Chicago Philharmonic to Present FANFARE CHICAGO

The Chicago Philharmonic Society will present its third of four concerts of its 32nd Season, Fanfare Chicago on March 27, 2022 at Harris Theater for Music and Dance (205 E Randolph, Chicago). Led by Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Scott Speck, the renowned orchestra presents an American Premiere by Pulitzer Prize and three-time Grammy Award winner Jennifer Higdon, plus world premieres by Reinaldo Moya and Nicholas Hubbell, plus Ottorino Respighi's Gli uccelli and Trittico botticelliano. Single tickets ranging from $10-$75 are now available at harristheaterchicago.org, and include a red-carpet, pre-concert experience outside the Harris Theater sponsored by Continental AutoSports Ferrari, one of the oldest and most trusted Ferrari dealerships in North America.

Fanfare Chicago spotlights Jennifer Higdon, one of today's most performed living composers. Higdon's many achievements include winning a Pulitzer Prize (for her Violin Concerto, written for Hilary Hahn in 2009), and three Grammy Awards (for concertos for percussion, viola, and harp). Her Mandolin Concerto, written for and partly commissioned by Avi Avital, premiered with the Munich Philharmonic to great acclaim. Avital's performance of the concerto with Chicago Philharmonic marks the second performance of the piece worldwide, and the American Premiere.

"For me, composing a concerto is like constant discovery," Higdon has said regarding her Violin Concerto. "You're trying to find out what other concertos do, and you look at the person you are writing for, and you can kind of tailor-make it."

Also during the concert, Chicago Philharmonic's Donna Milanovich Composer in Residence Reinaldo Moya will present the world premiere of his piece Polo Romanesco inspired by the Baroque era in Latin America as it incorporates the Baroque Romanesca chord progression and its Venezuelan descendent, the popular song Polo Margariteño.

Nicholas Hubbell, winner of the 2019-2020 Chicago Philharmonic Fanfare Competition, will premiere his piece Chicago Fanfare which celebrates the beauty and vibrancy of Chicago and gives each instrument section a representation. A large panoramic photo of Chicago's cityscape at night, taken offshore from lake Michigan, served as visual inspiration as Hubbell wrote the piece.

For the safety of patrons and musicians, all audience members, musicians, and staff are required to show proof of vaccination to enter the Harris Theater. Masks will be worn by all throughout the performance.

ABOUT AVI AVITAL

The first mandolin soloist to be nominated for a classical Grammy, Avi Avital has been compared to Andres Segovia for his championship of his instrument and to Jascha Heifitz for his incredible virtuosity. Passionate and "explosively charismatic" (New York Times) in live performance, he is a driving force behind the reinvigoration of the mandolin repertory. More than 100 contemporary compositions have been written for him, 15 of them concertos including by Anna Clyne, Avner Dorman, and Giovanni Sollima.

An exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist, he has made five recordings for the label, most recently solo Bach (2019). He has also recorded for Naxos and Sony Classical. Increasingly in demand as a concerto soloist, Avital's has performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Tonhalle Zurich, Israel Philharmonic, Dresden Philharmonic, Norwegian Radio, Orpheus, The Knights, Detroit Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal under conductors such as Mehta, Nagano, Vänskä, Sado, Jonathan Cohen, McGegan, Koopman, and Antonini.

Born in Be'er Sheva in southern Israel, Avital began learning the mandolin at the age of eight and soon joined the flourishing mandolin youth orchestra founded and directed by his charismatic teacher, Russian-born violinist Simcha Nathanson. He studied at the Jerusalem Music Academy and the Conservatorio Cesare Pollini in Padua with Ugo Orlandi. Winner of Israel's prestigious Aviv Competition in 2007, Avital is the first mandolinist in the history of the competition to be so honoured. He plays on a mandolin made by Israeli luthier Arik Kerman.

