International Beethoven Project's Beethoven Festival: LOVE 2013 Runs 9/7-15

The International Beethoven Project, led by President and Artistic Director George Lepauw, announced today that it will present over 100 events spanning classical and new music, visual art, fashion, literature and education for Beethoven Festival: LOVE 2013-the organization's third annual multidisciplinary festival inspired by the creativity and genius of Ludwig van Beethoven, Sept. 7-15, 2013.

Additionally, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation announced it is making a $100,000 challenge grant in support of the festival's ambitious programming, the largest matching grant the Driehaus Foundation has ever made to a performing arts organization. The Foundation will match each donation made to the International Beethoven Project through the end of 2013. In a private reception Mondayevening, May 6, an initial $40,000 was raised towards this fundraising goal.

"The International Beethoven Project has demonstrated its ability to positively impact Chicago's strong arts and cultural tradition," saidRichard H. Driehaus, philanthropist and founder of Driehaus Capital Management LLC. "In recognition of the IBP's accomplishments, we hope The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation's challenge grant inspires other philanthropists, corporations, foundations and residents to join us in our support of this unique addition to Chicago's rich artistic landscape."

Highlights of LOVE 2013 include: the return of heralded composer-conductor Matthias Pintscher for a weeklong residency; a new music commission series curated by Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche with the festival's new music committee; performances by the acclaimedInternational Contemporary Ensemble (ICE); the creation of a site-specific performance piece by Israeli artist-in-residence Rachel Monosov; and a student performance showcasing the International Beethoven Project's first summer camp collaboration with theSouthport Performing Arts Conservatory (SPACE), a Beethoven-themed exploration of music, dance, drama and design.

LOVE 2013 will be headquartered at Merit School of Music's Joy Faith Knapp Music Center (38 S. Peoria Street), with substantial programming taking place throughout the surrounding West Loop neighborhood. Weeklong festival passes and individual tickets will go on sale in July. A full schedule of artists and programming for LOVE 2013 will be announced later this summer. For more information please visit www.internationalbeethovenproject.com.

"Although it's a well-explored subject through the ages, LOVE does relate particularly well this year given how societal views are evolving on the concept of relationships, and it connects profoundly to Beethoven's own story-most vividly in his passionate and beautiful letters to the 'Immortal Beloved,'" says Lepauw. "Love fuels the creative fire that artists need, and in our third annual festival we're showcasing what drives artists to create and perform passionately at the highest level. The International Beethoven Project is growing a family of artists who are committed in this way, and who feel as strongly as we do about making Chicago, and the world, a better place through arts and culture."

Alongside Matthias Pintscher, musical headliners for LOVE 2013 include: festival residencies with renowned pianist Christopher O'Riley, Montreal-based cellist Matt Haimovitz and Swiss violinist Rachel Kolly d'Alba; operatic soprano Arianna Zukerman in concert with pianist Lepauw; modern string ensemble JACK Quartet; jazz pianist and composer Dan Tepfer; the Chicago solo debut of 21-year-old Indian Carnatic violinist Ambi Subramaniam; the Chicago premiere of British/Dutch violinist Daniel Rowland; internationally renowned lutenist Hopkinson Smith; Chicago's own cello prodigy Gabriel Cabezas, returning for a residency of recitals and chamber music. LOVE 2013 will also continue the Late Night Bach Project, a Beethoven Festival tradition that brings Bach selections for keyboard and small ensemble to audiences through the middle of the night.

Continuing to promote the creation of new works by composers across all genres, the International Beethoven Project will commission new Bagatelle Project piano pieces for LOVE 2013 around the theme of Beethoven's 5th Symphony, as well as launching a Rockatelle Project commission series led by Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche and the festival's new music committee. This new series invites non-classical artists to compose works around the same musical theme, culminating in a performance by 12 bands during LOVE 2013. In addition to these new commissions, works by key living Chicago composers and others will be showcased throughout the festival-performed by the International Beethoven Project's newly formed Prometheus Modern contemporary ensemble and other artists.

