2003 January | February | June | July

2002 January | May | October | November | December

2001 January | February | March | April | May | July | August | September | October | December

2000 September | October | November

COMPOSERS’ SALON SERIES: CHORAL READING SALON
The chapter held the 3rd and final event in its 2003 Composers’ Salon Series on July 27. Paul Carey and members of Vox Caelestis choir played host for a reading session of choir music. In April, organizers Paul Carey and Stacy Garrop issued a Call for Scores to members of the ACF Chicago Chapter for this event. Works read at the Salon included: "Summers Bounty" by Robert Applebaum, "Full Fathom Five" by Brad Burrill, and "Ave Maria" by Edward Eicker.

Salons are designed to allow composers to present and discuss their music in an open forum with other composers. If you are an ACF member in the Chicago area and you would be interested in hosting or presenting at a future salon, please contact the Chicago office.

COMPOSERS’ SALON SERIES: HOME & HEART SALON
On June 22, the chapter held the 2nd event in its Composers’ Salon Series. Accomplished composers and ACF members Marguerite Clarke, James Crowley, Jaroslaw Golembiowski, and Evan Kuchar each presented one of their own pieces.

DATES CHOSEN FOR DANCE PROJECT PERFORMANCES

(FEBRUARY 2003) Last year, the chapter had requested applications from composers for residencies at 4 Chicago-area dance companies. 4 Composers were chosen by the dance companies, and now many of them are presenting their final and in-progress performances! See below:

(All Composers listed below were commissioned by the American Composers Forum and funded by The Chicago Community Trust)

Momenta Performing Arts Company presents
ACCESS DANCE!
Featuring the premiere of
"SHARING THE MOMENT"
Choreographed by: Larry Ippel
Dance Company: Momenta
Composer: Ilya Levinson
March 1st and March 8th - 8pm
March 2nd and March 9th - 7pm
Doris Humphrey Memorial Theatre
605 Lake Street, Oak Park
708-848-2329
$10/Adults, $8/Seniors, $5/Students
The work was conceived in celebration of the Doris Humphrey Memorial Theatre's new handicapped accessibility. This piece was created especially for performers from 3 families that each has a member who is disabled.

Concert Dance, Inc. at the Ruth Page Foundation presents:
"Head, Heart, & Motion - How Dances are Made"
a work-in-progress performance and discussion
choreographer: Venetia Stifler
composer: Dr. Ronald Combs
April 4th at 1:40pm
April 5th at 8:00pm
FREE!
Ruth Page Dance Theatre
1016 N. Dearborn, Chicago
312-33736543
Venetia Stifler and composers Ronald Combs will discuss the process of creating the current dance project based on poems by Emily Dickinson. The Dance Company and Composer will present what they have created so thus far. The final performance will not be until August 9th. (Part of the Ruth Page Dance Series)

Luna Negra Dance Theater:
Full Repertory Concert including
Dance and Music by
Choreographer: Eduardo Vilaro
Composer: Corbett Lunsford
April 4th & April 5th
$15 advance tickets, $20 at door
Gwendolyn Brooks Auditorium
325 S. Kenilworth
Oak Park, IL
Call 708-524-5621 for reservations or for more information

EICKER CREATES "STATE OF MIND"

(FEBRUARY 2003) Composer Edward Eicker will work with the Performing Arts New Music Ensemble at Chicago’s Roosevelt University as part of the chapter’s Community Partners Program. Eicker will lead the ensemble through two rehearsals of his "State of Mind," which the ensemble will perform in April.

NEW PROJECT AT LATHROP WILL PRODUCE BROADWAY-STYLE MUSICAL

(FEBRUARY 2003) In January, the chapter launched its first Community Partners project with the Lathrop Community Music Center. The two-year effort will produce a Broadway-style musical reflecting the diverse communities served by the center. The project is currently in its first phase, which runs through May 2003. Over this five-month period, high school and adult students at the center will work with composer and theatrical director Colby Beserra for five hours each week. The group will gather oral histories and identify musical styles that can be used to create a musical representing the area’s cultures. During the second year of the project, participants will transform those ideas into a fully realized production.

This Community Partners project is made possible through the generosity of the Polk Bros. Foundation.

VARIOUS DANCE PROJECTS MOVING ALONG

(JANUARY 2003) On November 7, the chapter sponsored a spirited roundtable discussion on the composer-choreographer relationship. Held at the office of the Ruth Page Foundation, the event brought a diverse group of choreographers together with area composers interested in writing for dance. The participants discussed, in depth, the characteristics of a successful choreographer-composer partnership. Guest choreographers included Venetia Stiffler of Concert Dance, Inc., at the Ruth Page Foundation; Ginger Farley and Richard Woodbury from the Dance Center of Columbia College; and Anna Simone Levin of Same Planet Different World Dance Company. Forum member and composer Christopher Forbes served as the evening’s moderator.