ABOUT JENNIFER HIGDON

Pulitzer Prize and three-time Grammy-winner Jennifer Higdon (b. Brooklyn, NY, 1962) taught herself to play flute at the age of 15 and began formal musical studies at 18, with an even later start in composition at the age of 21. Despite these obstacles, Higdon has become a major figure in contemporary classical music. Her works represent a wide range of genres, from orchestral to chamber, to wind ensemble, as well as vocal, choral and opera. The League of American Orchestras reports that she is one of America's most frequently performed composers. Higdon's list of commissioners is extensive and includes The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Chicago Symphony, The Atlanta Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, The Minnesota Orchestra, The Pittsburgh Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, as well such groups as the Tokyo String Quartet, the Lark Quartet, Eighth Blackbird, and the President's Own Marine Band. She has also written works for such artists as baritone Thomas Hampson, pianists Yuja Wang and Gary Graffman, violinists Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Jennifer Koh and Hilary Hahn. Her first opera, Cold Mountain, won the prestigious International Opera Award for Best World Premiere in 2016; the first American opera to do so in the award's history.

Higdon received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto, with the committee citing the work as "a deeply engaging piece that combines flowing lyricism with dazzling virtuosity." She has also received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts & Letters, the Koussevitzky Foundation, the Pew Fellowship in the Arts, The Independence Foundation, the NEA, and ASCAP. In 2018, Higdon received the Eddie Medora King Award from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Higdon received a Bachelor's Degree in Music from Bowling Green State University, an Artist Diploma from The Curtis Institute of Music, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. She has been awarded honorary doctorates from the Hartt School and Bowling Green State University. In 2019, Higdon was inducted into the American Philosophical Society, the oldest learned society in the United States. Higdon currently holds the Rock Chair in Composition at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Her music is published exclusively by Lawdon Press.

ABOUT NICHOLAS HUBBELL

Nicholas Hubbell graduated from Oberlin Conservatory, studying composition with Randolph Coleman; and electronic and computer music with Gary Lee Nelson. He was involved in some of the earliest computer generated music on the now iconic IBM 360. After college, he immersed himself in the jazz fusion and experimental music scene in New York City, composing and performing on guitar.

Hubbell established Just Music, a music production house, where he produced hundreds of soundtracks for film, TV and radio. Among his many soundtracks for children, the best selling are Dr. Seuss Beginner Book Series for Random House, and the very popular Anne of Green Gables. He has also composed for number of documentaries, including: The Men Who Brought the Dawn (Documentary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), featured in The Smithsonian Museum; Pitching Man (biography of the great baseball pitcher, Satchel Page, hosted by Billy Dee Williams) featured in the Baseball Hall of Fame. His music also appears on a number of national and international networks, such as CBS, NBC, ESPN and Nickelodeon. Throughout his career, Hubbell has balanced the "commercial" side of composing with the personal side. He has composed for a wide variety of instrumental combinations that often include an electronic (fixed media) component. His work is performed around the world.

ABOUT REINALDO MOYA

Reinaldo Moya is a graduate of Venezuela's El Sistema music education system. He graduated from The Juilliard School with master's and doctorate degrees, studying with Samuel Adler and Robert Beaser. He is the recipient of the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letter, the 2015 McKnight Composers Fellowship, the Van Lier Fellowship from Meet the Composer and the Aaron Copland Award from the Copland House. He was the inaugural winner of the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Composer Award, leading to the commissioning of his Piano Concerto, which will be premiered by Joyce Yang and the Bangor Symphony Orchestra in October 2021. As the Composer-in-Residence at The Schubert Club in Minnesota from 2017-19, he was commissioned to write his chamber opera Tienda in May 2019. His opera Memory Boy, with a libretto by Mark Campbell, was commissioned by the Minnesota Opera and premiered in 2016. His violin concerto Vestida de mar has been performed by Francesca Anderegg as the soloist with the Lakes Area Music Festival Orchestra, the Greenwood Music Camp, and the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, under the batons of Gemma New, Benjamin Rous, and Delta David Gier, respectively. His orchestral piece Siempre Lunes, Siempre Marzo has been conducted by Emmanuel Siffert, Benjamin Rous, JoAnn Falletta and Carlos Miguel Prieto, respectively. In 2016, his Passacaglia for Orchestra was chosen by the audiences and the musicians of the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra as the winner of the Earshot Composers Competition sponsored by the American Composers Orchestra. a??Moya has taught at St. Olaf College and Interlochen Arts Camp, and is currently Assistant Professor of Composition at Augsburg University in Minneapolis.

To post a comment, you must register and login.