Harris Theater Announces January 2011 Events

The Harris Theater for Music and Dance will kick off the New Year with an eclectic and exciting series of performances in January 2011. Highlights include:

Performance Art
After a sold-out 2008 engagement, Laurie Anderson returns to the Harris Theater! Considered one of America's most renowned and daring creative pioneers, she will perform her latest full scale work of performance art, the Chicago Premiere of Delusion.

Dance
Celebrating their 40th anniversary season, Pilobolus Dance Theatre will astound audiences with their innovative style that incorporates elements of acrobatics, gymnastics, wit and intense physicality.

The second installment of the popular Eat to the Beat lunchtime series features brilliant young students from the renowned Chicago High School for the Arts in an artistic tour-de-force.

Music
Music of the Baroque explores Haydn's late "London" symphonies, and two of the orchestra's principal players take center stage for Mozart's concerto for bassoon and Leopold Mozart's trumpet concerto.

Special guest Jon Faddis leads the Chicago Jazz Ensemble with the return of The Great Summit: The Music of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. The Chicago Jazz Ensemble honors the legacy of two of the jazz world's most legendary talents with an inspired performance of Ellington and Armstrong favorites from the CJE's music library.

MusicNOW features electronica superstars Mouse on Mars, known for their quirky blend of techno, trance and disco collaborate with an all-star CSO ensemble in a concert that is sure to be a highlight of the 2010/11 season.

Tickets for these performances are available at the Harris Theater box office located in Millennium Park at 205 E. Randolph Dr., by calling 312-334-7777 or by visiting www.harristheaterchicago.org.

Complete program information for the month of January at the Harris Theater is as follows:

Laurie Anderson Delusion*
Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 7:30 pm
Tickets $35 - $80

*Chicago Premiere

Laurie Anderson, one of America's most renowned and daring creative pioneers, returns to the Harris with her latest full scale work of performance art, the Chicago Premiere of Delusion. Anderson made her Harris debut in 2008 with a sold-out performance of Homeland, her response to the government reaction to 9/11 and the "war on terror." In Delusion, Anderson's unique world view shapes what was conceived as a series of short mystery plays, jump-cutting between the everyday and the mythic, fantasy and fact. The epic piece, which received its World Premiere in Toronto as a commission by the 2010 Winter Olympics, combines the spectacle of violin, electronic puppetry, music and visuals to tell its story in the colorful and poetic language that has become Anderson's trademark. Inspired by an eclectic mix of artists including Honoré de Balzac, Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu and 18th Century English novelist Laurence Sterne, Anderson employs a series of altered voices and imaginary guests, including golems, nuns and archeologists, to tell a story of longing, memory and identity.

As writer, director, visual artist and vocalist, Anderson has created groundbreaking works that span the worlds of art, theater and experimental theater. Acclaimed by Rolling Stone as "a singer-songwriter of crushing poignancy," Anderson is considered one of this era's most prolific artists. Her major performance works include United States I-V (1983), Home of the Brave (1986), Empty Places (1990), The Nerve Bible (1995) and Songs and Stories for Moby Dick (1999), a multimedia stage performance based on the novel by Herman Melville. As a composer, Anderson has contributed music to films by Wim Wenders and Jonathan Demme; dance pieces by Bill T. Jones, Trisha Brown, Molissa Fenley; and a score for Robert Lepage's theatre production, Far Side of the Moon. In 2002 Anderson was appointed the first artist-in-residence of NASA, during which time she developed her solo performance The End of the Moon, which premiered in 2004 and toured internationally through 2006. In 2007 she was awarded the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the most esteemed awards in the arts given annually to "a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life." The entire Laurie Anderson discography is expected to be released on the Nonesuch Records label this summer.

The Chicago Jazz Ensemble
The Great Summit: The Music of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington
Thursday, January 20, 2011 at 7:30 pm
Tickets $15 - $45

Jon Faddis, guest conductor and performer

Shake off the January chills with the return of The Great Summit: The Music of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. The Chicago Jazz Ensemble honors the legacy of two of the jazz world's most legendary talents with an inspired performance of Ellington and Armstrong favorites from the CJE's music library. Jon Faddis will join the band as special guest conductor for this concert.

Eat to the Beat: A Lunchtime Performance
Chicago High School for the Arts
Friday, January 21, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Tickets $5

The second installment of the wildly-successful Eat to the Beat lunchtime series features brilliant young students from the renowned Chicago High School for the Arts. In an artistic tour-de-force, the students will showcase their extraordinary talents in a performance featuring each of the school's artistic areas of concentration. From the stage of the Harris Theater, ChiArts students of dance, theatre, choral and jazz music will exhibit their exceptional skill, while an installation by the school's visual artists will be displayed in the lobby.

