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Tickets: (773) 702-8068

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESENTS HONORS FRENCH COMPOSER OLIVIER MESSIAEN IN TEN-DAY FESTIVAL, OCTOBER 2–11, 2008

Chicago, Feb. 14, 2008 – The University of Chicago Presents (UCP), the University’s professional music presenting organization, will join the tradition of Chicago cultural festivals by hosting its very own in honor of influential French composer Olivier Messiaen, October 2–11, 2008. The celebration, sparked by the 100th anniversary of his birth, represents the organization’s first-ever festival and will take place at locations on the campus of the University of Chicago and downtown. Included among the lineup are performances, lectures, master classes and symposia dedicated to showcasing Messiaen’s life, inspirations, national pride and legacy.

Artists including Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Cho-Liang Lin, Dame Gillian Weir, Gary Hoffmann, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Christopher Taylor will join to celebrate the composer, organist and ornithologist who once said of himself, “I give birdsongs to those who dwell in cities and have never heard them.” As such, Chicago will be in for quite a ride.

Born in Avignon, France, Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992) developed a musical language uniquely his own early in his career, drawing rhythmic inspiration from ancient Greek and Hindu sources while creating his own harmonic and melodic ideas. Thematically, Messiaen is just as closely associated with nature and birdsong as he is with his strong Catholic faith, both ideas that feature prominently in his creative output. Frequently referred to as a composer outside the traditional Western musical tradition, Messiaen’s innovations and teachings gave wings to a new generation of composers, including Pierre Boulez, George Benjamin and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

One of the largest Messiaen centenary celebrations in the U.S. dedicated to Messiaen during the 2008/09 season, the festival will represent a wide range of his music, running the gamut from solo piano and organ music, song cycles, and chamber and orchestral works. Pieces by his instructors, contemporaries and those he influenced will also appear interspersed throughout the 11 concerts. Prior to each performance, leading musicologists and Messiaen scholars, as well as scholars from the University of Chicago’s Divinity School and English Department, will give presentations related to the music and its connection to Messiaen’s life.

“In programming my first season here, I wanted to share Messiaen’s fascinating life and music with the community,” said UCP executive director Shauna Quill, who has been working on the details of the festival since her arrival in Chicago one year ago. “Messiaen was very inspirational in my own musical development, and his remarkable story is so informed by the time in which he lived and the experiences he had. Here at the University of Chicago, we have such a unique opportunity to honor his legacy by showcasing some of the city’s best performers along with some of today’s most respected scholars.”

Appearing on the festival are six of the University’s acclaimed ensembles-in-residence: The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Pacifica Quartet, Contempo (the new music collective), eighth blackbird, the New Budapest Orpheum Society, and the Rockefeller Chapel Choir. Renowned soloists also scheduled to perform include violinist Cho-Liang Lin, cellist Gary Hoffman, pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Peter Hill, and Christopher Taylor, sopranos Tony Arnold and Marjorie Owens, and clarinetist John Bruce Yeh.

Organist and Messiaen specialist Dame Gillian Weir will officially kick off the celebration with a recital on Rockefeller Chapel’s newly restored E.M. Skinner organ. Renowned pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard will bring his Messiaen expertise to Mandel Hall, as he makes his Chicago conducting debut with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Also among the festival highlights, Contempo, the University’s ensemble dedicated to the performance of contemporary music, will present the world premiere of University professor and former Messiaen student Marta Ptaszynska’s piece, Trois visions de l’arcen-ciel, commissioned specifically for the festival.

The Messiaen Festival, drawing upon a number of local resources, will bring its events to six different venues throughout the city’s Hyde Park and downtown neighborhoods. Included among the performances, flutist Alain Daboncourt and pianist Lei Wang will present a concert at the Alliance Française de Chicago preceded by a lecture from author/pianist Peter Hill. At the beautiful Ganz Hall of Roosevelt University, Christopher Taylor will perform one of Messiaen’s most revered piano works, the mammoth Vingt regards sur l’enfant
Jésus. Other appearances will occur on the University campus at Mandel Hall, Rockefeller Chapel, Fulton Recital Hall.

Beyond its importance as an interdisciplinary cultural offering for the City of Chicago, the festival continues the tradition of a strong arts community that has flourished at the University of Chicago. Throughout its past, the University has fostered the creative talents of such groundbreaking artists as Philip Glass, Mike Nichols and Susan Sontag. “The University has a rich history of arts programming dating back more than a century,” said associate professor Larry Norman, who has recently been appointed the University’s deputy provost for the arts. “The Messiaen celebration is the next big step toward making Chicago and Hyde Park a nationally renowned center for innovative musical performance.” In this same spirit of cultural and academic collaboration, the University’s Franke Institute for the Humanities will play host to a very special symposium featuring presentations by former Messiaen students and scholars from around the world.

