Rush Hour Concerts 2016
Presents 17th Season of Beloved Summer Concert Series Offering Weekly FREE Classical Music Performances
Tuesday evenings at St. James Cathedral in River North, June 7 – August 30
Summer highlights include:
- Performance by Grammy Award-winner and Stradivari Society recipient Augustin Hadelich
- Ear Taxi Festival preview featuring works by George Lewis and Mischa Zupko
- Rush Hour Concerts debuts of Ensemble Dal Niente and Lincoln Trio
- Popular returns of Lyric Opera’s Ryan Opera Center, young artists from Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, members of Chicago Symphony Orchestra plus Third Coast Percussion, Fulcrum Point New Music Project, Fifth House Ensemble, Civitas, Axiom Brass, Avalon and Spektral Quartets
CHICAGO – Rush Hour Concerts celebrates its 17th season of free classical music with the return of its beloved Summer Concert Series in the serene and historic St. James Cathedral, 65 E. Huron Street, June 7 – August 30, 2016. Launched in 2000 to create free public access to high-quality chamber music, Rush Hour Concerts offers live concerts every Tuesday evening after work.
All concerts begin at 5:45pm. Doors open at 5:00pm with an interactive pre-concert reception and curated conversation beginning at 5:15pm, followed by the 30-minute concert at 5:45 pm. All performances are free and open to the public; tickets and reservations are not required. This year, 98.7 WFMT will also broadcast select performances from the Summer Concert Series during its “Music in Chicago” program on Friday afternoons at Noon.
Curated by Rush Hour Concerts’ Artistic Director Anthony Devroye, this year’s series will weave together diverse themes into a kaleidoscopic series featuring masterworks by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Schumann, Debussy, Janáček and more, plus the return of “Here and Now” performances embracing contemporary chamber music by leading Chicago composers. This year’s highlights also include the annual Deborah Sobol Memorial Concert; the Rush Hour Concerts debuts of Ensemble Dal Niente and the Lincoln Trio; a preview of the upcoming Ear Taxi Festival plus performances from the 2016 Grammy Award-winning violinist for Best Classical Instrumental Solo and Stradivari Society recipient Augustin Hadelich, phenomenal young artists from Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Lyric Opera’s Ryan Opera Center, Chicago Symphony Orchestra members Christopher Martin and Brant Taylor and leading Chicago ensembles such as the Avalon and Spektral Quartets, Third Coast Percussion, Fifth House Ensemble, Axiom Brass and Civitas.
“There are so many cross-currents to follow over the course of our seventeenth Summer Concert Series,” said Devroye. “The distinctive voice of Leoš Janáček will anchor three of our programs, giving listeners an in-depth look into his unique musical language. A bevy of brilliant up-and-coming artists will be featured on June 21, July 19 and August 2, and vibrant composers of our time and from our city will have their work presented on June 28 and August 23. The whole month of July is a journey through the heart of the repertoire for piano and strings, and many of our other programs will uncover pieces you didn’t know you needed to know – by Stravinsky, Arensky, Poulenc, Böhme, Rabl and others.”
Rush Hour Concerts 2016 Summer Concert Series
June 7 Season Opener: Distinctive Voice
Program: Leoš Janáček: String Quartet No. 2: Intimate Letters
Artists: Avalon String Quartet
June 14 Brass Celebration
Program: Giovanni Gabrieli: Canzon Duodecimi Toni
Oskar Böhme: Sextet
Witold Lutosławski: Variations on a theme by Paganini
Artists: Axiom Brass with Christopher Martin (trumpet) and friends
June 21 Rush Hour Concerts at Make Music Chicago
Program: Igor Stravinsky: Divertimento
Peter IlyichTchaikovsky: Valse-Scherzo, Op. 34
Artists: Augustin Hadelich (violin) and Kuang-Hao Huang (piano)
Presented by Rush Hour Concert, Make Music Chicago is a one-day, city-wide, free music festival taking place annually on the Summer Solstice, June 21, and is completely free for musicians and audiences alike. Festival highlights include the Midwest Premiere of Guerrilla Fanfare by critically acclaimed composer Kevin James featuring Axiom Brass, Chicago Youth Symphony Brass and Percussion, Fulcrum Point New Music Project, Gaudete Brass Quintet and Merit Music Brass and Percussion plus the popular returns of the “Sousapalooza” play-along for band instrumentalists; Rise and Shine Orchestra which invites amateur players to play alongside Chicago Symphony Orchestra members and Pianos in the Parks offering access to pianos located throughout Chicago’s public parks.
June 28 Here and Now I
Program: Music by David Skidmore, Robert Dillon and Peter Martin
Artists: Third Coast Percussion
July 5 Russian Romantic
Program: Anton Arensky: Piano Trio No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 32
Artists: Lincoln Trio
July 12 Deborah Sobol Memorial Concert
Program: Robert Schumann: Piano Quintet in E-flat, Op. 44
Artists: Spektral Quartet with Daniel Schlosberg (piano)
July 19 Rising Stars
Program: Music for Piano and Strings
Artists: Young Artists from Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute
July 26 Folk Songs and Fairytales
Program: Leoš Janáček: Pohadka
Robert Schumann: Five Pieces in Folk Style
Artists: Brant Taylor (cello) and Kuang-Hao Huang (piano)
August 2 Lyric Shorts
Program: Selections from W.A. Mozart’s The Magic Flute
Artists: Singers from Lyric Opera’s Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center
August 9 Poems of Youth
Program: Leoš Janáček: Mladi
Artists: Fifth House Ensemble
August 16 Puzzle Pieces
Program: Music of Walter Rabl, Paul Moravec, Olivier Messiaen and John Mackey
Artists: Civitas Ensemble
August 23 Here and Now II – Ear Taxi Festival Preview
Program George Lewis: Hexis
Mischa Zupko: Occupy and Rising
Artists: Ensemble Dal Niente and Fulcrum Point New Music Project
August 30 Season Finale
Program: Claude Debussy: Prélude à l’après- midi d’un faune
Francis Poulenc: Le bal masqué
Artists: John MacFarlane (conductor) and the Rush Hour Concerts Chamber Orchestra
About Rush Hour Concerts:
Since its inception in 2000, Rush Hour Concerts has reinvented the classical music experience through a dedication to artistic quality, a concert format suitable to contemporary lifestyles and a policy of admission-free events. Rush Hour Concerts has created groundbreaking programs and access initiatives that have revolutionized music-making in Chicago and forged trendsetting partnerships with the city’s arts and cultural community.
