The Harris Theater for Music and Dance will open the second decade of the Twenty-first Century with a month full of exciting and eclectic music and dance performances this January 2010. Highlights include the highly anticipated returns of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo and Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan; the annual Contempo Double-Bill engagement featuring Grammy Award-winning Harris Theater resident company eighth blackbird along with jazz musicians Kenny Werner and Chris Potter, and a performance by The Chicago Jazz Ensemble, celebrating Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. Rounding out the month is the Harris Theater Family Series “DJ Beethoven” engagement featuring a brand-new program by the New Millennium Orchestra!
Tickets for these performances are on-sale and available at the Harris Theater box office located in Millennium Park at 205 E. Randolph Dr., by calling 312-334-7777 or by visiting www.HarrisTheaterChicago.org.
Program information for the month of January at the Harris Theater is as follows:
The Chicago Jazz Ensemble with Artistic Director Jon Faddis
Celebrating “The Great Summit”: The Music of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington
Friday, January 15, 2010, 8:00 pm
Tickets: $15-$45
The Chicago Jazz Ensemble pays tribute to Jazz greats, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington in what is sure to be an evening of fabulous music. Highlights of the performance include big band arrangements of Armstrong classics, such as “What a Wonderful World,” “Swing that Music,” and “Stardust,” as well as Ellington favorites pulled from the CJE’s own library.
Harris Theater and Contempo present
Double-Bill: Where Jazz and Contemporary Music Intersect
Saturday, January 16, 2010, 7:30 pm
Tickets: $25, $40
Cliff Colnot, conductor
Susanne Mentzer, mezzo soprano
eighth blackbird
Chris Potter, saxophones
Kenny Werner, piano
This exciting co-presentation of Contempo’s Double-Bill: Where Jazz and Contemporary Music Intersect
features important Chicago premieres and combines the best of living composers, cutting-edge performances by contemporary artists, and memorable appearances by jazz musicians. Featuring Grammy Award-winning sextet eighth blackbird and renowned mezzo soprano Susanne Mentzer, who performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus this past October and wowed both critics and audiences with her portrayal of Dido in Dido and Aeneas with Chicago Opera Theater in 2006, as well as jazz musicians Chris Potter and Kenny Warner, Double-Bill will include the Chicago premiere of Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award-winning composer Bernard Rands’ work, now again – fragments from Sappho for ten-piece ensemble, along with Kurt Weill’s September Song. The performance will also feature the Chicago premiere of Taiwanese composer Yu-Hui Chang’s Binge Delirium for solo percussion and conclude with a jam session with jazz musicians saxophonist Chris Potter and pianist Kenny Werner.
Shawn Brogan Allison Towards the Flame
Bernard Rands now again – fragments from Sappho
Kurt Weill September Song
Yu-Hui Chang Binge Delirium for solo percussion
Set with Chris Potter, saxophone, and Kenny Werner, piano
The Dance Center of Columbia College presents
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan
Moon Water
Friday, January 22 and Saturday, January 23, 2010, 8:00 pm
Tickets: $30 – $65
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, Asia’s leading contemporary dance company, returns to Chicago blending Eastern and Western dance styles with Lin Hwai-min’s internationally renowned signature work, Moon Water. Lauded worldwide for its innovation, grace and extreme physical fluidity, Moon Water is a contemporary exploration of the Tai Chi Tao Yin movement, set to JS Bach’s exquisite Six Suites for Solo Cello. During this breathtaking performance, water sweeps across the entire stage and is reflected by a wall of mirror suspended midair, creating a stunning on-stage work of art. The company, made up of two dozen dancers with training in Tai Chi Tao Yin, meditation, martial arts, Chinese Opera movement, modern dance, ballet and calligraphy, execute Lin Hwai-min’s choreography beautifully – varying from the weighty stillness of a stone sculpture, to floating lyricism, to fierce martial-art like attacks. “Mr. Lin has accomplished what creative artists rarely succeed in doing today: challenging the audience with a work unlike any other,” says The New York Times. “Moon Water is not about meditation but is a meditation in itself.”
UIC Department of Surgery presents
Barbara Frittoli
Sunday, January 24, 2010, 3:00 pm
Tickets: $50 – $500; Student and UIC Staff discounts available
Barbara Frittoli will join Members of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, led by conductor Mattia Rondelli for this exciting fundraising event for the University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Surgery. The program includes Beethoven Seventh Symphony and Berlioz Les Nuiz d’Ete for soprano and orchestra. This special event will use the fine art of music to raise funds for the special art of robotic surgery under the direction of Dr. Pier Cristoforo Giulianotti. Originally from Italy, Dr. Giulianotti moved to Chicago two years ago to advance the art of robotic surgery, and now is the director of robotic surgery at UIC. Dr. Giulianotti has performed over 2,100 minimally invasive surgeries with over 1,000 robotic procedures.