Founded in 1943, the University of Chicago Presents remains one of Chicago’s oldest and most distinguished concert series, charged with the goal of bringing world-renowned artists and educational programs to the city. Recently heralded by the Chicago Tribune as “a model of what a classical concert series should be,” UCP has introduced Chicago audiences to such musical legends as Igor Stravinsky, violinists Isaac Stern and Hilary Hahn, soprano Cecilia Bartoli and pianist Piotr Anderszewski.

The University of Chicago Presents’ partners in its 2008 Messiaen Festival include the Consulate General of France, Alliance Française de Chicago, Rockefeller Chapel, Roosevelt University, the Franke Institute for the Humanities, as well as the University of Chicago’s Department of Music and the Division of the Humanities.

Tickets for the 2008 Messiaen Festival go on sale April 15. Single ticket prices vary per event, although a series pass for $150—a savings of 30 percent off regulat ticket price—admits the purchaser to all events, including lectures and symposia. An “Opening Weekend” pass, good for all events October 2–5, can also be purchased for $100. Tickets can be purchased by calling the University of Chicago Presents Concert Office at (773) 702-8080, or by visiting 5720 S. Woodlawn Avenue. For more information see the UCP’s Messiaen Festival site at chicagopresents.uchicago.edu/messiaen.

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2008 MESSIAEN FESTIVAL IN DETAIL

Program I: Dame Gillian Weir, organ
Thursday, October 2, 2008, 7:30 p.m.
Rockefeller Memorial Chapel
Pre-concert lecture: Robert Fallon, PhD

Performing on the newly restored E. M. Skinner organ (one of the four great Skinner “University organs”), Dame Gillian Weir’s program will include Messiaen’s Messe de la Pentecote, interspersed with movements by J. S. Bach and Couperin, which comment on the same liturgical ideas. Also included are Liszt’s St. Francis Walking on the Waves and Toccatas by Peeters, Slonimsky, Musehl and Lanquetuit. Dame Gillian, whose dynamic performances have been praised by critics around the world, has been called “staggeringly brilliant” and “a living legend.”

Program II:
The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, conductor/piano
Friday, October 3, 2008, 7:30 p.m.
Mandel Hall
Pre-concert conversation: Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Gerard McBurney

Ives: The Unanswered Question
Messiaen: Oiseaux exotiques
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, op. 58

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, newly appointed SPCO Artistic Partner, will bring his expertise to Mandel Hall for the first time. The SPCO, kicking off its second three-year residency at the University, will present a program featuring one of the cornerstones of Messiaen’s repertoire, Oiseaux exotiques. The second half of the program takes a cue from Messiaen’s life, closing with a piece Messiaen himself toured with in Europe during the 1950s.

Program III: Contempo: Spheres of Influence
Featuring members of eighth blackbird and the Pacifica Quartet
Cliff Colnot, conductor
Shulamit Ran, artistic director
Saturday, October 4, 2008, 7:30 p.m.
Mandel Hall
Pre-concert lecture: Marta Ptaszynska, Helen B. and Frank L. Sulzberger Professor of Music

Messiaen: Piece for Piano and String Quartet
Pierre Boulez: Derive I
Takemitsu: Ame no jumon (Rain Spell)
Gerald Levinson: Time and the Bell...
George Benjamin: Viola/Viola
Marta Ptaszynska: Trois visions de l’arcen-ciel (World Premiere)

Contempo will perform a concert featuring the works of Messiaen’s students and those inspired by his music, including compositions by Boulez, Levinson and Benjamin. Marta Ptaszynska’s piece, especially commissioned for this festival, is based on the Quartet for the End of Time plus percussion—the one change Messiaen told her he would have made to his piece had there been the opportunity in the POW camp where this piece was composed.

