The concerts, which are always free and open to the public, generally take place on Wednesday and Friday evenings at 6:30 p.m., and Saturday evenings at 7:30 p.m. Additional concert program times and locations are noted.
Carlos Kalmar has assumed the new title of Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival. Kalmar, now in his 11th season with the Festival, has garnered both audience and critical praise. He has also continued to gain great attention for his work outside of Chicago, including a recent highly-lauded appearance at Carnegie Hall with the Oregon Symphony.
This summer is also Chorus Director Christopher Bell’s 10th Anniversary with the Festival which will be celebrated in part by the release of the first-ever full-length recording of the Grant Park Chorus with the Grant Park Orchestra, The Pulitzer Project by Cedille Records, a program of three Pulitzer Prize-winning works recorded in June of 2010. The CD includes two world premiere recordings: William Schuman’s cantata A Free Song, winner of the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for music, Leo Sowerby’s The Canticle of the Sun, the 1946 Pulitzer winner and Aaron Copland’s 1945 Pulitzer-winning Appalachian Spring Suite (for orchestra alone). A special fund-raising event celebrating Christopher Bell’s tenure with the Festival will also be held at the University Club following the Friday, July 22 concert.
July begins with Mahler’s Song of the Earth featuring German vocalists mezzo-soprano Alexandra Petersamer and tenor Christian Elsner, July 1 & 2.
The Annual Independence Day Concert in Millennium Park features a musical celebration of the United States, led by Christopher Bell with a reading of the Declaration of Independence by members of the Chicago theater company Remy Bumppo and other special guests, July 3.
An evening of works by Copland and Tchaikovsky are conducted by Andrew Grams, July 6. Guest conductor Alondra de la Parra makes her Grant Park debut with classical guitarist David Russell, July 8 & 9.
Recent Broadway hits are showcased in the Broadway Rocks! program with special guest, the Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus, July 13. The great Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki conducts his own work with performances by cellists Julie Albers, Kira Kraftzoff and Amit Peled, July 15 & 16.
Guest Conductor Kwamé Ryan leads a program that featuring the works of Liebermann, Ravel and Schumann, July 20. The Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus perform Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, and Bach’s Cantata No. 170 (Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust) with Chicago counter tenor Ryan Belongie, July 22 & 23.
Guest Conductor Hannu Lintu begins a week-long residency with Grant Park Music Festival with Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 7, July 27, and continues with Sibelius’ Kullervo and Rachmaninoff’s Vesna, July 29 & 30.
Grant Park Music Festival July Schedule: July 1 – 30, 2011
* All concerts take place at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion unless otherwise noted *
MAHLER’S SONG OF THE EARTH
Friday, July 1 at 6:30 pm
Saturday, July 2 at 7:30 pm
* Harris Theater for Music and Dance
Grant Park Orchestra; Carlos Kalmar, Conductor; Alexandra Petersamer, Mezzo-Soprano; Christian Elsner, Tenor
LUTOSŁAWSKI Musique funebre
MAHLER Das Lied von der Erde
Mezzo-soprano Alexandra Petersamer is a German born vocalist lauded for her performances of Wagner and Mahler. She has performed major roles at the Bayreuth Festival as well as the Munich State Opera and the Leipzig Opera. Among the many conductors she has worked with are Sir Colin Davis, Valery Gergiev, Michael Gielen and Alan Gilbert. In 2010 she performed in Dvorák’s Requiem at the Grant Park Music Festival.
German born tenor Christian Elsner studied with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and has performed at the Philharmonie Berlin, the Musikvereinssaal Wien, the Royal Festival Hall London and Carnegie Hall New York with some of the world’s finest conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Mariss Jansons, Herbert Blomstedt, Fabio Luisi, and Sir Neville Marriner. This is his first appearance with the Grant Park Music Festival.
INDEPENDENCE CELEBRATION
Sunday, July 3 at 5:30 pm
Grant Park Orchestra; Christopher Bell, Conductor; artists from Remy Bumppo Theatre.
