred Heart: Explosion
June 5 and 7 at 8:00
June 6 at 1:30
June 8 at 3:00
Symphony Center
Conductor Leonard Slatkin leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Jefferson Friedman's Sacred Heart: Explosion. It's title refers to the remarkable work of outsider artist Henry Darger, who lived in Chicago. Tickets required.
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