This unique one-hour dance program is geared towards those who live, work, attend school, or find themselves in the vicinity of the Harris during the workday lunch hour. Audience members are encouraged to enjoy their brown bag or purchased lunches while watching these spectacular performances. (Park Grill box lunches are available for advance purchase.) A trademark of this acclaimed program is accessibility; with individual tickets priced at only $5 each or $10 for a subscription to all four performances, anyone can experience live dance and break up the monotony of a work day.

 

Music of the Baroque
Haydn Symphonies, Mozart Concertos
Monday, January 24, 2011 at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $30-$75

Jane Glover, conductor
Music of the Baroque Orchestra
William Buchman, bassoon
Barbara Butler, trumpet

Londoner Jane Glover conducts two of Haydn's late "London" symphonies, and Music of the Baroque's principal players take center stage for Mozart's concerto for bassoon and his father Leopold Mozart's trumpet concerto. These are world-class musicians whose pleasure making music together shines through every performance.

F. J. Haydn: Symphony No. 102 in B-flat Major
W. A. Mozart: Bassoon Concerto in B-flat Major, K. 191
L. Mozart: Trumpet Concerto in D Major
F. J. Haydn: Symphony No. 104 in D Major (London)

Pilobolus
Friday & Saturday, January 28 & 29, 2011 at 7:30 pm
Tickets $25 - $55

Pilobolus, a pioneering American cultural institution renowned the world over for its imaginative and athletic exploration of creative collaboration, celebrates its 40th Anniversary season at the Harris. Pilobolus at 40: Collaborating on the Future will feature classic works from its repertoire along with those new to Chicago audiences. Founded in 1971 as an outsider dance company by students in a Dartmouth College modern dance class, Pilobolus Dance Theatre revolutionized the dance world by incorporating elements of acrobatics, gymnastics, wit and intense physicality to form its own innovative form of modern dance. Today the company is acclaimed for its startling mix of humor, invention and improvisation as it plays with illusion and reality in its radically innovative productions. With a full repertory of more than 100 works, Pilobolus performs across the globe and is acclaimed for the surprising and precarious exaggerations and contortions of the human form its dancer are able to create. Millions were able to experience Pilobolus when it performed for a worldwide audience on the 2007 Academy Awards telecast.

Program to include:

REDLINE (2009) Jonathan Wolken's Redline examines the beauty and futility of physical battle. Accompanied by a driving and seductive score by Battles and Autechre, this full company work is full of tremulous energy balanced by a graceful discipline.

THE TRANSFORMATION (2009) Created in collaboration with lead writer for the brilliant animated series SpongeBob SquarePants Steven Banks, this work is a shadow piece in which a young woman is transformed.

GNOMEN (1997) Considered to be a Pilobolus classic. A quartet for men, Gnomen's lyrical exploration of relationships emerges from an unusually inventive physical vocabulary and is dedicated to the memory of our friend and colleague, Jim Blanc.

DUET (1992) A classic, rarely performed duet that has not been performed in almost a decade, Duet is revived for the company's 40th anniversary. A tender, loving, and intense physical relationship is portrayed on stage, as two women's intense attraction and affection becomes a struggle for power and domination. Duet explores themes of intimacy, misunderstanding, and the hope of successful union.

WALKLYNDON (1971) One of Pilobolus' very first works, Walklyndon is a silent dance owing much of its physical humor to slapstick and vaudeville. Six colorfully dressed jocks romp, bump, kick and galumph; it is a classic work.

RUSHES (2007) The first in a series of collaborations with a diverse group of artists during the next few years, Pilobolus Co-Artistic Director Robby Barnett teams up with the world-renowned dance-theatre makers Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak to premiere a new full-company work. A mix of movement languages born out of a series of conversations and a laboratory workshop, Pilobolus/Pinto/Pollak discovers hybrid terrain in a remarkable exploration of the range and intensity of deep collaboration.

MusicNOW
Monday, January 31, 2011 at 7:00 pm
Tickets: $10 - $20

André de Ridder, conductor
Musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Mason Bates and Anna Clyne, Mead Composers-in-Residence
Mouse on Mars, guest artists

Electronica superstars Mouse on Mars, known for their quirky blend of techno, trance and disco, collaborate with an all-star CSO ensemble in a concert that is sure to be a highlight of the 2010/11 season. This groundbreaking program also includes A Cat's Seven Lives by Martin Matalon, written to accompany Un Chien Andalou, Luis Buñuel's surrealist film masterpiece from 1929.

Meet the musicians and composers at post concert receptions with FREE food and drink!

 

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