In other dance-related news, the four dance companies participating in the chapter’s 2002-03 Choreographer/Composer Residency Project announced the selection of their composers-in-residence. The four commissioned works will be professionally recorded and videotaped, publicly performed, toured, and included in their respective company’s repertoire.

Concert Dance at the Ruth Page Foundation selected composer Ronald Combs to write a song cycle to be choreographed for their concert season. Luna Negra Dance Theater chose Corbett Lunsford to write a piece dealing with loss and renewal for a solo dancer. Momenta Performing Arts Company is working with Ilya Levinson to produce a five-minute work for disabled dancers. The Dance Center of Columbia College will create a new work in collaboration with composer Ryan Ingebritsen.

SINAI GALA CELEBRATION CONCERT

(DECEMBER 2002) With generous support from the MacArthur Foundation, the Chapter has been able to organize composer residencies at Sinai Community Institute which serves the North Lawndale area of Chicago. A November 22 Gala Celebration Concert featured the musical products which, over the course of the better part of a year (and to continue through spring 2003) seven composers and various constituencies of the Sinai Community Institute have been working collaboratively to produce. Each composition is designed to enhance the message of the Institute's commitment to achieving "Total Wellness," understood as good health, and freedom from poverty, drugs and violence. Also during the evening, the videographer who has been recording this partnership from its beginning took additional footage to be ultimately included in an 8-minute video of the overall undertaking; this video will be used by the Institute at subsequent meetings and on radio, to publicize its community work.

This project is funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

CHAPTER WELCOMES SARAIYA AS NEW ASSISTANT

(NOVEMBER 2002) This month, Ami Saraiya became the Chicago Chapter’s new administrative assistant, replacing Christine Saari who has moved on to a full-time position with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. Saraiya comes to the chapter from Indiana University where she graduated with honors, earning an bachelors degree in psychology with a minor in music.

A recorded vocalist and a songwriter, Saraiya has toured regionally with a number of musical groups. She is the operations manager for Green Street Recording Company, a Chicago recording studio, and has previously worked for the Merit School of Music, IBM Global Services, and Computer Horizons Corporation.

SINAI COMMUNITY INSTITUTE PROJECT ADDRESSED ISSUES IN NORTH LAWNDALE

(OCTOBER 2002) The chapter’s Community Partners project with the Sinai Community Institute is underway. The project – which includes six composers and eight performers – addresses issues of health, wellness, and community in Chicago’s underserved North Lawndale area. Teen students have worked in the field with composers, collecting urban sound clips of sirens, gunshots, and traffic for use in their skits against violence. Other projects feature the studio recording and performance of new songs addressing youth and adult issues, the creation of a new jingle urging child immunization, and the implementation of a year-long experimental school music program. Participants will come together to celebrate their work – including the release of a CD and video documentary – in November at a gala celebration concert.

This project is funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

COMPOSER RESIDENCIES WITH FOUR AREA DANCE COMPANIES

(OCTOBER 2002) With support from the Chicago Community Trust, the chapter will be sponsoring composer residencies with four diverse Chicago-area dance companies. Composers will score original dances in collaboration with choreographers and dancers at Concert Dance, Inc., at the Ruth Page Foundation; the Dance Center of Columbia College; Luna Negra Dance Company; and Momenta Performing Arts Company. Composers will also take part in public forums, discussing the collaborative process behind the work. These residencies will also provide participating composers with increased visibility through tours, festival performances, and recitals.

COMPOSER-TO-COMPOSER GIVES MEMBERS ACCESS TO CSO'S SYMPHONY CENTER PRESENTS

(OCTOBER 2002) The chapter is pleased to announce the launch of Composer-To-Composer, a new partnership with Symphony Center Presents – the arm of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra that presents non-symphonic musical programming – and its director, Matias Tarnopolsky. Composer-To-Composer will provide chapter composers with opportunities to meet visiting CSO composers, performers, and conductors and to have personal meetings with orchestra musicians. Symphony Center Presents will list the partnership in the printed program for the 2002-03 Music Now series, and will offer chapter members discounted tickets to the concert series

NEW PROJECT UNDERWAY AT SINAI COMMUNITY INSTITUTE

(MAY 2002) At press time, the chapter was reviewing an abundance of composer applications for its large-scale collaboration with the Sinai Community Institute. The institute, located in Chicago’s inner-city Lawndale community, works to alleviate the social problems underlying the physical ailments treated at Sinai Hospital. The project, underwritten by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, will involve six composers and a project manager. The chapter will narrow down the applicants; the Sinai Community Institute will conduct interviews with finalists and select the six participating composers. The selected composers will work with the institute over a one-year period beginning this summer to further its holistic approach to community well-being.

