Chicago Philharmonic Celebrates The Heroes And Legends Of Classical Music In A Thrilling 2018-2019 Season

Fresh from an exciting year, including being named 2018 Professional Orchestra of the Year by the Illinois Council of Orchestras and completing their first Music and Culture Exchange with a tour to Poland, partially supported by an International Connections Fund from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago Philharmonic announces an artistically exciting program for 2018-2019: Heroes and Legends.

Inspired by tales of heroism in history and fiction at home and abroad, the Chicago Philharmonic Artistic Committee in conjunction with Artistic Director Scott Speck presents remarkable musical accomplishments spanning nineteenth-century Europe to the excitement and glamour of the American Roaring 20s and up-to-the-minute living composers.

The season opens with the highly anticipated five-day Chicago Philharmonic Festival: Poland 2018, the culmination of inaugural Chicago Philharmonic Festival and Exchange project. The Chicago Philharmonic's musical cultural exchange with Poland began in April, when eleven musicians traveled to Poland to lead master classes and rehearse and perform alongside Polish music students at the Academy of Music in Krakow and the Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre of Music in Lus?awice.

In exchange, Chi Phil has invited preeminent Polish chamber musicians the Silesian Quartet, noted organist Andrzej Bia?ko and Montreux Jazz Piano competition winner "piano hooligan" Piotr Orzechowski to perform chamber concerts across Chicago venues. On November 10, the Society presents its first symphonic concert of the season, Celebrate Polonia, at the Copernicus Center. In addition to Piano Concerto by national hero Ignacy Jan Paderewski, the orchestra will present the technically demanding Andante spianato et grande polonaise brilliante written by Frederic Chopin, Poland's most renowned Romantic composer, with Warsaw-born Chopin competition winner pianist ?ukasz Krupi?ski.

The Festival continues the following day with a free performance at St. Hyacinth Basilica of Wojciech Kilar's Missa Pro Pace (Mass for Peace), presented in a liturgical setting. Kilar, most famously known for his film scores including The Pianist and Bram Stoker's Dracula, returned to his first love of symphonic music to create the work which was performed in 2001 at the Vatican for Pope John Paul II. The concert will be conducted by Marek Mós, friend and noted interpreter of Kilar's works.

In spring, Chicago Philharmonic returns to the North Shore to present some of the most famous, funny and tragic characters of fiction and folklore. In March, the orchestra brings the dazzling The Roaring Twenties to Pick-Staiger Hall in Evanston with the help of award-winning Cuban jazz/classical crossover pianist Aldo López-Gavilán. The program includes living composer John Harbison's Remembering Gatsby, a modern composition inspired by Fitzgerald's famously conflicted American millionaire, Kurt Weill's 1928 celebration of timeless antihero Mack the Knife, and the jazz inspired concertos of Ravel and Gershwin.

Later in the month, Chicago Philharmonic continues their tradition of unique programming with an innovative multimedia program, Silent Sherlock. New York-based composer Tom Nazziola will conduct the ensemble in his own works: new, live scores to three classic short films projected simultaneously featuring legends from the black and white era of film including the hilarious Buster Keaton and Felix the Cat. In April, stories of triumph and tragedy take center stage with Rimsky-Korsakov's Middle Eastern folk heroine Scheherazade featuring violinist David Perry and Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture. Finally, Chicago Philharmonic timpanist Robert Everson will "Raise the Roof", rounding out the Defying Destiny concert with Daugherty's "joyous romp" that defies tradition with unorthodox performance techniques.

The season closes with an extraordinary spectacle for the eyes and ears. Cirque de la Symphonie & the Chicago Philharmonic returns by popular demand to the Harris Theater on the 2019 Memorial Day weekend after a sold-out performance in 2016. Clowns, acrobats, contortionists and jugglers perform superhuman feats alongside the orchestra, perfectly choreographed to classic cinematic scores.

Subscriptions and festival packages are on sale now. Single tickets for all concerts will be on sale starting July 1 2018.

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