Music
Yesterday I guest-conducted the Jewish Community Singers of Metro Chicago, a terrific volunteer civic group of about 70 singers called (in Hebrew) Kol Zimrah. I was brought in to lead KZ for a half-dozen weekly rehearsals and then the final concert, performed at the lovely Weinberg center at the corner of Lake Cook Road and I-294. The house was packed, with people overflowing to the patio outside, which fortunately had been supplied with speakers from the audio system that was carrying us on microphones.
The program lasted about an hour. Would you believe that there was a connection between one of the songs and my own grandmother? Oy! As it turned out, the program contained a "niggun" in Yiddish. A "niggun" [plural "niggunim"] is a wordless tune, which in this case sounded like "tschiribim-bam-bam," and so on. This particular niggun was arranged by Alice Parker, who was Robert Shaw's longtime collaborator, and a brilliant arranger in her own right.
However, more interesting to me was the composer of the original tune, Lazar Weiner. I learned from a friend that Lazar Weiner, who wore many hats in the NYC Jewish-music scene a hundred or so years ago, was the music director of the Freyheyt Gezang Vereyn (Freedom-Song Union), basically the choral-music arm of the Communist Party in New York City in the 1920s. Here is a picture of Weiner conducting.
And who sang with Lazar Weiner in the Freyheyt Gezang Vereyn? None other than my father's mother, Lillian Cohen, born Leah Krikun in Minsk, what is now Belarus. Now THAT is a small world!
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There is really nothing like commissioning a new piece of music. Late last week I was blessed to find, in my inbox, a PDF of the newest piece we have commissioned for Chicago a cappella. Stacy Garrop, a huge talent, has written her own take on "Hava Nagila," and it is a barn-burner.
I won't give away too many details, but there is a gradual speeding up of tempo, at one point reaching eighth note = 264! (The only time I can remember moving that quickly was last week, when I went on the bobsled ride in Park City, Utah, at the Utah Olympic Park.) There are some semi-improvised sections in some of the voice parts in this piece, while others carry a more conventional momentum.
It is so cool to have someone who knows our voices well -- Stacy Garrop has been coming to hear us regularly for some time now, and we've performed one of her pieces on two of our programs. She knows our strengths and how far she can stretch us. She also knows that we like to have fun.
Stay tuned, and I hope to see you at the "Days of Awe and Rejoicing" concerts in October, three weeks after Yom Kippur!
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Submitted by Jon Weber on Fri, 06/29/2007 - 11:58am.
Every Chicagoan should have access to an in-depth and personally relevant arts education experience. Thankfully, there are a group of organizations who fill that vital role: our community music schools.
They vary in size, in constituency, in mission, and in programs offered. But they share a commitment to encouraging a meaningful and life-changing involvement with music, one student at a time, and catering to the needs of the surrounding community.
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It's programming time. This is the phase of a program's life when I cast a wide net. The aim is to get MORE repertoire at hand than I will actually need for "Days of Awe and Rejoicing," and then I start to plan and winnow and see what will make the most compelling through-line of music. It's a totally different process from rehearsing or performing.
I am jealous sometimes of those conductors who just have to say, "Okay, let's do Brahms 3 and Beethoven 8 and Rach 2 with a great pianist." I suppose I brought it on myself because of the sorts of programming that Chicago a cappella does. Our concerts tend to include about 20 short pieces -- an hour and a half, including intermission.
So finding cool Jewish classical music includes:
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Submitted by Jon Weber on Wed, 06/20/2007 - 12:23pm.
Greetings from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra! At long last, I am happy to make my debut in the blogosphere as a new contributor to Chicago Classical Music.
As the Education Manager of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, I am afforded a constant stream of opportunities to be inspired by the music performed at Symphony Center--a haven for the transcendental experiences created by the world's greatest collective of classical musicians and the best guest artists anywhere.
But what gives me the greatest charge of excitement is seeing young people witness--and be captivated by--the expressive capacity demonstrated by our musicians.
Such was the case at the June 5 culminating performance to our Silk Road season.
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Submitted by Jim Hirsch on Wed, 06/20/2007 - 11:18am.
Jim Hirsch is on vacation. Today's guest blogger is Chicago Sinfonietta clarinetist Dileep Gangolli.
An emerging genre in classical music - classical crossover - has captured a great deal of attention recently. And for good reason.
The statistics are some of the most compelling in the entire music 
industry according to the respected polling firm A.C. Nielsen.
Classical crossover album sales (yes, consumers still buy CDs!) were up 22.5% while popular genres were down including rap (down 20.7%) and R&B (down 18.4%).
Did someone say classical music is dead?
So what is classical crossover and why am I, a musician in the Chicago Sinfonietta, writing about it here on Jim's blog?
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I thought you might like to know that I have recently had two choral compositions published by Hinshaw Music, our longtime partner in the sheet-music publishing world. Being the director of Chicago a cappella has inspired me to compose and/or arrange tunes for the ensemble. I've probably written or arranged about 50 pieces in all. A few more are on the drawing board.
Both pieces are labeled for "medium-to-advance adult choir." The first is called "The Fall," which I wrote on a poem by Russell Edson when commissioned by longtime fan Carolyn Sacksteder for Chicago a cappella's 10th anniversary. The second piece is called "A Tickle," which I wrote for the church choir at Unity Temple in Oak Park and then had CAC perform with the Madrigal ensemble from the Chicago Children's Choir.
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Amy Iwano. I was on a Southwest Airlines flight the other day, off to attend to some family business in Ohio before the Grant Park Music Festival is scheduled to swing into action later this week. Leafing through Spirit Magazine, the Southwest Publication designed to keep our minds off turbulence and on happy, interesting thoughts, I happened upon an article featuring the Chicago Chamber Musicians’ own Amy Iwano.
The subtitle reads, “A musician (and mother) picks the best classical albums for kids.” Since Amy is an expert on chamber music AND kids, I urge you to pick up a copy this month to see what she has to say. If you don’t have access to a Southwest flight this month, check out the article online by clicking here. Go Amy.
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I guess I shouldn’t be offended. Someone named Nunpuncher posted a strange and funny blog on Tiny Mix Tapes NEWS about The Decemberists upcoming orchestral tour, one concert which is here at Millennium Park with the Grant Park Orchestra. It seems that Mr. or Ms. Nunpuncher thinks the band’s orchestral tour is a serious problem, and worse, next they’ll be abusing cocaine. 
The blog blends genuine criticism with tongue and cheek humor, and actually is fun to read, but really, explain WHY you think concerts with orchestras are insanity. You even had to whisper the word “orchestra”, it seemed so offensive.
And lastly, I know it must be a generational thing, but really, the name Nunpuncher? As a product of 12 years of Catholic education, I’d never say or do it! Sisters, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
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Callbacks are second-round auditions. At Chicago a cappella, they have one primary aim: to make sure that a singer will blend well with the other people in his/her section.
This is harder than it may seem at first glance. True, our first round weeds out most people. However, even a singer with the right "chops" for the ensemble may not have a voice that blends particularly well with the other person in the section.
One cannot predict with much accuracy (at least I cannot) how well a given pair of voices will blend. I realize--well, I really should say, I have learned primarily by hard knocks--that two-to-a-part is the very hardest sort of blend in the world. Wishing has nothing to do it; the ears don't lie!
So last Wednesday we had auditions for the two finalists who emerged from first-round auditions.
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