KEY Star Spangled Banner
COPLAND Fanfare for the Common Man
BAGLEY National Emblem March
COPLAND “Hoe-down” from Rodeo
SOUSA Belle of Chicago
Arr. LOWDEN Armed Forces Salute
OFFENBACH “Can Can” from Orpheus in the Underworld
WENDEL St. Bailey’s Rag
COHAN Star Spangled Spectacular
Arr. CACAVAS
Arr. DRAGON America the Beautiful
TCHAIKOVSKY 1812 Overture
SOUSA The Stars and Stripes Forever
Remy Bumppo Theatre Company is an award-winning theater in Chicago known for literary-minded productions from playwrights such as George Bernard Shaw and Tom Stoppard. Remy Bumppo was founded in 1996 by current Artistic Director James Bohnen, Carol Loewenstern, and John Stoddard. In 2006, as part of the 10th year, Remy Bumppo was named a resident theatre company at the Tony Award winning Victory Gardens Theater.
AMERICAN AND RUSSIAN LANDSCAPES
Wednesday, July 6 at 6:30 pm
Grant Park Orchestra; Andrew Grams, Guest Conductor
BORODIN Overture to Prince Igor
COPLAND Suite from The Tender Land
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 2 “Little Russian”
Andrew Grams, Maryland-born conductor, has worked with many of the great orchestras of the United States including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra and the orchestras of Baltimore, Dallas and Houston. He has also worked with a variety of international organizations including the Montreal Symphony, the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Orchestra of Santa Cecilia Rome, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Melbourne Symphony. He has also served as Assistant Conductor with the Cleveland Orchestra and Resident Conductor with the Florida Orchestra. This is his Grant Park Music Festival debut.
SPANISH GUITAR & ALONDRA DE LA PARRA
Friday, July 8 at 6:30 pm
Saturday, July 9 at 7:30 pm
Grant Park Orchestra; Alondra de la Parra, Guest Conductor; David Russell, Guitar
MARQUEZ Leyenda de Miliano
RODRIGO Concierto de Aranjuez
DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 7
Mexican-American conductor Alondra de la Parra founded the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas (POA) in 2004 with the purpose of creating an orchestra that would serve as a platform to showcase young performers and composers from the Americas. She has also led the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Miami´s New World Symphony, Denmark´s Tivoli Symphony, the Russian National Orchestra, Brazil´s Sao Paulo Symphony and the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de Mexico. This is her Grant Park Music Festival debut.
One of the world’s most highly regarded classical guitarists, David Russell, appears regularly at prestigious halls around the world, such as New York, London, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Madrid, Toronto and Rome. He has made many recordings of the works of Spanish composers for guitar as well as transcriptions of Bach, Handel and Scarlatti. His CD, Aire Latino, received a Grammy in 2005. He was also named honorary member of “Amigos de la Guitarra”, the oldest guitar society in Spain, in 2009. This is his Grant Park Music Festival debut.
BROADWAY ROCKS!
Wednesday, July 13 at 6:30 pm
Grant Park Orchestra; Randall Craig Fleischer, Guest Conductor; Christiane Noll, Capathia Jenkins, Rob Evan, Doug LaBrecque, Vocalists; Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus, Patrick Sinzozich, Artistic Director
Randall Craig Fleischer has appeared as a guest conductor with many major orchestras nationally and internationally including repeat engagements with the Israel Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, San Diego Symphony and the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra. He is also the Music Director of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Anchorage Symphony and Flagstaff Symphony.
Christiane Noll frequently performs Broadway favorites as a guest soloist with the National Symphony, the Cincinnati Pops and the Jerusalem Symphony. She is perhaps best known for originating the role of Emma Carew in Frank Wildhorn’s Jekyll & Hyde musical. Capathia Jenkins, who made her Broadway debut in The Civil War, has starred in Off-Broadway shows such as the revival of Godspell. Jenkins has appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra, National Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, San Diego Symphony and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. Rob Evan starred in the original Broadway cast of Jekyll & Hyde and in Les Miserables as Jean Valjean. He has been a featured soloist for many leading symphonies in cities such as San Francisco, San Diego, Atlanta and Chicago. Doug LaBrecque has starred in shows such as Candide, A Chorus Line and Man of La Mancha. He has also performed as a soloist with The National Symphony, The Israel Philharmonic (Tel Aviv), the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony.
With more than 150 singing members, Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus (CGMC) delivers a distinctive brand of entertainment that includes choral, cabaret and musical theater. CGMC was organized in 1982 in response to an invitation to participate in the first National Gay and Lesbian Choral Festival, Come Out And Sing Together (COAST). Under the leadership of Artistic Director Patrick Sinozich, CGMC remains an integral part of Chicago’s gay community.
