June 2023
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
GRANT COMMUNICATIONS
Massachusetts - New York

Classical Music Chicago
offers free summer concerts both afternoons and evenings
with two celebrated concert series
 
June 2023 features 7 series premieres, 8 programs ranging
from the sublime to the adventurous, and 23 acclaimed musicians
June 6 - Lei Hou and Matous Michal, violins; Larry Neuman, viola; Karen Basrak, cello; Victor Asuncion, piano; June 13 - violinist Janet Sung and pianist Marta Aznavoorian; June 7 -soprano and pianist Chelsea Guo; June 14 - pianist Diego Caetano; June 21 - soprano Olivia Boen, soprano and Shannon McGinnis, piano; June 20 - clarinetist Susan Warner; oboist Scott Hostetler, violinist
Yuan-Qing Yu; violist Diane Mues; Rob Kassinger, bass

Classical Music Chicago presents eight free concerts at the city’s St. James Cathedral and Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago this June. Four evening Rush Hour Concerts and four afternoon Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts kick off summer in true musical fashion. Top musicians from Chicago and beyond perform works both familiar and new on these two renowned series.
 
Rush Hour Concerts presents violinists Lei Hou and Matous Michal, violist Larry Neuman, cellist Karen Basrak, and pianist Victor Asuncionin the opening concert of the series with two piano quintet premieres by Coleridge-Taylor and Dvorak. Violinist Janet Sung and pianist Marta Aznavoorian offer sonata series premieries by Debussy and Ravel, and oboist Scott Hostetler, clarinetist Susan Warner, violinist Yuan-Qing Yu, violist Diane Mues, and bass Rob Kassinger bring back the circus with two series premieres by Soupenetsky and Prokofiev. The last Rush Hour series premiere for June presents a program that will feature the Lynx Project, commissioned music by composers that features the words of autistic youth, performed by mezzo-soprano Hailey Cohen, baritone Nicholas Ward, clarinetist Michael Tran, cellist, Kimberly Jeong, and pianist Florence Mak.
 
The Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series likewise offers exciting works. Soprano and pianist Chelsea Guo start the summer with an all-Schuman program - works by both Robert and Clara. Pianist Diego Caetano offers a taste of the world with works by Spanish, French, and Brazilian composers. Soprano Olivia Boen and pianist Shannon McGinnis present lieder by Lang, Britten and Respighi. Clarinetist Zachary Good and pianist Daniel Schlosberg's performance offers a bit of everything, including Baroque works to a piece by the only female member of Les Six, Germaine Tailleferre, and a work by jazz musician Eric Dolphy.
 
Both series are livestreamed - by Classical Music Chicago itself, and excerpted performances are regularly broadcast on 98.7 WFMT radio, with whom CMC has enjoyed a relationship for almost 50 years.
June 28 - clarinetist Zachary Good and pianist Daniel Schlosberg; June 27 - poets Sofia Ghassaei, Amelia Bell; composer Shane Scott Cook, Matthew Recio; clalrinetist Michael Tran; poet Michael McGrath; mezzo-soprano Hailey Cohen; poet Parker Scheu; composer Corinne Klein; baritone Nicholas Ward; cellist Kimberly Jeong; pianist Florence Mak; poet Carlos Schaut; composer Eugenia Cheng

Rush Hour Concerts
Tuesdays from 5:45 - 6:30 pm
St. James Cathedral – 65 E Huron Street, Chicago

Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts
Wednesdays from 12:15 - 1:00 pm
Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago - 55 E. Wacker Drive

All Tickets: Free

 June 6, 2023 - RUSH HOUR CONCERTS SERIES
Season Opener: A Night of Firsts
Lei Hou and Matous Michal, violins
Larry Neuman, viola
Karen Basrak, cello
Victor Asuncion, piano
Samuel COLERIDGE-TAYLOR Piano Quintet, Op. 1 (RHC Premiere)
Antonin DVORAK Piano Quintet No. 1, Op. 5 (RHC Premiere)

June 7, 2023 - DAME MYRA HESS MEMORIAL CONCERT SERIES
Chelsea Guo, soprano and piano
Robert SCHUMANN Selections from Kinderszenen, Op. 15
Robert SCHUMANN Selections from Frauenliebe und Leben, Op. 42
Clara SCHUMANN Selections from Lieder, Op. 12 and 13
Robert SCHUMANN Romance Op. 28, No. 2

 June 13, 2023 - RUSH HOUR CONCERTS SERIES
Master Performers: Janet Sung and Marta Aznavoorian
Claude DEBUSSY Sonata for Violin and Piano (RHC Premiere)
Clara SCHUMANN Three Roman ces, Op. 22
Maurice RAVEL Sonata No. 2 in G for Violin and Piano (RHC Premiere)

June 14, 2023 - DAME MYRA HESS MEMORIAL CONCERT SERIES
Diego Caetano, piano
Antón GARCIA-ABRIL Preludio de Mirambel No. 1
Cécile CHAMINADE Arabesque, Op.61 
Camargo GUARNIERI Canção Sertaneja
Francis POULENC Les soirées de Nazelles
Préambule. Extrêmement animé et décidé
Variations: I - VIII, Cadence Final
This concert is dedicated to the loving memory of Helen S. Gore and is generously sponsored by the Gore Family Memorial Foundation Trust.
 
