Results tagged “classical”

Hear ye, hear ye! The honorable Richard M. Daley has declared today Rush Hour Concerts Day in Chicago! All his subjects are required by law to submit to his will and attend the opening concert of the tenth Rush Hour season tonight!

Honestly? Tuesday night we were totally stoked to see Titus Andronicus at Reggie's, but at the last minute we realized just how foolish we would be to pass up a chance to see what would probably be a one-time only event with Glenn Kotche joining forces with modern classicists eighth blackbird at The Harris theater.

Glenn Kotche, drummer for Loose Fur and some other little local band named Wilco, plays percussion tonight with local avant-classical sextet eighth blackbird at The Harris Theater. Kotche's solo drumming is truly mind-blowing -- go on, watch one of his performances -- and we're told he will be debuting a brand new piece amongst some other familiar material.

As Duke Ellington might have said, Arthur Russell was a musician and composer "beyond category." In his short life (he died of complications from AIDS at the age of 40) he composed and recorded music that could be classified as folk, disco, ambient, classical, pop and even country. He was born in Iowa and followed in his mother's footsteps by taking up the cello as a child. Later he moved to San Francisco (befriending Allan Ginsberg) and then eventually New York City, where he became a catalyst in the art scene of the 70's as musical director of The Kitchen. Ginsberg, who lived in the same apartment building as Arthur for many years, described his music as "Buddhist bubblegum," and it's that sly tension between childlike joy and a more cerebral experimentation that has posthumously made him a favorite of David Byrne, Jens Lekman and Pitchfork.

Wunderkind composer Nico Muhly was the focus of a rather glowing New Yorker article a few months ago. Muhly was portrayed as a new kind of classicist; he is deeply respectful of traditionalism while still being completely open to experimentation with familiar form while still providing familiar musical touchstones to anchor the listener. His compositions have been performed by choirs, orchestras, and chamber ensembles; in concert halls, small theaters, and MTV2; nd to top it all off he's even provided orchestration for Björk. Yeah, we guess you could call him a classical composer.

If you haven't yet seen a performance at Millennium Park's Harris Theater, you're missing out. It's a sleek space that has outstanding acoustics, and not only are the seats comfy but there's pretty much not a bad seat in the house. An upcoming concert of recent film music makes a great reason to give the Harris a try.