Program IV: Messiaen and His Contemporaries
Sunday, October 5, 2008, 3 p.m.
Mandel Hall
Pre-concert performance: New Budapest Orpheum Society
Julia Bentley, mezzo-soprano
Stewart Figa, baritone
Ilya Levinson, piano
Program to feature song cycles by Viktor Ullman

John Bruce Yeh, clarinet
Cho-Liang Lin, violin
Gary Hoffman, cello
Christopher Taylor, piano

Debussy: Premiere Rhapsody
Ravel: Duo for Violin and Cello
Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet For the End of Time)

The contributions to chamber music by Messiaen and his contemporaries are highlighted in this concert featuring three of the genre’s most renowned works, including the Quartet For the End of Time, written while Messiaen was imprisoned in a WWII POW camp. Four musical colleagues, each a successful soloist in his own right, come together in Chicago for this very special recital. The Budapest Orpheum Society will present additional works composed by Nazi-oppressed composers, including Viktor Ullman, in a special preconcert
performance.

Program V
Monday, October 6, 2008, 7:30 p.m.
Rockefeller Memorial Chapel
Thomas Weisflog, organ
Rockefeller Chapel Choir
James Kallembach, director

Program to include:
Messiaen: O sacrum convivium!

Written during the early period of his career, Messiaen’s profoundly personal and moving motet for a capella women’s voices, O sacrum convivium!, will begin this performance featuring Rockefeller Chapel’s resident organist, Thomas Weisflog, and the Rockefeller Chapel Choir.

Program VI: Inspired by Love
Tuesday, October 7, 2008, 7:30 p.m.
Fulton Recital Hall
Marjorie Owens, soprano
Simin Ganatra, violin
Sibbi Bernhardsson, violin
Amy Dissanayake, piano
Pre-concert lecture: David Bevington, Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Humanities

Messiaen:
Theme and Variations
Fantaisie
Poèmes pour Mi

No greater influence can come than from one’s loved ones. This intimate evening is dedicated to music written expressly for the ones Messiaen loved, including his son and first wife. Performing in the evening’s lineup are musicians from Chicago’s Pacifica Quartet, as well as soprano Marjorie Owens, a 2008 graduate of Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Center. Interspersed between pieces will be spoken poetry Messiaen’s mother wrote while pregnant with the composer. Professor Bevington will speak to the influence of Shakespeare throughout the arts.

Program VII: Of Color and Sound [This concert has been canceled]
Wednesday, October 8, 2008, 4 p.m.
Mandel Hall
Peter Hill, piano
Students from the University’s Department of Visual Arts (DOVA)

Messiaen: Catalogue d’oiseaux (Catalogue of Birds)

Noted scholar and pianist Peter Hill, who has recorded Messiaen’s complete solo piano catalogue, performs the extensive Catalogue of Birds. Members of the University’s Department of Visual Arts will produce films to accompany his live performance, highlighting the composer’s obsession with the mutual effects of sound and color.

Program VIII: Song of Love and Death
Thursday, October 9, 2008, 12:15 p.m.
Noontime Concert series, Fulton Recital Hall
1010 E. 59th Street, Goodspeed Hall, 4th floor,
Tony Arnold, soprano
Jacob Greenberg, piano

Messiaen: Harawi (Song of Love and Death)

Messiaen’s song cycle Harawi is his first of three works inspired by the theme of human love found in Tristan and Isolde. Highly acclaimed for the vocal artistry she brings to each performance, soprano Tony Arnold performs this work known for its demanding, extensive range and depth of emotion.

Program IX: Songs From Nature
Thursday, October 9, 2008, 6:15 p.m.
Alliance Française de Chicago
810 N. Dearborn Street, Chicago
Pre-concert lecture: Peter Hill, PhD
Alain Daboncourt, flute
Lei Wang, piano

Debussy: Prélude à l’après midi d’un faune
Messiaen: Le Merle bleu / Le Merle noir
Jolivet: Selections from Incantations

Noted scholar, professor of music and editor of The Messiaen Companion, Peter Hill discusses Messiaen’s depiction of birdsongs in the 1950s, followed by performances of works by Messiaen and other French composers who took cues from the natural environment. French flutist Alain Daboncourt, lauded for his “soaring lyricism” and “immaculate interpretation,” performs.

Program X: Religious inspiration
Friday, October 10, 2008, 7:30 p.m.
Ganz Hall, Roosevelt University
430 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago
Pre-concert lecture: to be announced
Christopher Taylor, piano

Messiaen: Vingt regards sur l’enfant Jésus (Twenty Contemplations on the Infant Jesus)

Performing this monumental work entirely from memory, MIT mathematician-turned-piano-soloist Christopher Taylor will perform Messiaen’s devoutly powerful piano work in Roosevelt University’s Ganz Hall, a cultural and architectural gem located in downtown Chicago.

