Chicago Philharmonic Announces 2022-23 Season

Chicago Philharmonic has announced its 22/23 Symphonic Season on the heels of a thrilling 21/22 Season, ending with the sold-out Chicago Premiere of Marvel Studios' Black Panther in Concert. The season, which was created by the organization's musician-led Artistic Committee, is the most diverse season in Chicago Philharmonic's three decades of music making.

"Our Artistic Committee, composed of several of our creative musicians, our composers in residence, Terell Johnson and myself, came together to create a season unlike anything else happening in Chicago right now. The outcome is extremely exciting," said Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Scott Speck. "We're going to introduce a lot of people to music they've never experienced live, and I can't wait."

"While this is my second season with Chicago Philharmonic, it will be the first season I helped plan with the Artistic Committee," said Executive Director Terell Johnson. "There are so many elements coming together in each concert: our incredible roster of nearly 250 musician members, guest artists from around the world, and our three immensely talented Donna Milanovich Composers in Residence. I'm so excited to see it all come together on the stage."

The season begins October 8 with an orchestral performance of the beloved film Ghostbusters in Concert. Maestro Peter Bernstein will lead the orchestra in Elmer Bernstein's beloved score, as the full movie plays on stage at the historic Auditorium Theatre.

"Movie scores are a great way to bring fine orchestral music to new audiences - people love the symphonic music from their favorite movies, and many may not know they're classical music fans in the making!" said Speck. Chicago Philharmonic's recent increase in film concerts has brought thousands of new patrons to classical music. Summer film concerts with Chicago Philharmonic include Marvel Studios' Black Panther in Concert on Juneteenth weekend, as well as Ravinia's Lion King (2019) and The Goonies in Concert in June and July 2022.

Then on October 13, Chicago Philharmonic and Maestro Speck return to the Harris Theater for Music and Dance for a concert featuring groundbreaking American composer William Grant Still's Symphony No. 1, dubbed the Afro-American Symphony. Also featured are Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4, weaving together Bach's counterpoint and Brazilian folk music; Arturo Márquez's racing Danzón No. 2, an homage to the music and dance style that began in Cuba and later took root in the Veracruz region on Mexico; and Florence Price's folk-tinged Ethiopia's Shadow in America. Donna Milanovich Composer in Residence Jonathan Bingham will join the orchestra for a second World Premiere after his 2021 premiere Tautology.

On January 14, Chicago Philharmonic rings in the Chinese Lunar New Year with a concert celebrating the work of Academy and Grammy Award winning Chinese-American composer Tan Dun at the Harris Theater. Multi-Grammy Award winner Sharon Isbin will perform the American Premiere of Dun's Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra (Yi2), which draws inspiration from Spanish Flamenco and an ancient Chinese flute called the Pipa. Then, Dun's Crouching Tiger Cello Suite weaves music from the soundtrack of the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with solo cello performed by charismatic Joshua Roman, joining Chinese percussion, and orchestra. Plus, Donna Milanovich Composer in Residence Reinaldo Moya presents a World Premiere cello concertino.

On February 4, Chicago Philharmonic and Maestro Speck return to the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts with Songs of a Wayfarer, featuring the titular Lieder by Gustav Mahler. Mezzo soprano Susan Platts, who has enjoyed an impressive worldwide career and is most esteemed for her interpretations of Mahler's work, will perform Songs of a Wayfarer. Also featured is living composer Libby Larsen's Deep Summer Music, offering a beautiful slice of Americana; and Robert Schumann's Symphony No. 3, one of the composer's final bursts of euphoric, creative energy.

On Valentine's Day, February 14, Chicago Philharmonic and Maestro Speck perform Eight Seasons at the Harris Theater with Chee-Yun Kim, widely regarded as one of the world's most talented living violin soloists. The orchestra will offset movements of Antonio Vivaldi's beloved Le Quattro stagioni (The Four Seasons) with Astor Piazzolla's The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.

The season finishes on April 14 at the Harris Theater with award-winning multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Kishi Bashi's Improvisations on EO9066. The piece explores Executive Order 9066, which saw the incarceration of thousands of innocent Japanese Americans during the Second World War. This immersive, multimedia experience with Kishi Bashi and the full Chicago Philharmonic features photography by Dorothea Lange and the filmmaking expertise of Director JJ Gerber. Kishi Bashi's work has been described as "an uplifting documentary about a musician, but also about sympathy, compassion, and basic humanity" (Screen Zealots).