The composers will write "wellness songs" to be performed throughout the Lawndale community. These songs will stress "total wellness" – good physical health, including freedom from drugs; good mental health and outlook; freedom from violence, including gang violence; avoidance of teen pregnancies; and avoidance of prison. Composers will also write songs to be used in a neighborhood-wide media campaign urging immunization of all children before they enter kindergarten, and will work with an educator at a local Melody Elementary School to teach children the basics of musical composition.

The program will also work with an ensemble of high school students, the P.O.W.E.R. Group, which has been using original skits to bring an anti-violence message to area elementary schools. The composers will help the ensemble use music to enhance its message.

All projects will be professionally videotaped as they develop, and the completed works will be recorded and videotaped for local radio and television broadcasts.

the MEMBERS MEETINGS series

(MAY 2002) The Chapter offered a Finale™ music notation software workshop, co-sponsored by the Chicago State University Music Department, on May 11 at the SCU Computer Lab. The event, featuring instructors/ CSU faculty member Jason Raynovich and Ryan Ingebritsen, allowed Chicago-based composers and ACF members to gain experience using Finale and other compositional software.

MACARTHER FOUNDATION SUPPORTS ACF-CHICAGO PROJECT WITH SINAI

(JANUARY 2002) The chapter received a substantial grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for a Community Partners project with Sinai Community Institute, a social service organization affiliated with Sinai Hospital in Chicago's inner-city South Lawndale neighborhood. Six composers, eight performers, and a project manager will be contracted to apply their skills to four existing SCI programs, which already implement the institute's holistic approach to community well being. The collaborations run from Nov. 2002 through June 2003 and target SCI's traditional populations – school-aged children, pregnant and parenting teens, substance-abusing parents, and adolescents at risk from violence. The artists will also be working with teachers, churches and citizen support groups that are addressing the needs of these populations. Dr. Patricia Shifferd, a sociologist with the Forum's national office, will assist the chapter with project assessment.

SUNDAYS IN THE PARK WITH MUSIC FILLS CULTURAL CENTER

(DECEMBER 2001) On Sun., Oct. 14, a near-capacity crowd filled the Indian Boundary Park Cultural Center for Piano Centerpieces. The performance was the first concert in the Sundays in the Park with Music series, co-sponsored by the chapter and the Chicago Park District. Graduate students from Chicago-area music programs performed works by Lawrence Axelrod (Chicago), Adam La Spata (Chicago), Mike McFerron (Lockport, Ill.), Janice Misurel-Mitchell (Chicago), and Marjorie Maxine Rusche (Mishawaka, Ind.). The composers, who were all on hand to introduce their works, were winners of a chapter-sponsored composition competition, open to Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin composers.

FORBES SELECTED TO CREATE DANCE-DRAMA

(OCTOBER 2001) Chicago composer Chris Forbes has been selected as composer-in-residence for The Sea Lion, a Community Partners project sponsored by the chapter, Duncan YMCA, Luna Negra Dance Company, and the University of Illinois-Chicago's Department of Performing Arts. The project will create an original dance-drama based on Ken Kesey's book of the same title, to be written, scored, choreographed, and produced at the Duncan YMCA on Chicago's West Side. In October, Forbes and choreographer Eduardo Vilaro, director of Luna Negra, will begin development of the dance-drama through a dance workshop. The workshop will include 10-15 teenage performers. Students and faculty from the Department Of Performing Arts will provide sets, costumes, and lighting. A final cast will be selected in February 2002 and performances will be held the last three weekends in May.

NEW PROJECT WITH DUNCAN YMCA ANNOUNCED

With the support of the Chicago Community Trust, the chapter will work with the Duncan YMCA and the University of Illinois-Chicago to produce two musicals – one aimed at elementary school children the other designed for high-school students. The musicals will be performed by and for communities in the Southside Chicago neighborhoods surrounding the YMCA. The YMCA has commissioned the scripts, and the chapter will contract two local composers to write the music. Faculty and students from the university's Department of Performing Arts will produce sets, lighting, and costumes.

This grant from the Chicago Community Trust will also underwrite ongoing composers' residencies at Lathrop Community Music Center and Noble Street Charter School at Northwestern University Settlement. The initial year of these residencies, which has been enthusiastically received, will come to a close with late spring premieres of new musical works, including the first-ever school song for Noble Street School.

