Classical music, jazz in fall
From CSO, Ear Taxi to Hyde Park Jazz Fest and Catalytic Sound Fest
Is it high hopes for the fall? Or just high blood pressure?
Look, we all know what we’ve been through in the past year, and arts presenters — the good ones, anyway — are doing their damndest not to be part of the problem as COVID-19 mutates its way down the Greek alphabet.
So, if you’re refreshing the calendars of your favorite venues and think they look a little lean, it’s not just you. This Top 10 list’s i’s were dotted and t’s crossed on the first week of September, when virus cases in the city hit a halfyear high; by the time it publishes, events may have been added, tweaked, postponed or pulled altogether.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. Not only are the venues below hewing to stringent masking and vaccine requirements, but I was struck anew by the philanthropic ethos of many events slated this fall, whether in subject or actual fiscal impact. Entire artistic livelihoods have been decimated, and yet musicians left and right are donating ticket proceeds to support environmental justice, sustainable development, and mutual aid efforts, to name a few. It’s as bold an assertion of one’s humanity as any, and that momentum gives me hope for the fall and beyond — or, at least, something like it.
Below, 10 performances to (tentatively) look forward to:
1. Ear Taxi Festival 2021:
Sprawling across more than 20 venues and featuring some 600 artists in the nebulae of experimental, jazz, and classical music, this year’s Ear Taxi is patently unblurbable. It culminates in five days of marathon music-making (Sept. 30 to Oct. 4), most of which will be totally free. But don’t miss the two weeks of largely artistorganized one-offs leading the festival, which include the most out-of-the-box projects of an already expansive lineup. Lead with curiosity: You never know where your ears will take you. Sept. 16 to Oct. 4 at various venues; eartaxi festival.com
2. Collaborative Works Festival: Strangers in a Strange Land: The Collaborative Arts Institute of
Chicago — the city’s prized art-song outfit — is back with an in-person festival, and it’s managed to outdo itself yet again on the programming front. This year’s festival ruminates on immigration and migration, placing dead composers in dialogue with living ones such as Mohammed Fairouz, Gabriela Lena Frank and Chen Yi. But in a classic case of “The more things change …,” when it comes to xenophobia and displacement, the sentiments depicted in the century-old pieces will feel achingly current. Oct. 7 and 9 at 7:30 p.m., Roosevelt University’s Ganz Hall, 430 S. Michigan Ave.; Oct. 8 at 7:30 p.m., Driehaus Museum, 40 E. Erie St.; caichicago.org
3. Autumn at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra: The CSO’s season kickoff doubles as a bentornato to its music director, Riccardo Muti, who last stood before the orchestra in February 2020. He leads the ensemble in a valedictory concert of Beethoven’s “Eroica” and Florence Price to kick off the season (Sept. 23 to 25), then joins forces with violinist Leonidas Kavakos for Brahms’s Violin Concerto (Sept. 30 to Oct. 2). Later, he pairs a work by outgoing composerin-residence Missy Mazzoli (“These Worlds In Us”) with Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” (Oct. 7 to
9). After that, the CSO’s people-in-residence get time to shine: Jessie Montgomery has her first curatorial outing as the new resident composer at a Nov. 1 MusicNOW concert, which includes two of her own works, and newly minted artist-in-residence Hilary Hahn plays Dvořák’s Violin Concerto (Dec. 9 to 11). Sept. 23 to Dec. 11 at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; $20-$290 at cso.org
4. Hyde Park Jazz Festival: The Hyde Park Jazz Fest is much more than a neighborhood music festival — anyone who’s been to a previous iteration can tell you that. It gets all the city’s headliners in one place, while still wielding enough gravitational pull to coax major out-of-towners such as violinist Regina Carter and saxophonist Miguel Zenón. Here, Carter links up with cellist Tomeka Reid and bassist Junius Paul for their New
String Trio (it’s what it says on the tin!) while Zenón arrives alongside Peruvian American drummer Juan Pastor and his ensemble, Chinchano. Sept. 25 to 26, various locations around Hyde Park and streamed online; hydeparkjazzfestival.squarespace.com