Programs XI: And beyond…
Saturday, October 11, 2008, 7:30 p.m.
Mandel Hall
Artist-in-Residence Concert
Pacifica Quartet
Guests to be announced

Ravel: Introduction et allegro
Berg: Lyric Suite
Beethoven: String Quartet in A minor, op. 132

The ten-day tribute to Messiaen comes to a poignant close as Artist-in-Residence Pacifica Quartet performs works by three composers whose works resonated deeply with Messiaen. Berg’s Lyric Suite was a work in Messiaen’s possession when captured and taken to a POW camp during World War II. The version heard here is a 1970s discovery by George Perle featuring text for soprano. The concert closes with the music of Beethoven, whose harmonies and musical structure inspired and comforted Messiaen during his internment.

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2008 MESSIAEN FESTIVAL
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Widely acclaimed as a key figure in the music of our time and as a leading interpreter of the
standard piano repertoire, pianist and conductor Pierre-Laurent Aimard enjoys an internationally celebrated
career that transcends traditional boundaries. Since winning first prize in the 1973 Messiaen Competition
at the age of 18, Aimard has become known for his association with the works of the French composer.
In recent years, Aimard has recorded a solo disc of works by Ravel and Carter, as well as award-winning
interpretations of Beethoven’s complete piano concertos and Debussy’s Images and Etudes. In 2006 Musical
America magazine named him “Instrumentalist of the Year.” Last season, Aimard was named one of The
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Artistic Partners in 2007 and also served as curator of Carnegie Hall’s
Perspectives series.

Tony Arnold
Called a “phenomenal talent” by the Washington Post, soprano Tony Arnold was thrust into the international
spotlight when she became the first vocalist ever to win First Prize in the Gaudeamus International
Interpreters Competition Holland. Arnold’s recent work has focused on some of the most innovative
composers of our time, including György Ligeti, Thomas Adhs, Luciano Berio, György Kurtág, George
Crumb, Bernard Rands, Elliott Carter and Oliver Knussen. She is currently professor of voice at The State
University of New York at Buffalo.

Julia Bentley
Mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley has appeared in leading roles with opera companies throughout the world and
has been featured as a soloist with orchestras led by such conductors as Raymond Leppard, Robert Shaw
and Pierre Boulez. In Chicago she is one of the most sought-after performers of new music, although her
repertoire also crosses many stylistic and ensemble boundaries in vocal, operatic and chamber ensembles. In
addition to current performances with the New Budapest Orpheum Society, she has numerous upcoming
performances at the Harris Theater in Chicago. Bentley records on the Albany, Cedille and Tintagel labels
and has served on the voice faculty of Northern Illinois University.

Sibbi Bernhardsson
Originally from Iceland, violinist Sibbi Bernhardsson has received several awards and prizes, including
the Icelandic “Lindar” award. He appears regularly in solo recitals throughout the United States and
Scandinavia, and his concerto appearances include performances with the Iceland Symphony and the
Reykjavik Chamber Orchestra. As a member of the Icelandic String Octet and the Pacifica Quartet, he
has performed across Europe, the U.S., Asia, South America and Canada. His international television
appearances have included the MTV Awards, Saturday Night Live and the Tonight Show with Jay Leno,
appearing with the award-winning pop star Björk. Bernhardsson has served as visiting professor at the
Oberlin Conservatory, as well as a faculty member of both Northwestern University and the University of Chicago.

David Bevington
Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Humanities at the University of
Chicago, David Bevington is a professor in English language and literature and comparative literature. One
of the world’s foremost Shakespearean scholars, Bevington has written or edited more than 30 volumes
on Shakespeare and his contemporaries. His scholarship has engaged him with all aspects of medieval
and Renaissance drama. Bevington is currently the senior editor of the forthcoming Norton Anthology of
Renaissance Drama, to contain 27 plays by Shakespeare’s contemporaries, including Christopher Marlowe,
Ben Jonson and John Webster, among others. He is also the editor of Medieval Drama, Bantam Shakespeare
(in 29 paperback volumes) and The Complete Works of Shakespeare.

Cliff Colnot
In recent years Cliff Colnot has emerged as a distinguished conductor and a musician of uncommon range.
He is principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s contemporary MusicNOW series, resident
conductor of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and principal conductor of the Contemporary Chamber
Players. Colnot also conducts the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), various orchestras at
Indiana University, the Callisto Ensemble and the DePaul University Symphony Orchestra. A champion
of music education, Colnot has taught jazz arranging and advanced orchestration at DePaul University and
the University of Chicago, respectively. As a bassoonist, he was a member of the Lyric Opera Orchestra of
Chicago, Music of the Baroque and the University of Chicago Contemporary Chamber Players.

