“Numerous lures await folks of many musical persuasions” at this year’s Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago from June 14 to August 19, writes John von Rhein in Wednesday’s (6/7) Chicago Tribune. “Carlos Kalmar, Grant Park’s principal conductor and artistic director, has a knack for mixing standard symphonic fare with more adventuresome programming…. Grant Park Chorus director Christopher Bell … has done much to broaden the festival footprint in city parks and neighborhoods…. He’s heavily involved in Grant Park’s Festival Connect music education and community engagement program, now in its fifth season. One program component, the Project Inclusion professional development initiative, this year has awarded fellowships to four young, career-bound choral singers. These choral fellows will rehearse and perform with the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus, Bell’s Apprentice Chorale and the four string fellows who make up the Project Inclusion String Quartet. Project Inclusion, presented in partnership with the Chicago Sinfonietta, is designed to build diversity in American orchestras and, through its new vocal component, American choral organizations…. This summer’s choral fellows will take part in several main stage programs at the Pritzker and cultural centers in downtown Chicago and Lincoln Park,” including performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony, and Roberto Sierra’s Missa Latina (Pro Pace).
Posted June 8, 2017
