The Music Institute of Chicago Announces NUTCRACKER Battle, 12/8

The Music Institute of Chicago welcomes families for a musical open house followed by a concert of dueling Nutcrackerperformances Saturday, December 8, 9 a.m. at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston.

Families begin this morning of music with an open house featuring Musikgarten® early childhood demos and an Instrument Petting Zoo, where kids can try out playing a variety of instruments. At 10 a.m., a performance of “The Nutcracker SWEET” pits the classical (Tchaikovsky) and jazz (Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn) versions of the holiday favorite, performed by Music Institute Ensembles-in-Residence Axiom Brass and Quintet Attacca and choreographed by Ronn Stewart, artistic director of Foster Dance Studios. The Ellington/Strayhorn transcription is by James Stephenson. 

The 2012–13 season marks the 10th anniversary of Nichols Concert Hall, originally designed by noted architect Solon S. Beman as the architecturally and acoustically magnificent First Church of Christ, Scientist, located at 1490 Chicago Avenue in Evanston, in 1912 (celebrating its centennial). Restored in 2003, the building has become Nichols Concert Hall, a state-of-the-art, 550-seat performance space and music education destination, which annually reaches approximately 15,000 people and hosts a world-class chamber music series, workshops and master classes, student recitals, and special events.