Contempo
Dedicated exclusively to the performance of contemporary classical music, Contempo, formerly known as the University of Chicago Contemporary Chamber Players, is one of the oldest and most successful professional new music groups in the nation. Over its 43-year history, Contempo has earned an enviable reputation for its outstanding performances of music by living composers and has given over 80 world premieres of works by both established and emerging composers. Contempo also dedicates itself to the performance of works by the University’s own doctoral candidates in composition, as well as countless other composers whose name recognition may not yet equal their talent. In addition to the Artists-in-Residence, Contempo often features musicians who perform regularly with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Alain Daboncourt
Flutist Alain Davoncourt was brought into contact with music at a very young age, playing the piano in his
childhood. At the age of 14, he discovered the flute while attending a flute concert in his small hometown
in France. He taught himself for four years, and after enrolling for one year in Marseille Conservatory,
he studied in Paris and Geneva. Currently residing near his native hometown of Briançon, Daboncourt
leads an active concert life, performing a widely eclectic repertoire, from Bach to Penderecki, including
recital programs and chamber music. As a soloist he regularly appears in major concert halls, including
Taipei National Concert Hall, Torino’s Teatro Alfieri, Salle Gaveau in Paris and Italy’s RAI Auditorium. His
performances have taken him to venues in the U.S., South America, Europe, India, Southeast Asia and the
Middle East. He has released 12 CDs.

Amy Dissanayake
Pianist Amy Briggs Dissanayake has established herself as a leading interpreter of the music of living
composers, while also bringing a fresh perspective to music of the past. She is a featured soloist and chamber
musician on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW series, working with such composers as Simon
Bainbridge, Pierre Boulez, Oliver Knussen, David Lang, Tania Léon, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Augusta
Read Thomas. Dissanayake’s highly acclaimed concerts combined traditional repertoire with contemporary
American music. She has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in the United States, Europe, Asia, and
Africa, with the Callisto Ensemble, the Chicago Contemporary Players, Chicago Pro Musica, the Chicago
Chamber Musicians, Klang, and the Empyrean Ensemble, and as an extra keyboardist with the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra.

eighth blackbird
Described by The New Yorker as “friendly, unpretentious, idealistic and highly skilled,” eighth blackbird
promises its ever-increasing audiences provocative and engaging performances. It is widely lauded for
its performing style—often playing from memory with virtuosic and theatrical flair—and its efforts to
make new music accessible to wide audiences. Since its founding in 1996, eighth blackbird has been active
in commissioning new works from eminent composers such as George Perle, Frederic Rzewski, Joseph
Schwantner, Paul Moravec, and Stephen Hartke. The sextet currently serves as ensemble-in-residence at the
University of Richmond in Virginia and at the University of Chicago. Among its accolades, eighth blackbird’s
recordings have received praise from critics nationwide, with the ensemble’s fourth and most recent release,
strange imaginary animals, receiving two Grammy Awards in 2008.

Robert Fallon
Specializing in the study of Olivier Messiaen and the relationship between music and nature, Robert Fallon
is assistant professor of musicology at Bowling Green State University (Ohio). He has published book
chapters in Messiaen Studies, Olivier Messiaen in Music, Art, and Literature and Jacques Maritain and the
Many Ways of Knowing, as well as articles in numerous music magazines. Currently serving as editor of the
Boston University Messiaen Project, Fallon has presented papers at the American Musicological Society (AMS), the Society for New Music, the Toni Morrison Society, New York City Opera at Lincoln Center, Montréal’s Observatoire International de la Création Musicale and Messiaen conferences in Berkeley and Sheffield. He is the 2004 recipient of the Paul A. Pisk Prize from AMS and the CMA McEwen Award.

Stewart Figa
Baritone Stewart Figa has served at West Suburban Temple Har Zion in River Forest Illinois since 1998 and
has been a cantor in the Chicago area since 1990. He comes to the New Budapest Orpheum Society from a
tradition of Yiddish theater, beginning in New York City in the 1980s. Throughout his career, Figa has had
the privilege of working with some of the legendary greats of the Yiddish stage, includinng Leon Liebgold,
Seymour Rexite, Reizel Boyzk and Max Perlman. He performs secular and sacred Jewish music throughout
the Chicago area, including appearances at the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies and with the Halevi
Choral Society.

