2007-2008 Season
Tikkun Olam: Repairing the World
Performed as art of the Chicago Composers Forum's annual MusicCircus
Date: Sunday, October 7th, 2007
Program Information
Time: 12:00pm-4:00pm
Location: Chicago Cultural Center
In 2006, Denver artist Christy Honigman interviewed 54 recent immigrants from 27 different countries to ask them what was most important to them for the process of Tikkun Olam, healing the world.
Their responses were shaped into a multi-media presentation incorporating their spoken voices reciting their responses, their written responses (poetry and prose) themselves, and painted panels (at left) of text from their responses.
The original production had its premiere at the Denver Central Public Library’s Schlessman Hall on September 7, 2007. This performance brought it to Chicago, as part of the Chicago Composers Consortium's MusicCircus at the Chicago Cultural Center, at Michigan and Randolph, Sunday October 7th, from noon to 4pm, 2007.
Most of the world’s cultures have a long tradition of art and healing and the knowledge that creativity, community, health and spirit are inextricably linked. The project's participants, many of whom are survivors of torture and exile, not only lent their personal expressions of Tikkun Olam to this project, but in the process of creating they experienced — and thus substantiated — art’s healing and transformative power.
A Bouquet of Holidays
Date: Saturday, December 8th, 2007
Program Information
Location: Immanuel United Church of Christ, Evergreen Park, IL
Benjamin Britten: A Ceremony of Carols
A selection of Christmas carol texts from ages past, set to music by the late British composer.
Ernst Bloch: Scenes from Jewish Life
Bloch incorporated traditional melodic materials in this short suite for cello and piano.
Johannes Brahms: Geistliches Wiegenlied (Spiritual Lullaby)
Brahms incorporated the tune of a traditional German Christmas carol in this lullaby for voice, viola and piano.
Dmitri Shostakovich: Songs from Jewish Folk Poems
Some of the few positive-themed pieces about historical Jewish life.
Franz Liszt: Weihnachtsbaum (Christmas Tree)
One of Liszt's few pieces that is melodious rather than flashy, for two people at the same piano.
Music and the Spoken Word
Date: February 15th, 2008
Time: 8:00pm
Location: Hyde Park Union Church (corner of Woodlawn and 56th)
Date: February 16th, 2008
Program Information
Time: 8:00pm
Location: Alice Millar Chapel, Northwestern University (corner of Sheridan and Chicago)
Stravinsky: L'histoire du soldat (The Soldier's Tale)
The tragicomic account of a soldier who encounters the devil on his way home on leave is more complicated than most fables of this type, with both sides getting their licks in. Stravinsky's recent discovery of jazz leaves a clear imprint on this classic work.
Featuring Seth Zurer as the Soldier, Kerensa Peterson as the Narrator, and Sara Paretsky as the Devil.
Seth Zurer Karensa Peterson Sara Paretsky Frederic Rzewski: De Profundis
Rzewski's work for speaking pianist, based on the writings of Oscar Wilde.
Featuring Thomas Rosenkranz of the University of Hawaii
Thomas Rosenkranz