Friday, July 15 at 6:30 pm
Saturday, July 16 at 7:30 pm
Grant Park Orchestra; Krzysztof Penderecki, Guest Conductor; Julie Albers, Cello; Kira Kraftzoff, Cello; Amit Peled, Cello
PENDERECKI Concerto Grosso No. 1 for 3 Cellos and Orchestra
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3 “Eroica”
Krzysztof Penderecki is widely considered one of the world’s greatest living composers. He is known for his novel compositional techniques, as well as his avant-garde works such as Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima. Since the 1970’s Penderecki’s style has changed to encompass a post-Romantic idiom. His collection of prestigious awards includes Grammy Awards in 1987, 1998 and 2001 and the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition in 1992. He is making his Grant Park Music Festival debut, conducting his own work as well as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3.
Penderecki’s Concerto Grosso No. 1 for 3 Cellos and Orchestra will feature the following cellists:
Julie Albers made her orchestral debut with the Cleveland Orchestra in 1998 and since then has performed with orchestras in the U.S., Europe, Korea, Taiwan and New Zealand. In addition to solo performances, Albers regularly participates in chamber music festivals around the world and had a multi-year residency with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Russian-born Kira Kraftzoff has performed as a soloist in many of the great concert halls including the Grand Hall of Moscow Conservatory, The Grand Hall of St. Petersburg, Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Mozarteum in Salzburg and the Taegue Philharmony in South Korea and has been invited to perform in many prestigious festivals such as Davos Music Festival, Colorado Music Festival, Savonlinna Festival Finland and Musical Olympus St. Petersburg. Israli soloist Amit Peled has performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Paris’ Salle Gaveau and Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv as well as at summer music festivals such as the Marlboro Music Festival, Newport Music Festival and the Seattle Chamber Music Festival. As a recording artist, Peled has released the critically acclaimed The Jewish Soul and Cellobration albums under the Centaur Records Label. All three cellists are making their Grant Park Music Festival debuts.
KWAMÉ RYAN
Wednesday, July 20 at 6:30 pm
Grant Park Orchestra; Kwamé Ryan, Guest Conductor
LIEBERMANN Furioso
RAVEL Le Tombeau de Couperin
SCHUMANN Symphony No. 2, op. 61
Kwamé Ryan is a Canadian conductor of Trinidadian descent. In 2007, Ryan became music director of the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine (ONBA), and in July 2008 he was named music director of l’Orchestre Français des Jeunes. In recognition of his significant contribution to art and literature he was awarded the title of “Officier dans l’ordre des arts et des letters” by the French Minister of Culture in 2010. He is making his debut with the Grant Park Music Festival.
CHORAL MASTERPIECES: BERNSTEIN & FAURÉ
Friday, July 22 at 6:30 pm
Saturday, July 23 at 7:30 pm
Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus; Christopher Bell, Conductor; Ryan Belongie, Counter-Tenor; Lindsay Metzger, Soprano; Keven Keys, Baritone
BERNSTEIN Chichester Psalms
FAURÉ Requiem
Ryan Belongie, formerly a member of the Grant Park Chorus, has performed such operatic roles as Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Wolf Trap Opera, Lychas in Hercules with Lyric Opera of Chicago and Arsemene in Xerxes with Berkeley Opera. In addition to being a two-time national semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Belongie was the winner of the 2009 Lola Fletcher award from the American Opera Society.
Chicago native, Lindsay Metzger, has performed with Bella Voce and William Ferris Chorale and this past winter she performed the role of Nella in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi with DuPage Opera Theater. She was recently a member of the chorus in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion under the baton of Maestro John Nelson and choral direction of Donald Nally.
Keven Keys has performed with Opera Fairbanks, Nashville Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Virginia Opera, Opera North, Opera Illinois and the Lyric Opera of Chicago in such roles as Figaro in The Barber of Seville, Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, Peter in Hansel and Gretel and Sam in Trouble in Tahiti. He is also a member of the Grant Park Chorus.
This program also marks the celebration of Chorus Director Christopher Bell’s 10th Anniversary with the Grant Park Music Festival.