Simin Ganatra
Simin Ganatra has won wide recognition for her performances throughout the U.S. and abroad. An active
performer, she is currently first violinist of the Pacifica Quartet. As a founding member of the award-winning
group, she regularly tours throughout the world, performing more than 75 concerts per year.
Ganatra is the recipient of several awards and prizes, including the Naumburg Chamber Music Award,
the Cleveland Quartet Award, and top prizes at the Concert Artists Guild Competition and the Coleman
Chamber Music Competition. Originally from Los Angeles, Ganatra was a recipient of the Louis Kaufman
Prize for outstanding performance in chamber music. She is currently on the faculty of University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign and is an artist in residence at University of Chicago. She is also a member of Lincoln
Center Chamber Music Society Two, performing regularly at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in New York.

Jacob Greenberg
Pianist Jacob Greenberg’s work as soloist and collaborative performer shows his far-ranging interests in music
old and new. He has worked with composers as diverse as George Crumb, Harrison Birtwistle and Tan Dun,
and frequently plays his own works in recital. Greenberg earned a doctorate in music from Northwestern
University. He has been a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) since 2001.

Peter Hill
Peter Hill, professor of music at the University of Sheffield, is regarded as one of the world’s finest
interpreters of Messiaen’s music. His book The Messiaen Companion was the first to survey Messiaen’s output
in its entirety. In collaboration with Professor Nigel Simeone, he was allowed access to the private Messiaen
Archive in Paris, drawing on a wealth of previously unexamined documents, including musical sketches,
diaries, correspondence, drafts of writings and lectures and photographs. Hill has also become known for his
important recordings of contemporary music. His complete seven-CD set of the piano music of Messiaen,
made with the composer’s guidance, received superlative acclaim when first released, described as “one of
the most impressive solo recording projects of recent years” by the New York Times. It also received the
endorsement of Messiaen himself, who wrote, “Beautiful technique, a true poet: I am a passionate admirer.”

Gary Hoffman
Originally from Vancuver, Gary Hoffman has been called “one of the outstanding cellists of our time,”
combining instrumental mastery, great beauty of sound, and a poetic sensibility in his distinctive and
memorable performances. He gained international renown upon his victory as the first North American to
win the Rostropovich International Competition in Paris in 1986. A frequent performer in major recital and
chamber music series throughout the world, Hoffman has premiered numerous concertos and collaborated
in the French premiere of Elliot Carter’s Cello Concerto. An avid teacher, he also served on the faculty at
the Indiana University School of Music for eight years, and he regularly holds master-classes worldwide.
Residing in Paris, he is an active recording artist for the BMG (RCA), Sony, EMI and Le Chant du Monde
labels. Hoffman performs on a 1662 Nicolo Amati, the “ex-Leonard Rose.”

James Kallembach
Director of choral activities at the University of Chicago, James Kallembach conducts the University Chorus,
Motet Choir and Rockefeller Chapel Choir. Prior to his appointment in 2005, he was assistant director
of choirs at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, and served as assistant director of the Richmond
Symphony Chorus and director of the Kokomo Symphony Chorus. Kallembach completed studies in
conducting with Paul Hillier, Jan Harrington, Carmen Téllez, Melinda O’Neal, and John Poole; he has also
studied composition with Sven-David Sandström, Augusta Reed Thomas, Claude Baker and Don Freund.
Also a composer, Kallembach’s works have been premiered at the 1997 ALEA III International Composition
Competition and published by Corda Music in the United Kingdom.

Ilya Levinson
Music director, arranger, and pianist Ilya Levinson composes in a variety of genres, including works for
concert stage, opera, musical theater and film. His klezmer musical, American Klezmer, recently opened
in Los Angeles at the Egyptian Arena Theatre, and his Klezmer Rhapsody was recorded by the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band on the Shanachie label. Levinson’s works have been performed in Russia by a variety
of ensembles and in Chicago by the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Contemporary Chamber Players, the
University of Chicago New Music Ensemble and Northwestern University. In 1994 he was a winner of the
Midwest Composers Competition, and in 1997 he received an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Music
Composition. Composer-in-residence with American Music Festivals, he is a lecturer in music at Columbia
College Chicago and at the University of Chicago.

Cho-Liang Lin
Since his debut at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival with David Zinman at the age of 19, Cho-Liang
Lin has appeared with virtually every major orchestra in the world and has performed with such artists as
Yo-Yo Ma, Wynton Marsalis, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas and Isaac Stern.
With more than 20 recordings to his credit ranging from the concertos of Mozart, Mendelssohn, Bruch
and Sibelius to Prokofiev and Stravinsky, Lin is a Grammy-nominated performer and a previous winner of
England’s Gramophone Record of the Year. In 1997 Lin founded the Taipei International Music Festival,
which became the largest classical music event in the history of Taiwan. He is also artistic director of La Jolla
SummerFest in California. At the age of 21, Lin was appointed to the faculty at The Juilliard School, where
his students have won top prices in international competitions and have launched their own solo careers. He
joined Rice University in Houston as professor of violin in 2006.