In addition to the Summer Concert Series, Rush Hour Concerts unites the city every year on the Summer Solstice, June 21, during Make Music Chicago, a free citywide, daylong celebration of everyone’s ability to make music inspired by the Parisian tradition of Fête de la Musique under the helm of Artistic Director and lauded pianist Kuang-Hao Huang. Now in its 6th year, Make Music Chicago, invites thousands of Chicagoans of all ages and backgrounds to participate in over 200 performances and events across over 90 locations in over 20 Chicago neighborhoods from sunrise to sunset including Millennium Park’s Wrigley Square, Daley Plaza, Maggie Daley Park, Old Town School of Folk Music, Chicago Cultural Center’s Preston Bradley Hall, Two North Riverside Plaza plus over 30 Chicago Park District sites and many others
Rush Hour Concerts is committed to broadening arts access and launched its Community Engagement Residencies to bring expert musical instruction to under-resourced neighborhoods in Chicago through a long-term strategy of artistic and community collaboration. Now in its 17th year, Rush Hour Concerts remains grounded in its mission to reach across all communities with new ways for audiences to experience world-class music in Chicago.
About Rush Hour Concerts Leadership
Anthony Devroye (Artistic Director) enjoys a varied and active career as chamber, orchestral and solo violist and teacher. He has been violist of the Avalon String Quartet since 2004 and on the faculty at the Northern Illinois University School of Music since 2007. Devroye has performed with the quartet at major venues throughout the United States, as well as in France and South Korea. He has taught at the Interlochen Advanced String Quartet Program, the Icicle Creek Music Center and Madeline Island Music Camp, and has given master classes at UCLA, BYU, DePaul and the University of Tennessee.
Pianist Kuang-Hao Huang (Associate Artistic Director) has performed throughout the United States as well as in Europe and Asia. Huang is most often heard as a collaborator, performing concerts and radio broadcasts with Chicago’s finest musicians, from instrumentalists of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to singers with the Lyric Opera. He has been a guest of the Chicago Chamber Musicians and has performed with the Avalon, Chicago, Spektral and Vermeer String Quartets and on multiple Rush Hour Concerts’ performances. Huang can be heard in recordings on the Cedille and Naxos labels. An advocate of new music, Huang is a member of Fulcrum Point New Music Project. Also a dedicated teacher, Huang serves on the faculties of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and Concordia University-Chicago.
Born in New York, Brant Taylor (Consulting Artistic Director) began cello studies at the age of 8. His varied career includes solo appearances and collaborations with leading chamber musicians throughout North America, Europe and Asia, as well as orchestral, pedagogical and popular music activities. After one year as a member of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Taylor was appointed to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) by Daniel Barenboim in 1998. In Chicago, Taylor’s recital appearances include the Dame Myra Hess Concerts, First Monday Concerts, Rush Hour Concerts, the Ravinia Festival’s Rising Stars recital series and regular live radio broadcasts from the studio of WFMT. He has appeared regularly with the Chicago Chamber Musicians and on the CSO’s contemporary chamber music series MusicNOW. In 2002, Taylor began a seven-year association with the band Pink Martini. With this eclectic ensemble, he has appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Late Show with David Letterman, and at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Active as a teacher of both cello and chamber music, Taylor serves on the faculty of the DePaul University School of Music. He has also been a faculty member at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts and Northwestern University’s National High School Music Institute. From 1992-97, Taylor was cellist of the Everest Quartet, prizewinners at the Banff and Fischoff chamber music competitions.
Kitty Rothschild (Executive Director) brings her extensive real-world experience as an organizational strategist, specializing in operations, product development, branding, marketing and production to help pinpoint an organization’s core strengths, reveal operational inefficiencies and, ultimately, increase the impact of its mission and goals. Rothschild served as Managing Partner and Director of Operations, Business Affairs and Production for over six years at ROI Ventures, a strategy firm focused on social impact businesses from its inception through its acquisition and transition into the digital marketing firm Frequency540. As Director of Production at FQ540, she ensured a high standard of production values, efficiency and integrity in the production and creative departments. Prior to ROI Ventures, Rothschild had a substantial career in marketing and advertising, working in executive leadership positions at top ad agencies such as Hal Riney & Partners, BBDO and Draft/FCB. Additionally, she is an alumna of Smith College, Francis W. Parker School, Interlochen Arts Academy and The Aspen Music Festival’s Vocal Institute.
To learn more about Rush Hour Concerts visit www.rushhour.org.
To learn more about Make Music Chicago visit www.makemusicchicago.com.
