Chicago Philharmonic Embarks on Groundbreaking Polish Music Exchange and Festival
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Contact: Cassandra Kirkpatrick [email protected] 312-957-0000 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Chicago Philharmonic Embarks on Groundbreaking Polish Music Exchange and Festival Chicago, IL – (March 8 2018) Celebrating Chicago's rich cultural history, the Chicago Philharmonic Society is proud to announce its first-ever international classical music exchange will occur in 2018. The exchange of music, musicians, and culture will take place in Poland this April. Later this year, a five-day festival of Polish music in Chicago, the Chicago Philharmonic Festival: Poland 2018, will join in the worldwide celebration of Poland’s 100-year National Independence Day, which commemorates the restoration of the country’s sovereignty in 1918. The two-part project launches on April 8 2018, when ten Chicago Philharmonic musicians and Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Scott Speck will begin a week-long trip to the Polish cultural capital Kraków. The musicians will work with students at the Academy of Music in Kraków by leading master classes and side-by-side symphonic rehearsals. The rehearsals, led by Scott Speck, will culminate in a concert of symphonic music by American composers on Friday, April 13 2018 featuring both the Chicago Philharmonic musicians and students from the Academy of Music. Works performed will include Jennifer Hidgon’s blue cathedral, George Walker’s Lyric for Strings, and Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. On Saturday, April 14 2018 the Chicago Philharmonic musicians will travel to the Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre of Music in Lusławice, Poland, a music and culture venue which was conceived and created by famous composer Krzysztof Penderecki and opened officially in 2013. At the Penderecki Centre, Chicago Philharmonic musicians will present a chamber concert showcasing the following American and Chicagoan works for string quartet, solo percussion, and brass quintet: Guy G. Gauthreaux II American Suite for Unaccompanied Snare Drum Stacy Garrop String Quartet No. 4: Illuminations Samuel Barber Adagio for Strings William Bolcom Three Rags for String Quartet John Cheetham Scherzo Jan Bach Laudes; I - Reveille Eric Ewazen Frostfire Leonard Bernstein Dance Suite for Brass Quintet Witold Lutosławski Mini Overture Traveling to Poland with Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Scott Speck and Executive Director Donna Milanovich are musicians: David Perry violin Kathleen Brauer violin Sally Chisholm viola Barbara Haffner cello Robert Everson percussion William Denton trumpet Mike Brozick trumpet Neil Kimel horn Jeremy Moeller trombone Graeme Mutchler bass trombone The second part of the project concludes in November with the Chicago Philharmonic Festival: Poland 2018. Chicago Philharmonic anticipates this festival as the first of a biannual initiative showcasing the different communities which make up Chicago’s cultural landscape. Highlights of this five-day festival include a Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra concert featuring works by Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Karol Szymanowski, Andrzej Panufnik, and Frederic Chopin at the Copernicus Center. Featured in this orchestral performance is the young piano virtuoso Łukasz Krupiński, performing Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante by Chopin and one of “the greatest Polish piano achievements,” Paderewski’s Piano Concerto in A minor. Also a part of the festival is Wojciech Kilar’s Missa Pro Pace (Mass for Peace) for orchestra, organ, choir, and soloists, which will be performed at historic St. Hyacinth Basilica and led by outstanding Polish conductor Marek Moś, Conductor, Artistic Director of the AUKSO chamber orchestra who has received numerous awards including the Contemporary Music Competition in Kraków (1979), the UNESCO International Tribune in Paris (1984, 1988), the Polish Composers’ Union Prize (1994, 2005) and the Ministry of Culture’s ‘Gloria Artist’ silver award (2005). The festival will also feature guest performances by Poland-based, internationally- renowned artists including the acclaimed Fryderyk Award and 2017 Gramophone Classical Music Award-winning Silesian String Quartet, presenting a concert of all contemporary works. Also featured as a soloist is Polish jazz pianist and composer Piotr Orzechowski, who was the first Polish 1st Prize winner of the legendary Swiss Montreux Jazz Solo Piano Competition. Additionally, the festival will feature an organ recital by Academy of Music and noted Kraków organ professor Andrzej Białko, who has recorded multiple albums with Polish record label Dux Records. The festival will also feature collaborations with two eminent local organizations: The Lira Ensemble and Paderewski Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. The full line-up, tickets