PROKOFIEV SYMPHONY NO. 7
Wednesday, July 27 at 6:30 pm
Grant Park Orchestra; Hannu Lintu, Guest Conductor
SHCHEDRIN Concerto for Orchestra No. 3
“Old Russian Circus Music “
PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 7
A frequent guest conductor of the Grant Park Orchestra in recent seasons, Finnish born Hannu Lintu has been Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra since August 2009 and takes on the role of Chief Conductor Designate of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2013. In addition to conducting the leading Finnish orchestras, Lintu has made guest appearances with the Radio Orchestras in Berlin, Paris, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Amsterdam and Madrid. He has also performed with a number of orchestras in the U.S. such as the Houston, Washington, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl.
SIBELIUS: EPIC FINLAND
Friday, July 29 at 6:30 pm
Saturday, July 30 at 7:30 pm
Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus; Hannu Lintu, Guest Conductor; Christopher Bell, Chorus Director; Johanna Rusanen, Soprano; Ville Rusanen, Baritone
RACHMANINOFF Vesna (Spring), op .20
SIBELIUS Kullervo, op. 7
Johanna Rusanen’s opera career began at the Kuopio Opera in 1994, and since then she has performed at the Savonlinna Opera Festival, the Finnish National Opera, the Berlin Deutsche Oper, the Central Finland Regional Opera and the Bolshoi Opera in Moscow. Her main roles include Amelia in Ballo di Maschera, Mimi in La Boheme, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni. Ville Rusanen is a regular guest at Finnish National Opera. Rusanen has recently appeared as Guglielmo in David McVicar’s production of Cosi fan tutte for Scottish Opera and in a new opera by Alexander Raskatov, A Dog’s Heart with De Nederlandse Opera. This is the Grant Park Music Festival debut for this Finnish, brother-sister duo.
Grant Park Music Festival’s New Youth Education Program
Grant Park Music Festival has established a new program, Classical Campers, in partnership with the Chicago Park District, a longtime supporter of the Festival, to create an educational program for young Chicagoans. This summer, more than 900 children enrolled in Park District summer programming will participate in in-depth, half-day programs throughout the Grant Park Music Festival season. Children will attend an Open Rehearsal, meet and interact with musicians from the Grant Park Orchestra or Chorus, engage in hands-on music activities, spend time in the neighboring Lurie Garden exploring parallels between music and nature, and then, after a lunch break, process their whole experience with an art project.
Membership Information, Ticket Prices and Additional Programming
All Grant Park Music Festival performances are free to the public. Open lawn and pavilion seating are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Season memberships to the Festival are available, starting at $135 for all 32 concerts, which include reserved seating or access to reserved sections for all concerts.
In addition, a new Friends of the Festival membership level priced at $75 has been initiated for those who do not want special seating privileges but wish to support the Festival and receive other benefits such as restaurant and merchandise discounts.
Reserved group seating is also available for most concerts. Membership and group sales information is available by calling 312-742-7638 or by visiting the Festival’s website at www.grantparkmusicfestival.com.
About Grant Park Music Festival
Acclaimed by critics and loved by audiences, the Grant Park Music Festival is the nation’s only free, municipally-supported, summer-long outdoor classical music series. The Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, located between Michigan and Columbus Avenues at Washington Street, is the official home of the Grant Park Music Festival. The Festival is led by Principal Conductor Carlos Kalmar along with Chorus Director Christopher Bell, Board President Beth Rodriguez, and Interim Executive Director Leigh Levine.
Founded by the Chicago Park District in 1935 and co-presented by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the Grant Park Orchestral Association since 2001, the Grant Park Music Festival will present over 30 concerts between June 15 and August 20, 2011, typically on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday nights.
The Grant Park Music Festival is proudly presented by the Grant Park Orchestral Association with support from the Chicago Park District and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
About Millennium Park
Millennium Park, managed and programmed by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, is an award-winning center for art, music, architecture, and landscape design. The result of a unique partnership between the City of Chicago and philanthropic community, the 24.5 acre park features the work of world-renowned architects, planners, artists and designers.
In addition to the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the most sophisticated outdoor concert venue of its kind in the United States, the Park’s prominent features include the interactive Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa; the contemporary Lurie Garden designed by the team of Gustafson Guthrie Nichol, Piet Oudolf and Robert Israel; and Anish Kapoor’s hugely popular Cloud Gate sculpture. Since opening in June 2004, Millennium Park has welcomed more than 20 million people, making it one of the most popular destinations in Chicago.
For more information regarding the Grant Park Music Festival, please call the Grant Park Music Festival at 312-742-7638 or visit the Festival’s website at www.grantparkmusicfestival.com. Concert information is subject to change.