The Chicago Sinfonietta and Music Director Mei-Ann Chen will spotlight music influenced by architecture of their home city with ChiScape, a newly commissioned work by composers Armando Bayalo, Vivian Fund, Jonathan Bailey Holland, and Chris Rogerson. The new work will be performed on June 8 at Wentz Concert Hall in Naperville and June 9 at the Symphony Center in Chicago; it is curated by Jennifer Higdon, with each composer responsible for one movement of the work. Bayalo’s first movement focuses on the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, designed by Renzo Piano and opened in 2009; for the second movement, Fung chose Aqua, the 82-story wavy tower designed by Jeanne Gang and completed in 2009; Holland’s movement features Crown Hall, designed by Mies van der Rohe and built in the 1950s; and for the final movement Rogerson has used Frank Gehry’s Pritzker Pavilion, completed in 2004 and home to summer performances by the Grant Park Music Festival and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, among others. The same Sinfonietta “City-Scapes” program will also feature Johann Strauss Jr.’s Tales from the Vienna Woods; Michael Daugherty’s “Red Cape Tango” from Metropolis Symphony; Jennifer Higdon’s City Scape: river sings a song to trees; and Duke Ellington’s “Harlem.” The Sinfonietta’s digital guide to “City-Scapes” can be accessed here.
Posted June 4, 2013