 

The chapter is entering the fourth year of its ongoing partnership with the Jazz Institute of Chicago. This year, the partnership will focus on calling public attention to the significant role of Asian-American composers and performers in the American jazz tradition. The project will focus on and celebrate the Southside Chinese neighborhoods around by Haines Park and Ping Tom Park. Bassist Tatsu Aoki, a prolific composer and a major force in the jazz scene in Chicago, has been commissioned to write a jazz composition inspired by this Chinese community. He will meet with its elders, students, local musicians, cultural figures, business people, and local politicians to gather information on the neighborhood's history and character. Oral histories will be collected and compiled. Aoki and performers will run workshops at daycare centers, summer schools, and Park District day camps. Tatsu Aoki's composition will be premiered this August at Ping Tom Park. A second performance will be given at the Chicago Jazz Festival in early September and a third at the Chicago Asian-American Improv Festival in November.

 

The Chicago Chapter received a grant from the Chicago Community Trust to underwrite three Community Partners projects. Two projects place composers in residence with high school students – one at Noble Street School/Northwestern University Settlement and the other at Lathrop Community Music Center. Both composer residencies are continuations of current chapter projects. The third is a new project at Duncan YMCA. The chapter, the YMCA, and the University of Illinois at Chicago will collaborate to produce two original plays for the community – one for elementary school students, the other for high school students. The YMCA has undertaken the writing of the script with the help of established playwrights. The Chapter will provide a composer, and the University's Department of Performing Arts will do the sets, costumes, and other production work. The three projects reach out to youth in some of the city's most underserved neighborhoods.

The chapter's composer residency at the Lathrop Community Music Center is in full swing. Composer Howard Savage, along with the center's director, Jeannie Tanner, and its staff have been working with student composers since November. During a recent visit by Chapter Director Paula Giannini, students Dix Cardenas (20), Michael Betancourt (16), Alba Naranjo (16), and Marcus Williams (16) were all working on original works. Toward the end of April, rehearsals of student pieces will begin in earnest, with members of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago joining Lathrop's student performers. The program's final concert will take place in May.

 

GATHER THE TROOPS
The Forum Holds Annual Meeting and Chapter Conference

(JULY 2001) From July 13-16, the Humanities Education Center in St. Paul played host to the Forum's yearly Chapter Conference. Chapter Directors and National Staff used the occasion to exchange programming ideas, address the challenges of the chapter system's rapid growth, and facilitate better communication between the 10 regional chapters and the national office.

On July 14, Forum members and members of the board of directors joined conference participants for the organization's Annual Meeting. Marking the new fiscal year, the gathering began with the final meeting of the Forum's 2001 board and concluded with the 2002 board's inaugural meeting. Plenty of time was also allowed for a celebration of the past year's successes, including presentations honoring those who made them possible.

 

NEW PROJECTS AT NOBLE STREET SCHOOL AND LATHROP CENTER ANNOUNCED

(NOVEMBER 2000) The chapter has announced two new Community Partners projects:

In November, the chapter placed composer Ilya Levinson in residence at Noble Street Charter School. He is teaching composition to and composing original works for band students in this primarily Latino and African-American school. A second composer, Julia Miller, has been brought in to help students write a school song.

The chapter has also placed composer Howard Savage in residence at the Lathrop Community Music Center. Savage is conducting after-school workshops with the center's string ensemble and working with its members to compose three original works for the ensemble. These pieces will be the highlight of a number of concerts in several schools and churches throughout the community with which the center has long-standing relationships.

CHAPTER WELCOMES ASSISTANT TRACY GOLASZEWSKI

(OCTOBER 2000) The Chicago Chapter welcomes its new assistant director Tracy Golaszewski. Golaszewski earned her Master of Music from Roosevelt University. She has been principal rotation horn with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago since 1998, and extra horn with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1999. Her administrative experience with the Saint Charles Art and Music Festival includes writing publicity pieces, managing ticket sales, recruitment of young musicians for a summer youth orchestra program, and working as the assistant to the executive director.

CHAPTER UPDATES

(SEPTEMBER 2000) In the few months since Paula Giannini took over as director, the chapter has started development of new Community Partners projects. Though most are still in their nascent stages, the approach has been to forge long-term working relationships with a wide-ranging group of community organizations. The chapter is currently looking into partnerships with public institutions, public housing programs, schools and other educational programs.

(SEPTEMBER 2000) In the spring of 2001, the chapter will partner with music faculties and students of the School of the Art Institute, Northwestern University, Roosevelt University and Columbia College to support a daylong electro-acoustic music festival.

 

(SEPTEMBER 2000) The chapter will join The Jazz Institute of Chicago and the Park District’s Chicago Jazz and Heritage Program for a second year to continue The Chicago Composers Project. The program offers inner-city community members the opportunity to work collaboratively with a composer and legendary jazz musicians, helping re-connect Chicago’s communities with their own jazz history.