Friday, January 29, 2016

7:00 PM (Sold Out)
9:00 PM (Sold Out)

Roosevelt University, Ganz Hall

Roosevelt University
Chicago College of Performing Arts, 7th Floor
430 S Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60605

Opening the program will be the North American premiere of One Bright Morning, written in 2015 by Jesse Jones, featuring Oberlin student Olivia Boen ’17, a soprano from River Forest, Illinois, and graduate of Oak Park River Forest High School.

Another solo vehicle, Passion Prayers, written in 1999 by University of Chicago Professor Augusta Read Thomas, features cello soloist and Oberlin faculty member Darrett Adkins (Oberlin Conservatory alumnus 1991) in this self-described micro-concerto.

The centerpiece for the concerts is the 2013 Grammy Award-winning piece Meanwhile—Incidental Music to Imaginary Puppet Plays, written by Oberlin Professor of Composition Stephen Hartke and commissioned by eighth blackbird.

Three other composers—Andrew Norman, Julian Anderson, and Marc-André Dalbavie—provide works of textural and compositional variety to complete this well-curated program.

Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble

Described by The New York Times as “a hotbed of contemporary-classical players” and a “rural experimental haven," the Oberlin Conservatory of Music cultivates innovation in its students, and has long been an undergraduate Mecca for nationally acclaimed composers, chamber musicians, and ensembles. It has produced scores of powerhouse new music performers and ensembles that began their careers as members of Contemporary Music Ensemble (CME), including the multiple Grammy Award-winning sextet eighth blackbird and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), among others. In its six annual full-concert cycles, CME performs music of all contemporary styles and genres: from minimalism to serialism, to electronic, cross genre, mixed media, and beyond.

Under the direction of Timothy Weiss, the ensemble’s consistently innovative programming and high level of performance has led to considerable acclaim. The Plain Dealer praised its recent performance at the Cleveland Museum of Art, saying it “spoke volumes about the caliber of Oberlin Conservatory's new-music program, with astonishingly vital performances by Oberlin students.”

CME has worked with many prominent composers from a variety of backgrounds, including Stephen Hartke, George Crumb, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Helmut Lachenmann, David Lang, Joan Tower, Frederic Rzewski, and a long list of others, and has premiered many of their works. CME also regularly premieres works by prominent Oberlin faculty, student, and alumni composers.

Oberlin attracts some of the most well-regarded contemporary music icons to perform as soloists with CME, including Jennifer Koh ’97, Claire Chase ’00, Tony Arnold ’90, Marilyn Nonken, Stephen Drury, Steven Schick, and Ursula Oppens. Outstanding students regularly receive opportunities to perform as soloists with the ensemble as well, a luxury that is seldom afforded to undergraduates at other institutions.

In addition to its concerts at Oberlin, CME regularly tours the United States. In recent years, the group has performed at the Winter Garden, Miller Theater, Merkin Concert Hall, Harvard University, Benaroya Hall, Palace of Fine Arts, and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, as well as in numerous partner concerts with the Cleveland Museum of Art. CME also has been featured on a number of commercial recordings, including John Luther Adams’ In the White Silence (New World Records), Lewis Nielson’s Écritures: St. Francis Preaches to the Birds (Centaur Records), and several releases on the Oberlin Music label.

SOLD OUT

Program

Read Program Book

Jesse Jones
One Bright Morning (2015)
Olivia Boen, soprano
[North American Premiere]

Andrew Norman
Gran Turismo (2007)

Stephen Hartke
Meanwhile (2007)

Augusta Read Thomas
Passion Prayers (1999)
Darrett Adkins, cello

Marc-André Dalbavie
Melodia (2009)

Julian Anderson
Alhambra Fantasy (2000)

About The Artists

Olivia Boen, soprano
Darrett Adkins, cello
Contemporary Music Ensemble
Timothy Weiss, conductor

Venue Information

Access Ganz Hall via elevators from the Michigan or Wabash entrances to Roosevelt University. After getting off on 7th floor, follow signs to Ganz Hall.

Ganz Hall, a 195-seat recital hall, is one of the city’s ultimate examples of artistic and architectural collaboration—featuring the work of French painter Albert Fleury, designer Louis Millet and his collaborator George Healy, and architects Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler, with assistance from their then-apprentice Frank Lloyd Wright. The space is notable for its carved wood panels and capitals, elaborate plaster work, gold-leaf stenciled arches punctuated with stunningly recreated cast-iron electric chandeliers and gilded lighting fixtures, unique hand-painted murals, and stained glass windows. In 2003, Ganz Hall received the Chicago Landmark Award for Preservation Excellence, and in 2005 it was honored with the American Institute of Architects Chicago Design Excellence Award.

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