Tickets

Tickets start at $25, with discounted options for students. In lieu of a subscription program, all tickets will be 20% off from June 18 through July 15. Tickets can be purchased at chicagophilharmonic.org, or by calling the following box office numbers:

Auditorium Theatre: 312-341-2300, M-F 12pm-5pm
Harris Theater for Music and Dance: 312-334-7777, M-F 12pm-5pm
North Shore Center for the Performing Arts: 847-673-6300, T-S 11am-5pm

ABOUT THE CHICAGO PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY

The Chicago Philharmonic Society is a collaboration of nearly 250 of the highest-level classical musicians performing in the Chicago metropolitan area. Governed under a groundbreaking structure of musician leadership, the Society presents concerts at venues throughout the Chicago area that cover the full spectrum of symphonic music. The Society's orchestra, known simply as the Chicago Philharmonic, has been called one of the country's finest symphonic orchestras, and its unique chamber music ensembles, which perform as Chicago Phil Chamber, draw from its vast pool of versatile musicians. The Society's community engagement programs connect Chicago-area youth to classical music by providing access to symphonic concerts, mentorship from Chicago Philharmonic musicians, and performance opportunities. Founded 32 years ago, the Chicago Philharmonic is known for providing symphonic support to international and national touring companies in all music genres and served as the official orchestra of the Joffrey Ballet for eight years. The Chicago Philharmonic also continues its nearly 30-year association with Ravinia Festival, is a resident company of the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, and performs at all the great concert halls of the Chicago and North Shore area, including Auditorium Theatre and Symphony Center. The Illinois Council of Orchestras has awarded the Chicago Philharmonic "Orchestra of the Year'' (2018), "Programming of the Year" (2019), "Community Relations of the Year" (2019), "Executive Director of the Year" (2020), and "Conductor of the Year" (2021). More information can be found at chicagophilharmonic.org.

ABOUT ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AND PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR SCOTT SPECK

Scott Speck, Illinois Council of Orchestras' 2021 Conductor of the Year, was named Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Chicago Philharmonic in June of 2013 and has been Music Director of the Joffrey Ballet since 2010. His concerts with the Moscow RTV Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky Hall garnered unanimous praise. His gala performances with Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Renée Fleming, Joshua Bell, Midori, Evelyn Glennie, and Olga Kern have highlighted his recent and current seasons as Music Director of the Mobile Symphony. This season he also collaborates intensively with Carnegie Hall for the tenth time as Music Director of the West Michigan Symphony. He was invited to the White House as former Music Director of the Washington Ballet.

In past seasons Scott Speck has conducted at New York's Lincoln Center, London's Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, the Paris Opera, Chicago's Symphony Center, Washington's Kennedy Center, San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House, and the Los Angeles Music Center. He has led numerous performances with the great symphony orchestras around the world. He is also the co-author of three of the world's bestselling books on classical music for a popular audience, Classical Music for Dummies, Opera for Dummies and Ballet for Dummies, and Ballet for Dummies. These books have been translated into twenty languages and are available around the world. Scott Speck has been a regular commentator on National Public Radio, the BBC, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and Voice of Russia, broadcast throughout the world. He has been featured in TED talks and at the Aspen Ideas Festival. His writing has been featured in numerous magazines and journals. Scott Speck can be reached at scottspeck.org, on Twitter and Instagram @ScottSpeckMusic, and at facebook.com/ScottSpeckMusic.

ABOUT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TERELL JOHNSON

Terell Johnson is a musician, national arts leader, and Executive Director of The Chicago Philharmonic Society. He is the former Director of Business Development and Director of Community Engagement at the New World Symphony. During his time at New World Symphony he was nominated to serve as the chair of Governance and Steering for the New World Symphony's Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging committee. Before joining NWS in 2015, he maintained a rigorous schedule serving as Marketing Manager of the Northshore Concert Band; recruiter for the Chicago High School for the Arts; and freelancer in the Chicago area. He is a native of Cape Coral, Florida and holds a master of music degree in clarinet performance from Florida State University and bachelor of music from University of Central Florida. He is a member of Sphinx LEAD (Leaders in Excellence, Arts & Diversity), a two-year leadership program designed to evolve the industry landscape by empowering the next generation of executive leaders. Terell's current interests include wrangling his two- and five-year-old boys, enjoying his wife's creative culinary exploits, and music composition.

ABOUT THE DONNA MILANOVICH COMPOSER IN RESIDENCE PROGRAM

In 2021, The Chicago Philharmonic Society's Artistic Programming and Policies Committee chose three composers for the orchestra's first-ever Composer in Residence program. The program began as part of an ongoing effort to champion the voices and talents of artists of color, providing a launching platform for talented composers embarking on the next stage of their careers. Out of a strong competition group, three winning composers emerged: Jonathan Bingham, an orchestras and film composer with composition degrees from Howard University and New York University; Reinaldo Moya, Assistant Professor of Composition at Augsburg University in Minneapolis; and Marcus Norris, a UCLA PhD candidate with strong Chicago connections, having received his Bachelor of Music in Composition at Columbia College, Chicago.

In the first year of this three-year program, each of the three Composers in Residence presented a piece as part of Chicago Philharmonic's symphonic season. Marcus Norris presented Glory, a programmatic violin showcase played by Njioma Grevious, in October 2021. Later in the season, Jonathan Bingham presented the World Premiere of Tautology, which inspired Chicago Classical Review to call Bingham a "young American composer worth watching." In March 2022, Reinaldo Moya shared the World Premiere of Polo Romanesco in a concert with an American Premiere by Grammy and Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Higdon. Each of these incredible composers will be featured again in Chicago Philharmonic's 22/23 Season.

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