Collaborative Arts Institute Of Chicago Announces 2019/2020 Season

Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago (CAIC) announces the programming for its 2019-2020 season. CAIC's 19/20 season will open with the organization's 8th annual vocal chamber music festival, the Collaborative Works Festival (September 5-8, 2019), which will focus on the songs of living composers. The organization also continues its popular Lieder Lounge series of vocal recitals: Tenor Jonathan Johnson and pianist Craig Terry headline the Winter Lieder Lounge, and Grammy Award winning mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor and Chicago-based pianist Brian Locke are featured in the Spring installment. Expanded educational offerings next season include three events: two master classes led by singing expert Lynn Eustis and Ryan Opera Center Music Director Craig Terry, and a three-day workshop on the art of Polish song, led by pianist Michael Pecak.

2019 COLLABORATIVE WORKS FESTIVAL

CAIC's 2019 Collaborative Works Festival, The Living, held in venues around Chicago from September 5-8, 2019, will explore the incredibly diverse array of today's leading composers, and the work these composers are doing in the field of song. The festival will open with a focus on Chicago and the internationally renowned women composers based in the city: Augusta Read Thomas, Stacy Garrop, Shulamit Ran and Lita Grier. The festival will zoom out geographically from there throughout the weekend, with a concert featuring the many American composers writing songs today, including Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Gabriela Lena Frank, Jake Heggie and one of the great scions of American art song, Ned Rorem. The festival will close with a program of songs written by international composers, including Kaija Saariaho, Jonathan Dove, Nicolas Bacri and Errollyn Wallen.

The work of living composers often gets short-shrift within the context of the vocal recital, yet there are so many composers of today continuing to build upon the incredible tradition of song that Schubert began, says CAIC artistic director Nicholas Phan. By having this year's entire festival focus on the songs of living composers, we will see how this form continues to be relevant to audiences today and how these composers can reflect the emotional complexities of the diverse world in which we live. As in past seasons, the festival features a stellar lineup of artists, including soprano Lauren Snouffer, star countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, Grammy Award winning pianist Lisa Kaplan and internationally acclaimed tenor Nicholas Phan.

LIEDER LOUNGE SERIES

CAIC's popular Lieder Lounge series continues into the 19/20 season with two vocal recitals. The Winter installment is a salon concert evening featuring recent Ryan Opera Center alumnus, tenor Jonathan Johnson with Ryan Opera Center music director Craig Terry. The Spring Lieder Lounge will be a traditional full recital featuring Grammy Award winning mezzo-soprano, Kelley O' Connor. A frequent guest artist with both CAIC and the Chicago Symphony, O'Connor has been praised by Chicago Classical Review for her natural, beautifully expressive singing and for bringing a touching humanity and inner glow to the music . O'Connor will be joined by pianist Brian Locke for this springtime recital.

EDUCATION SERIES

CAIC expands its educational offerings next season, presenting two master classes and a three day workshop for singers and pianists. A Fall master class led by master teacher Lynn Eustis will explore the intimate connection between breath and vowel. Dr. Eustis is the author of The Singer's Ego: Finding Balance Between Music and Life and The Teacher's Ego: When Singers Become Voice Teachers and serves as Director of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor of Voice at Boston University. In the Winter of 2020, conductor and keyboardist Michael Pecak will lead a three-day workshop on Polish song. Participants will learn the fundamentals of Polish lyric diction and delve into the Polish song repertoire and its historical contexts; the workshop will culminate in a public performance accompanied by Mr. Pecak and CAIC co-founders Nicholas Hutchinson and Shannon McGinnis. The education series will conclude in the Spring of 2020 with a master class entitled A Voice for All: Exploring Diversity through Song that will be curated and led by pianist Craig Terry. Lauded for his sensitive and stylish (New York Times) and superb (Opera News) playing, Mr. Terry is in his eleventh season as assistant conductor at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and currently serves as Music Director of the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center.

Tickets for the 19/20 season will go on sale June 15, 2019. Additional information about CAIC's 19/20 season is available at: www.caichicago.org.