In addition to this vast array of music performances, LOVE 2013 will also incorporate extensive programming across the visual art, fashion and literary disciplines. For the third year in a row, a contemporary art collection will be commissioned specifically for the Beethoven Festival, including a core group of Chicago-based artists. Israeli artist Rachel Monosov joins the festival as artist-in-residence and designer of this year's posters, and will produce a site-specific performance piece mixing video, still images and music in collaboration with guest musicians. A student-specific competition will also invite Chicago's up-and-coming visual artists to submit work for inclusion. Throughout the festival, emerging Chicago fashion designers' work will be highlighted in unique events as well as in collaboration with musicians. In the literary realm, a compilation of new short works of prose and poetry will be commissioned around the concept of the "Immortal Beloved" and the meaning of love. Discussions will be led throughout the festival on historic texts contemplating these themes.

About Matthias Pintscher

Heralded composer-conductor Matthias Pintscher has been invited to return for a weeklong residency during LOVE 2013 after a resounding success conducting the Beethoven Festival Orchestra in 2012 for the Chicago premiere of Beethoven's Creatures of Prometheus ballet and his Eroica Symphony. Pintscher, currently the music director of Paris' Ensemble InterContemporain, will conduct three full programs for his second engagement with the Festival, including: Bach's Saint-John's Passion; Wagner's Siegfried Idyll andOverture to Tristan and Isolde; Mozart's Gran Partita; Beethoven's ode to nature, Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral Symphony); and Pintscher's take on the ultimate love story, his songs from Solomon's garden. Several of Pintscher's chamber works will also be performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and other Festival artists.

About George Lepauw

Concert pianist and International Beethoven Project President and Artistic Director George Lepauw is a true 21st-century musician, both intensely focused on his art and wholly engaged with the world. Recently named Chicagoan of the Year for Classical Music in theChicago Tribune, Lepauw is the founder of The Journal of a Musician, the Beethoven Project Trio, Prometheus, the International Beethoven Project and its accompanying, critically-lauded Beethoven Festival. Lepauw gave his New York City debut with the Beethoven Project Trio at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall in 2010, and concurrently released his first commercial recording, which reached #24 on the Classical Billboard Charts, of three rare Beethoven trios (including a Beethoven World-Premiere) with the BPT on Cedille Records. Lepauw began his studies at the Rachmaninov Conservatory in Paris, France at the age of three, and soon after was accepted by Madame Aïda Barenboim as her youngest-ever student, with the exception of her son, pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim. Lepauw went on to study with Russian virtuoso Elena Varvarova, who prepared him for his first public concert at the age of ten in Paris, performing Beethoven sonatas. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from Georgetown University and received his Masters of Music in Piano Performance from Northwestern University. George was the recipient of the first Earl Wild Foundation Prize, enabling him to study with the late legendary pianist in 2006.

About the International Beethoven Project and Beethoven Festival

The International Beethoven Project, a Chicago-based non-profit, is dedicated to the promotion of revolutionary culture, inspired by the music and life of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-­1827), one of the most ground­breaking artists of all time. Its mission is accomplished through the presentation of an annual Beethoven Festival, concerts, mixed­media exhibits, lectures, the production of recordings and films, the commissioning of new music and art, publications and educational outreach in schools and universities, as well as in non­traditional venues. The unconventional and multidisciplinary Beethoven Festival was inspired by concert pianist and Founding Artistic Director George Lepauw's cultural explorations of Paris, London, Beijing and New York. The inaugural festival in 2011 presented 25 concerts over five days in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood; last year, it grew to over 60 events spanning nine days, based out of the Uptown neighborhood. This year's festival headquartered in the West Loop neighborhood will feature over 100 events spanning classical and new music, visual art, fashion, literature and education. Beethoven's vision of humanity, justice and "brotherhood" inspires us to build a better world through music and art, continuing the dialogue that is necessary between past, present and future generations of artists in order for culture and civilization to flourish. For more information, visit www.internationalbeethovenproject.com.

About The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation

The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, founded in 1983 and as a family foundation in 1992, benefits individuals and communities primarily by supporting the preservation and enhancement of the built and natural environments through historic preservation, encouragement of quality architectural and landscape design, and conserving open space. The Foundation also supports the performing and visual arts, investigative reporting and government accountability and makes grants to organizations that provide opportunities for working families who remain poor. For more information, visit www.driehausfoundation.org.

About Merit School of Music

Merit School of Music, www.meritmusic.org, transforms the lives of Chicago-area youth by providing the highest quality music education-with a focus on underserved communities-inspiring young people to achieve their full musical and personal potential.

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