This string band’s musical theater piece In the Deep Heart’s Core: A Mystic Cabaret, a setting of Yeats poems that was one of last season’s surprise hits, displayed composer-guitarist Joseph Daniel Sobol’s gift for blending Irish folk idioms with art-song nuances and unusual literary influences. It also showcased some dynamic soloists, including fiddler Andrew Bird […]
Tag: Vol. 25 No. 10
Issue of Dec. 14 – 20, 1995
Posted inNews & Politics
Puppet Patrol
In room 301 at LeMoyne School about 40 first- and second-graders sit cross-legged on the floor, their faces turned up toward Jose Reyes and Kevin Draftz, who stand over them in suits and ties. “We represent the state’s attorney’s office,” Reyes says. “That may not mean much to you children, but the state’s attorney’s office […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Pierre Boulez turned 70 earlier this year, and it’s only apt that one of his disciples is paying homage with a Boulez-esque miniature bearing an enigmatic title. The composer, Philippe Manoury, has long been affiliated with the Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique, Boulez’s temple of avant-gardism in Paris built and partially subsidized by […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Out From Under the Influence
Wesley Kimler Picks Four at the Lineage Gallery, through January 10 Though he was born in Montana and raised in northern California, Wesley Kimler has been a fixture on the Chicago art scene for more than a decade. A strong painter whose work both revives and subverts abstract expressionism, he has a forceful personality marked […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Santa Flaws . . . A Satire-Stuffed Revue
Santa Flaws…A Satire-Stuffed Revue, New Tuners Theatre. “A Chorus Carol,” the second of 19 mostly musical selections that comprise New Tuners’ antiholiday revue, is Jan Powell and Ken Stone’s parody of A Chorus Line, with an audition for the role of Tiny Tim. (“Differently challenged Tim!” snaps one candidate. “I don’t ride no shoulders!”) The […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Up Against Obama
This letter serves as a formal introduction of Gha-is Askia, Democratic candidate for state senator in the 13th Legislative District. Your December 8 issue feted the cover story, “What Makes Obama Run?” and included a gross error by stating there was no opposition. As a candidate who officially declared in February my supporters and I […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Janos Starker and Gyorgy Sebok
Veteran cellist Janos Starker, a principal player for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the early 50s under Fritz Reiner, is also well-known as an inspired teacher. This weekend his talents as both a virtuoso and an instructor are on display in a series of recitals and classes. In Oak Park’s Concerts Under the Dome he […]
Posted inMusic
Hamid Drake & Michael Zerang
The winter solstice is inherently rhythmic, marking the cyclical movement of the planet and the passage of fall into winter. Percussionists Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang regularly celebrate the great universal rhythm with a concert of more immediately tangible tempi. This weekend will be their fifth annual Winter Solstice Percussion Concert (due to the overcrowding […]
Posted inNews & Politics
MCA Right on the Money
To the editor: We are concerned that readers of Lewis Lazare’s column of November 24 may be left with the impression that the Museum of Contemporary Art is experiencing financial difficulties. This is not the case. The MCA is fiscally healthy and right on track with its long-term financial goals. We look forward to the […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Watch Yourself
I hear a lot of talk about how TV is making America’s problems worse, but the truth is, TV these days is nothing if not good for you. Every show on the program grid is going hell-for-leather to be positive, caring, and issue oriented. You can’t even settle in to savor an Amazon initiation ceremony […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Field & Street
At long last I’ve made it to Argonne. The 1,700-acre national laboratory has been an enigma to me ever since I started exploring the forest preserves around it ten years ago. There’s something about the way it’s tucked into the bottom-right-hand corner of Du Page County on my Tribune-McNally Chicagoland map, about the way it’s […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Nights of the Blue Rider
This multidisciplinary performing arts festival, closing this weekend after a three-month run, is hosted by the Pilsen area’s Blue Rider Theatre, 1822 S. Halsted, 733-4668. $10 a night; some student and senior discounts available. Following is the schedule for December 15 through 17. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15 Douglas Ewart and Lovers Fragments Ewart performs original compositions […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Leave My Friend Alone
Dear Editor: RE: “Jerked Around,” by Erin E. Hogan, 10-27-95 The art historian was excited at last to be onstage, wondering whether to wear a herringbone suit, carried away by the momentum of her challenge, the completion of paperwork–demanding a conclusion. She admits the sheer novelty and originality of the incident, the excitement at last […]
Posted inArts & Culture
On Film: the theremin’s good vibrations
“My dad let me stay up and watch The Day the Earth Stood Still and that was it for me,” says 41-year-old Steven Martin, recalling how he became interested in the theremin. “I just ran around the house making sounds like that.” Martin recently wrote, directed, and produced Theremin, An Electric Odyssey, a documentary about […]