and festival pass details will be announced soon. This project is made possible in part by an International Connections Fund from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, as well as partial support from the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Chicago, Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne (Polish Music Publishing House) in Warsaw, the Polish Cultural Institute New York, the Polish Museum of America, Copernicus Center in Chicago, and LOT Polish Airlines. The Chicago Philharmonic Festival: Poland 2018 is also in part supported by many partner organizations, including the Academy of Music in Kraków, The Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music in Lusławice, and Richard Guérin at RSG Music Inc. in New York. For more information, contact Marketing Director Cassandra Kirkpatrick at [email protected]. ABOUT THE CHICAGO PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY The Chicago Philharmonic Society is a collaboration of over 200 of the highest-level classical musicians performing in the Chicago metropolitan area. Governed under a groundbreaking structure of musician leadership, the Society presents concerts at venues throughout the Chicago area that cover the full spectrum of classical music, from Bach to Britten and beyond. The Society’s orchestra, known simply as the Chicago Philharmonic, has been called “one of the country’s finest symphonic orchestras” (Chicago Tribune), and its unique chamber music ensembles, which perform as the Chicago Philharmonic Chamber Players, draw from its vast pool of versatile musicians. The Society’s outreach programs connect Chicago-area youth to classical music and provide performance opportunities for members of the community. Founded 26 years ago by principal musicians from the Lyric Opera Orchestra, the Chicago Philharmonic currently serves as the official orchestra of the Joffrey Ballet, continues its decades-long association with the Ravinia Festival, and presents symphonic concerts in Chicago’s North Shore region and at the Harris Theater where it is a resident company in downtown Chicago. ABOUT THE PERFORMERS Scott Speck, conductor With recent performances in London, Paris, Moscow, Beijing, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington, Scott Speck has inspired international acclaim as a conductor of passion, intelligence and winning personality. Scott Speck was named Artistic Director of Chicago Philharmonic in June of 2013, and has been Music Director of the Joffrey Ballet since 2010. His concerts with the Moscow RTV Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky Hall garnered unanimous praise. His gala performances with Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Midori, Evelyn Glennie and Olga Kern have highlighted his recent and current seasons as Music Director of the Mobile Symphony. This season he also collaborates intensively with Carnegie Hall for the seventh time as Music Director of the West Michigan Symphony. He was invited to the White House as former Music Director of the Washington Ballet. In past seasons Scott Speck has conducted at London’s Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, the Paris Opera, Chicago’s Symphony Center, Washington’s Kennedy Center, San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House, and the Los Angeles Music Center. He has led numerous performances with the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Houston, Baltimore, Paris, Moscow, Shanghai, Beijing, Vancouver, Romania, Slovakia, Buffalo, Columbus (OH), Honolulu, Louisville, New Orleans, Oregon, Rochester, Florida, and Virginia, among many others. Previously he held positions as Conductor of the San Francisco Ballet; Music Advisor and Conductor of the Honolulu Symphony; and Associate Conductor of the Los Angeles Opera. During a tour of Asia he was named Principal Guest Conductor of the China Film Philharmonic in Beijing. In addition, Scott Speck is the co-author of two of the world’s best-selling books on classical music for a popular audience, Classical Music for Dummies and Opera for Dummies. These books have received stellar reviews in both the national and international press and have garnered enthusiastic endorsements from major American orchestras. They have been translated into twenty languages and are available around the world. His third book in the series, Ballet for Dummies, was released to great acclaim as well. Scott Speck has been a regular commentator on National Public Radio, the BBC, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and Voice of Russia, broadcast throughout the world. He has been featured in TED talks and at the Aspen Ideas Festival. His writing has been featured in numerous magazines and journals. Born in Boston, Scott Speck graduated summa cum laude from Yale University. There he founded and directed the Berkeley Chamber Orchestra, which continues to perform to this day. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Berlin, where he founded