Chicago Chamber Musicians announce new directions for 25th anniversary season

Tue Apr 12, 2011 at 11:38 am

By Lawrence A. Johnson

The Chicago Chamber Musicians’ 25th anniversary will showcase the celebrated ensemble while moving in a somewhat new direction by bringing in guest artists and spotlighting individual members more in concertante roles.

The season will kick off in September with CCM brass players joined by the American Brass Quintet in a collaborative program. CCM members Gail Williams, horn, and Barbara Butler, trumpet, will be featured in a program including works of Strauss, Dukas, Joan Tower, Anthony Plog, and Michael Tilson Thomas.

A French program in October will offer Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, Saint-Saëns’ Bassoon Sonata and Ravel’s Piano Trio. November brings Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence, quartets by Cimarosa and Bartók and Non-Periodic Passacaglia, a work by CCM cellist Clancy Newman.

In January CCM’s Family Concerts will reprise Bruce Adolphe’s Witches, Wizards, Spells and Elves: The Magic of Shakespeare. February’s concert will showcase violinist Joseph Genualdi and hornist Williams in works of Mozart Schubert and John Harbison.

Trumpeter Charles Geyer and violinist Jasmine Lin are stage front in March in works of Saint-Saëns, Bartók and Schubert. The season will conclude in June with a program featuring the entire ensemble in Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, John Steven’s Seasons, A Symphony for Brass Quintet and Brahms’ Serenade No. 1.

CCM’s Composer Perspectives concerts will be curated by Lowell Lieberman in December and Aaron Jay Kernis in April. The season will also feature a special concert in March, “The Magic of Three” with guest artists composer-performers Paquito D’Rivera and Gabriela Lena Frank. The group will also continue its Sounds and Spaces events and regular First Monday concerts at the Chicago Cultural Center.

CCM’s main Signature Series (formerly known as Subscription Series) again will offer performances in Evanston (Pick-Staiger Concert Hall) on Sundays and Chicago (Gottlieb Concert Hall and Harris Theater for Music and Dance) on Mondays. Subscription packages starting at $57 go on sale April 19. Single tickets go on sale August 1. chicagochambermusic.org; 312-225-5226.

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