 June 20, 2023 - RUSH HOUR CONCERTS SERIES
A Little Circus Music
Scott Hostetler, oboe
Susan Warner, clarinet
Yuan-Qing Yu, violin
Diane Mues, viola
Rob Kassinger, bass
Kat SOUPENETSKY Wandering Through Night (RHC Premiere)
Sergei PROKOFIEV Quintet, Op. 39 (RHC Premiere)

  June 21, 2023 - DAME MYRA HESS MEMORIAL CONCERT SERIES
Olivia Boen, soprano and Shannon McGinnis, piano
Josephine LANG Lieder
I. Schon wieder bin ich fortgerissen, Op. 38/39
II. Herbstgefühl
III. Auf dem See in Tausend Sterne, Op. 14
IV. Sie liebt mich, Op. 33/34
Benjamin BRITTEN On This Island, Op. 11
I. Let the florid music praise!
II. Now the leaves are falling fast
III. Seascape
IV. Nocturne
V. As it is, plenty
Ottorino RESPIGHI Lieder
I. Notturno
II. Invito alla danza
III. L’ultima ebbrezza

June 27, 2023 - RUSH HOUR CONCERTS SERIES
Lynx Project
Hailey Cohen, mezzo-soprano
Nicholas Ward, baritone
Michael Tran, clarinet
Kimberly Jeong, cello
Florence Mak, piano
Program to include music by composers commissioned to set
the words of autistic youth to song. (RHC Premiere)

 June 28, 2023 - DAME MYRA HESS MEMORIAL CONCERT SERIES
Zachary Good, clarinet and Daniel Schlosberg, piano
arranged by Zachary GOOD Suite of Baroque Preludes
François COUPERIN Prelude No. 1 from L’art de toucher le clavecin
Gaspard Le ROUX Prelude from Harpsichord Suite No. 5
Élisabeth de La GUERRE Prelude from Harpsichord Suite No. 3
Henri RABAUD Solo de Concours
Germaine TAILLEFERRE Arabesque
Camille SAINT-SAËNS Clarinet Sonata, Op.167
Eric DOLPHY God Bless the Child

About Classical Music Chicago
Since 1976, Classical Music Chicago (CMC) has offered a variety of unforgettable classical music performances by up-and-coming and established artists throughout the Chicago community. A celebrated innovator from the very beginning and one of the first to focus on the importance of accessibility, presenting engaging concerts in various formats and venues free of charge, CMC is the 2016 union of two distinguished Chicago music institutions: the International Music Foundation (IMF), founded by Chicagoan Al Booth in 1977, and Rush Hour Concerts (RHC) founded by pianist and civic leader Deborah Sobol in 2000. Over the next few seasons, CMC will celebrate landmark anniversaries of each of its acclaimed series, beginning with the year-long 25th anniversary of the Rush Hour Concerts in 2024-2025, the 50th Anniversary of the Do-It-Yourself Messiah concert in 2025, and the 50th anniversary of the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts in fall 2026.
 
IMF, composed of the Do-It-Yourself Messiah at Orchestra Hall, begun in 1976, and the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts, begun in 1977 and modeled on the series launched by Dame Myra Hess during World War II, to provide young artists with a performance outlet and present top caliber concerts free to the public. Such acclaimed musicians as sopranos Elizabeth Frutal, June Anderson and Jo Ann Pickens; baritone Richard Cowan; oboist Alex Klein; guitarists Eliot Fisk and Paul Henry; violinists Rachel Barton Pine, Jennifer Frautschi, Jennifer Koh, Robyn Bollinger, and Tessa Lark; cellists Steven Isserlis, Nathanel Rosen, Jeffrey Solow and Bion Tsang; pianists David Shrader, Jeffrey Kahane, Angela Hewitt, Barry Douglas, Daniel Trifonov, and Max Levinson; and ensembles including the Vermeer Quartet, the Chicago Bassoon Quartet, His Majesties Clerkes, the Ensō String Quartet, and Orchestra Sinfonica Haydn di Bolzano e Trentoto, to name a few, have graced the Hess stage. In 1982, Live Music Now! - currently Young People’s Concerts - was founded by Booth with the assistance of his friend Yehudi Menuhin to bring professional musicians into the Chicago Public Schools. Students in grades K – 8 experience live performances, which have grown to reach more than 90 Chicago Public Schools annually.

Rush Hour Concerts, begun in 2000 as a welcoming summer concert format that removed accessibility barriers, in 2011 introduced Make Music Chicago, a citywide, daylong celebration of music making held on the summer solstice. It was followed by the addition of a professional ensemble residency program in Chicago’s neighborhoods in 2012. The 2023 Rush Hour Concerts at the beautiful St. James Cathedral begin in June.

The latest addition to Classical Music Chicago’s roster of offerings is The Concerts for Well-being and Rejuvenation, bringing the healing power of music to people and places who do not have access to live performances. CMC partners onsite with health care facilities, community centers, meals programs and other organizations where music can make a vital difference. promoting community, creative interaction and therapeutic benefits through 45-minute interactive performances followed by a Q & A with the artists.
Press Contact:
Laura Grant
Grant Communications
917.359.7319