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 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)

Learn more here.

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

Learn more here.

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)

Learn more here.

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

Learn more here.

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)

Learn more here.

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

Learn more here.

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)

Learn more here.

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

Learn more here.

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 Enso 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.

www.classicalmusicchicago.org

Press Contact:

Laura Grant

Grant Communications

917.359.7319

Laura@grant-communications.com