Gerard McBurney
Gerard McBurney is artistic programming advisor and creative director of Beyond the Score at the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra. As a musicologist he has worked in radio broadcasting since 1985, mainly for the
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), in both English and Russian. His writings have appeared in
numerous publications, and he has been the Soviet and Russian music consultant for Boosey & Hawkes
music publishers since 1991. Throughout his career, McBurney has served as a lecturer on music, English
literature and composition at various institutions. He has lectured at the Royal Academy of Music in London
since 1994 and provided occasional lectures for various musical institutions in Denmark, Russia, the UK and Uzbekistan.

The New Budapest Orpheum Society
Headed by artistic director and emcee Philip Bohlman, professor of ethnomusicology at the University of
Chicago Department of Music, the New Budapest Orpheum Society is a revival of the longest-running
Jewish cabaret in Vienna. Called “a superb Chicago ensemble” by the Chicago Tribune, the New Budapest
Orpheum Society performs music rescued from the Austrian Censor’s Office. Musicians include Julia
Bentley, mezzo-soprano; Stewart Figa, baritone; Iordanka Kissiova, violin; Ilya Levinson, piano; Stewart
Miller, bass; and Hank Tausend, percussion.

Marjorie Owens
Soprano Marjorie Owens, currently a member of Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan
Opera Center, is a graduate of Baylor University and a former student of the Houston Grand Opera Young
Artist Studio. During the 2007/08 Lyric Opera season, Owens appeared as Annina in La traviata and Berta
in The Barber of Seville. Recent awards include First Place in the Fort Worth Marguerite McCammon
Competition, as well as First Place and the Audience Choice award in the Dallas Opera Guild Career Development Grant for Singers Competition and Second Place in the Eleanor McCollum Competition
for Young Singers. Owens was also a Grand Finals winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council
Auditions. In previous seasons, she performed at the Aspen Opera Theater Center and Wolftrap. Owens
made her Lyric Opera debut as the Greek Woman in Iphigénie en Tauride.

Pacifica Quartet
Rapidly achieving international stature as one of the finest chamber ensembles, the Pacifica Quartet is
an ensemble-in-residence at the University of Chicago and the Longy School in Boston. Shortly after its
1994 formation in California, the Pacifica Quartet went to the Winnetka campus of the Music Institute of
Chicago, where it won the 1998 Naumburg prize. The quartet has since received many additional honors,
including an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2006, becoming the second string quartet in the program’s
30-year history to be so honored. Ardent advocates of contemporary music, the quartet commissions and
performs many new works and has championed the string quartets of American composer Elliott Carter. In
2004 the Pacifica Quartet was appointed to the faculty of the University of Illinois in and serves as Faculty
Quartet-in-Residence. Its members live in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.

Marta Ptaszynska
Award-winning composer Marta Ptaszynska has served as professor of music and the humanities at
the University of Chicago since 1998 and was named a Helen B. & Frank L. Sulzberger Professor in
Composition in 2005. A former student of Olivier Messiaen, her music has been performed around the
world at many international festivals, and she has received commissions from orchestras including Chicago
Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, the Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, Polish Chamber Orchestra,
Sinfonia Varsovia, the National Symphony Orchestra and the National Opera in Poland. Prior to her
position at the University of Chicago, Ptaszynska taught composition at Northwestern University, Indiana
University in Bloomington, the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, at the University of California at
Berkeley and Santa Barbara, and at the Bennington College in Vermont.

Shulamit Ran
Shulamit Ran, Andrew MacLeish Distinguished Service Professor of Music at the University of Chicago, is a
composer with special interest in the performance and study of contemporary music. She is artistic director
of Contempo (formerly the Contemporary Chamber Players) and has been on the composition staff at the
University of Chicago since 1973. Ran’s Symphony earned the 1991 Pulitzer Prize in Music and the 1992
Kennedy Center Friedheim Award. In addition to her numerous awards, fellowships, and commissions, she
has also served as composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1991–97 and the
Lyric Opera of Chicago from 1994–97. Ran is the recipient of five honorary doctorates and was elected a
Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992 and of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2003.