As a classical pianist and the world’s premiere robotic surgeon, Dr. Giulianotti has sought to unite these two worlds by creating a new organization,” The Art of Healing, The Art of Music”. He emphasizes “Surgery helps the body while opera soothes the soul”.
Platinum $500 Tickets: A portion of the proceeds of this purchase will fund the Robotic Surgery Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Your donation is tax deductible to the full extent of the law. Platinum ticket holders are invited to a private pre and post concert reception, meet and greet with Barbara Frittoli, and will hold premiere seating.
Gold $250 Tickets: A portion of the proceeds of this purchase will fund the Robotic Surgery Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Your donation is tax deductible to the full extent of the law. Gold ticket holders are invited to a private pre concert reception and will hold preferred seating.
Harris Theater presents
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
Wednesday, January 27, 2010, 7:30 pm
Tickets: $45 – $75
Following an appearance in the UK, including a performance in celebration of the 80th Anniversary of the Royal Variety Performance which Their Royal Highnesses, The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall attended, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo promise to delight Chicago audiences with an exciting new program demonstrating their playful, entertaining view of classical ballet in parody form and en travesti. Hailed as “wholly spectacular” and “stunning” by The New York Times, the Trocks, as they are affectionately known, will amuse and inspire Chicagoans with their blend of their loving knowledge of dance, their comic approach, and the astounding fact that men can, indeed, dance en pointe without falling flat on their faces! The fact that men dance all the parts–heavy bodies delicately balancing on toes as swans, sylphs, water sprites, romantic princesses, angst-ridden Victorian ladies–enhances rather than mocks the spirit of dance as an art form, delighting and amusing the most knowledgeable, as well as novices, in the audience. This Harris Theater presentation of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo is back by popular demand after a sold-out engagement at the Harris in 2007.
Judith Neisser is the Presenting Sponsor of the Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo engagement.
Swan Lake- Act II (Le Lac Des Cygnes)
Patterns in Space
La Vivandiere
Majisimas
Old Town School of Folk Music presents
Rosanne Cash
January 29 2010 at 8:00 PM
Tickets: $42, $45
Johnny Cash’s daughter has held her own since she ventured into the country music scene in the late ’70s. With what Rolling Stone calls “a voice that floats like smoke,” plus an ability to “belt it out,” the Grammy Award-winning Rosanne Cash has topped Billboard’s charts and earned acclaim for both country and crossover songs. With the recent release of “The List,” a celebrated new album of 12 covers culled from a list of 100 essential country songs her father gave her in 1973, Cash collaborates with Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Rufus Wainwright and Wilco. New country fans and traditionalists alike tip their hats to this star in her own right. Radio sponsor for Rosanne Cash is WXRT.
Harris Theater Family Series presents
New Millennium Orchestra
DJ Beethoven
Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 1 pm
Tickets: $10
Join Francesco Milioto and the New Millennium Orchestra on a fresh, urban electronic musical journey to the opera house and cinema, then on to a jazz club and underground lounge and discover a brand new way to look at music and musicians! In its inaugural presentation, DJ Beethoven will enlighten audiences as to how the orchestra and its musicians have burst out of the concert hall and now can be found in everyday places – including a DJ’s turntable! – influencing every genre of music.
The Slusar-Goldman Family is the Lead Sponsor of the DJ Beethoven family series performance.
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All programs, prices and dates are subject to change.
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Opened in 2003, the Harris Theater’s mission is to partner and collaborate with an array of Chicago’s emerging and mid-sized performing arts organizations to help them build the resources and infrastructure necessary to achieve artistic growth and long-term organizational sustainability. The Harris Theater for Music and Dance was the first multi-use performing arts venue to be built in the Chicago downtown area since 1929 and today the Theater continues to host the most diverse offerings of any venue in Chicago, featuring the city’s world-renowned music and dance institutions and the Harris Theater Presents series of acclaimed national and international companies. To learn more about the season at the Harris Theater, visit www.harristheaterchicago.org or call the box office at 312-334-7777 to request a brochure.
For additional information about the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Chicago’s state-of-the art 1,470 seat performance venue, please visit www.harristheaterchicago.org.
For high-res images please contact Betsy Shea, Harris Theater for Music and Dance at 312.334.2459 or bshea@harristheaterchicago.org.
The Harris Theater is pleased to announce that UBS is serving as the 2009-2010 Season Sponsor.
The Harris Theater gratefully acknowledges the Irving Harris Foundation for its leadership support of the Presenting Fund.
United Airlines is the Official Airline of the Harris Theater.
Judith Neisser is the Presenting Sponsor of the Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo engagement.
The Slusar-Goldman Family is the Lead Sponsor of the DJ Beethoven family series performance.
Windy City Media Group is the Media Partner for the Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo engagement.
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is the Lead Underwriter of the Harris Theater’s Rental Subsidy Program.
The Harris Theater gratefully acknowledges The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s support of the theater’s collaborative partnerships.
The Harris Theater is partially supported by the CityArts Program 4 grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.