5. Catalytic Sound Festival: Got room for another festival? Make it so: This globe-trotting upstart is worth keeping an eye on. In its inaugural year, the Catalytic Sound Festival makes sister cities of Amsterdam, Vienna, New York, Washington, D.C., Trondheim, Norway, and Chicago, all of which will alight with the sounds of experimental music throughout October. Our installment reads like a who’s who of Chicago sound tinkerers, including violinist Macie Stewart (Ohmme), reedist Ken Vandermark, sound artist Damon Locks, cellist Katinka Kleijn, drummer Tim Daisy and free-jazz trio Kuzu. That’s nothing to say of some highly distinguished out-of-towners: A duo between saxophone luminary Joe McPhee and the San Antonio-based claire rousay — known for her achingly tender sliceof-life sound collages, here appearing as a percussionist — is not to be missed (Oct. 16 at 8 p.m.). Oct. 14 to 17 (all at 8 p.m.), Elastic Arts Foundation, 3429 W. Diversey 208; $25 single day, $60 three-day; elasticarts. org
6. Sistazz of the Nitty Gritty at Old Town School of Folk Music: From a pandemic-born
project to opening for the Sun Ra Arkestra in Central Park, this impressionistic, probing trio is headed one direction: up. Angel Bat Dawid has plenty of star power around these parts and sounds singular as ever in this configuration — plaintive clarinet, soothsaying vocals and all — but her collaborators, pianist/singer Anaiet and bassist Brooklynn Skye Scott, mold the Sistazz into something gentle as a caress and commanding as a fist. Here, they appear as part of Old Town School of Folk Music’s World Music Wednesday series. Oct.
27 at 8:30 p.m., Old Town School of Folk Music. 4545 N. Lincoln Ave. Free; www. oldtownschool.org
7. Quatuor Diotima: Music from Paris: I first heard Quatuor Diotima while they were in residence at a festival in Vienna in 2016. Their stunning Schoenberg cycle subsequently took up residency in my noggin, as well — until the University of Chicago wisely snatched up the French string quartet for the coming season. In this three-part series, Diotima plays about a hundred years’ worth of rep written in or inspired by their home turf. Pianist Meng-Chieh Liu joins them in César Franck’s Piano Quintet in F minor for the finale. Oct. 27 to 29 (all at 7:30 p.m.), Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St. $10-$30; chicagopresents.uchicago. edu
8. Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians 55th anniversary:
The venerable collective celebrated a birthday at the height of the pandemic (May 2020) making this bash at the Logan Center a belated one. But what a celebration it’ll be: The AACM’s shapeshifting Great Black Music Ensemble performs new works by the Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker, Adegoke Steve Colson and Rudresh Mahanthappa. The commissions sprung out of a two-year partnership with the American Composers Forum, also presenting the concert. Oct. 30 at 7:30 p.m., Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St. Free but tickets required, available from Oct. 1 at tickets. uchicago.edu
9. Fulcrum Point’s 23rd Annual Concert for Peace: Peace is a revolutionary thing, but if you grew up as I did, “concerts for peace” call to mind dad-rock affairs about as divorced from radicalism as my actual dad was from my mom. Fulcrum Point’s take is decidedly more profound, even on the 23rd go-round. Works memorializing the 1921 Tulsa massacre by the always trenchant Daniel Bernard Roumain and Adolphus Hailstork — whose 80th birthday was widely celebrated last season — receive their Chicago premieres, and any concert with works by Reena Esmail, Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, and hometown composer Stacy Garrop on the same bill is not to be missed. Dec. 8 at 7 p.m., 2330 N. Halsted St.; fulcrumpoint.org
10. Douglas R. Ewart: “Songs and Stories for a New Path and Paradigm”: The AACM multi-instrumentalist and SAIC professor emeritus describes his creative output as “a confluence of indivisible practices.” That’s going to be clear in this retrospective, which intermingles Ewart’s drawings, paintings, sculptures, self-made musical instruments, and more in the Experimental Sound Studio’s intimate gallery space. Its centerpiece is the eponymous audiovisual work, created in conjunction with the New Orchestra Workshop Society of Vancouver and artists from around the globe. The end result stitches together 36 totally improvised films, each inspired by the one before it like an artistic game of telephone, playing on loop throughout the space and streamable on ESS’ YouTube. If you missed the launch on Sept. 10, concerts featuring Ewart and collaborators are scheduled for the weekend of Oct. 15, with details forthcoming. Open through Dec. 12 by appointment; Experimental Sound Studio, 5925 N. Ravenswood Ave. Free with encouraged donations; ess. org
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