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Marking its 50th season in 2008, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra is the nation’s only full-time
professional chamber orchestra and is widely regarded as one of the finest chamber orchestras in the world.
In collaboration with five Artistic Partners—Roberto Abbado, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Douglas Boyd,
Nicholas McGegan and Dawn Upshaw—the 35 virtuoso musicians present more than 150 concerts and educational
programs each year, and reach over 85,500 listeners each week on 63 public radio stations. The SPCO has released 65 recordings, commissioned 110 new works, and premiered 53 additional compositions.
The SPCO has earned the distinction of 12 ASCAP awards for adventurous programming. Launched in
1995, the SPCO’s award-winning CONNECT education program reaches 6,000 students annually in 15
Minneapolis and St. Paul public schools. The SPCO is currently entering its second three-year residency at
the University of Chicago.

Christopher Taylor
The past few years have seen Christopher Taylor emerge as one of the nation’s foremost musicians. A bronze
medalist in the 1993 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, he was one of the first Gilmore Young
Artist Award winners and a 1996 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient. In recent seasons Taylor has appeared
with the nation’s top orchestras and has toured with the Polish Chamber Philharmonic. As a soloist he
has performed in such venues as New York’s Carnegie and Alice Tully halls, Washington’s Kennedy Center
for the Performing Arts, the Ravinia and Aspen festivals, and dozens of others. His first recording released
in 2000 features works by present-day American composers William Bolcom and Derek Bermel. Other
highlights include performances and lectures on the complete etudes of György Ligeti. Taylor is currently the
Paul Collins Associate Professor of Piano Performance at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Thomas Weisflog
Thomas Weisflog is the chapel organist for Rockefeller Memorial Chapel at the University of Chicago.
He made his debut with the William Ferris Chorale in 1979 performing Sowerby’s Forsaken of Man and
has been the ensemble’s official organist and accompanist since 1983. He has appeared as soloist with the
Chicago Symphony on numerous occasions, most recently in Leos Janácek’s Glagolithic Mass, under the
direction of Michael Tilson Thomas. Weisflog is in great demand as a recitalist, and his concerts have been
broadcast by National Public Radio.

Lei Wang
Pianist Lei Weng, whose performances have been hailed as “spirited and full of nuances,” has won major
national and international competitions, including the top prizes in the Isabel Scionti International Piano
Competition and the Camerata Piano Competition. As an active performer of chamber music, Weng has
performed throughout North America and Asia. He has also been invited by the prestigious Tanglewood
Music Festival as one of only three pianists to perform solo and chamber music concerts. Weng has
released two critically claimed CDs, featuring the Brahms Piano and Violin Sonata and a live recording of
Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concert No. 3. His most recent engagements include concerts at Carnegie Hall, the
Phillips Collection in Washington DC, Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood and concerts throughout China.

Dame Gillian Weir
British organist Dame Gillian Weir is one of the musical world’s foremost artists and is in demand as an
adjudicator, lecturer, broadcaster, teacher and writer. Through her career performing worldwide at the major
festivals and with leading orchestras and conductors, Dame Gillian is famous as a distinguished musician
known for her artistry, virtuosity and integrity, her reputation extending well beyond the world of the organ.
Weir’s concert repertoire includes the complete works of Messiaen, and her pre-eminent position as Messiaen
interpreter has been underlined with the critically acclaimed release of his complete organ works on compact
disc. As an international authority on his music, she has also made major contributions to Faber’s The
Messiaen Companion. Weir is a Distinguished Artist in Residence at the John Hopkins University’s Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. She also holds the International Chair in Organ at the Royal Northern
College of Music in England and is Prince Consort Professor of Organ at London’s Royal College of Music.

John Bruce Yeh
Assistant principal clarinetist for the the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, John Bruce Yeh joined the CSO
in 1977, having been appointed solo bass clarinet at the age of 19 by Sir Georg Solti. Born in Washington,
D.C., Yeh pursued premedical studies at UCLA before attending The Juilliard School of Music. He serves
as the director of Chicago Pro Musica, as well as the founding member of the Chicago Symphony Winds.
Together with composer/computer sound artist Howard Sandroff, Yeh performs as a member of the duo
“Double Dialogue.” A prizewinner and Grammy Award recipient, he has appeared as a soloist on chamber
music series and festivals worldwide. Passionately committed to music education, Yeh served for 26 years on
the clarinet faculty of DePaul University’s School of Music and joined the faculty at Roosevelt University’s
Chicago College for the Performing Arts in 2004. In addition, he is on the faculty of Midwest Young Artists
in Fort Sheridan, Illinois.

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