Thoughts from the Artistic Director: Putting the Listener First

Dear Friends,

Marc Geelhoed, the Associate Music Editor and Classical Music Writer for Time Out Chicago wrote recently of Rush Hour: “Rush Hour Concerts is the only concert series I know of that puts the listener first.”

We think a lot about you, the listener, at Rush Hour — we created this now well-known format with you in mind. We recognized from the beginning the equally important contribution the listener makes to the energy of a live performance, complementing the roles of composer and performer. And, we thought about what you might need at the end of the day to enable you to participate fully in a weekly cultural experience, allowing its beauty, power and magic to work in you.

I had a conversation recently with Laura Shapiro, a New York-based author and member of Rush Hour’s Advisory Committee. Laura grew up surrounded by music and concerts. Her father is Harry Shapiro, long-time member of the horn section of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She sang with the Harvard University Chorus throughout her undergraduate years at Radcliffe. I asked her her thoughts about the role of the audience these days in live performances and I’d like to share them with you today:

“Here in New York the Lincoln Center Festival is having an amazing summer season — Chinese opera, kabuki, Robert Wilson, Philip Glass — and it’s got me thinking about the oft-maligned summer audience for the arts. Maybe in hot weather we’re all supposed to want Pops this and lite that, with some gigantic Beethoven’s Ninth at the end of the season, but you sure couldn’t prove it here. Years ago, Twyla Tharp told me in an interview that she thought people didn’t know how to watch dance. ‘They’re always wondering what it’s about,’ she said. ‘They should be asking, What’s in it for me?’ So I’m wondering whether maybe audiences are coming around to exactly that response.

“Maybe people really have learned to go to performances as if the audience mattered, as if we aren’t just wallpaper but participants. It’s always been true that the show can’t go on without us — maybe we’re learning to take advantage of that privilege. What happens on stage, stays on the stage. But what happens to us — our responses and questions and objections and demands — becomes an intrinsic part of the experience in the theater, and we keep it for the rest of our lives.”

We at Rush Hour would like to know your thoughts on this subject – tell us “what’s in it for you.” Write to us – when you have time – at info@rushhour.org. Finally, thank you, for all you bring to our live performances each week.

— Deborah Sobol

7/31 – Inventions on Inventions

Yet another successful concert and partnership with the Poetry Foundation! As many of you may recall, last year Rush Hour and the Poetry Foundation teamed up to present Bach’s Two-Part Inventions alongside poetry readings. It was only fitting that we followed last year’s innovative program this season with Bach’s Three-Part Inventions, each paired with poetry inspired by the inventions. Close to 400 of you came for Bach and poetry – thanks for visiting us and please don’t hesitate to send us feedback as we prepare for next year’s season!

Many thanks to Stephen Young and the Poetry Foundation for being wonderful partners in creating a program that was unique, creative and inspirational. Big bravos to pianists Kuang-Hao Huang, Deborah Sobol, and Diana Schmück, and poets Kevin Coval, Anne Winters, and Judith Valente. Special thanks to Valerie Jean Johnson, who stepped in for Anne Winters at the last minute.

Kuang-Hao Huang, Kevin Coval, Valerie Jean Johnson, Deborah Sobol, Diana Schmück and Judith Valente.

Kevin Coval during sound check.

Kuang-Hao Huang warming up.

Guests during the pre-concert reception: the menu featured brie, crackers, lemon-cherry scones, Argo Tea, juice, and red and white wines!

Rush Hour Intern Tara’s parents during the reception – thanks for helping us clean up after the concert!

The Poetry Foundation’s Stephen Young with Rush Hour Managing Director Julie Hutchison.

Poet Judith Valente and pianist Diana Schmück after the concert.

Poetry Q&A with Rush Hour Board President, Treasurer, and St. James Sexton

Last night Rush Hour held the second annual Inventions on Inventions, celebrating the multiple voices in both Bach’s counterpoint and in poetry: three pianists played Bach’s Three-Part Inventions and three poets read their work.

Tara Maguire, Rush Hour intern, spoke with three other members of the Rush Hour community about their involvement with poetry: Susan Lyons, Rush Hour Treasurer, Max Drake, Rush Hour Board President, and Henry Leach, sexton at St. James Cathedral. Here are three more voices speaking about their experiences with poetry and sharing their perspectives on its importance to their lives.

How did you get involved with poetry? Or when did you become interested in poetry?

Susan Lyons: I think whatever interest I had I became reconnected with once I had my children. What I started out doing initially was keeping a journal of things that would happen, or that I would observe, that my children and their innocence and curiosity illuminated for me about life. So my interest in trying to write poetry and observe the simple and beautiful things about life really appeared in the past few years that I’ve been raising my kids.

Max Drake: From an early age I thought poetry had more bang for the buck than prose. In college I was a Classics and English major and focused on the use of classical poetry and mythology by modernist English and American poets like T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound.

Henry Leach: I first started doing it when I first started working here about fifteen years ago. At that time there was a little girl that was shot in the head, and I just wanted to send a message—to her. Most of my poetry is religious, and I usually write it when I’m feeling bad about something, or if I’ve done something wrong—and it’s my way of apologizing to God.

Ideas come to me—thoughts, phrases. I just write them down, look at them later on and put them in some kind of order. But mostly it’s trying to tell people the Word about God—because I have come from a religious background—I’m not saying that I’m the Christian that I should be. But I write if things make me angry, or like I said if I’ve done something and I feel it’s my way of apologizing to God.

What part has poetry played in your life?

Susan Lyons: Poetry is something I try to write when things are really ambiguous—it’s a way for me of trying to sort out my feelings. Or completely conversely, when things become really clear—sometimes I can write a poem when something is so obvious or so funny or interesting… that’s when I write poetry. I subscribe to Poetry Magazine and I get the New Yorker, and the first thing I do when I open the New Yorker is read the poems. I always like to read them to see what point of view the writer might have or what they’re trying to describe.

Max Drake: It is a great strengthener of memory muscles — I used to have a repertoire of poetry in my head. To me it represents connotation over denotation and therefore gives words the power of a visual image. It also stirs emotion.

Henry Leach: It’s a release.

The sad thing about my poetry is that my mother and my grandmother wanted me to try to do something with it, and I didn’t try to do anything with it—and my grandmother passed away. So that’s the bad thing about it.

I write poems sometimes every two weeks. And my mother is of course my best fan. She lives in Mississippi—so when I do one I will read her what I wrote and then mail her a copy. And she does home care for an elderly couple. And this lady gets a copy ‘cause she likes what I write, too. And so just about every poem that I have sent down there now she has in a book that she’s keeping herself—I wish I had done it last year so that when my other ones got taken I could’ve gotten my poems from her.

It’s a release and—I like doing it. And it touches a lot of people—believe it or not. I’m amazed, they’ll be reading it and say, this is something that I really needed to read, or hear, or whatever. So I’m glad about it, I like it.

Now it seems like I do it more—riding on the train, or sometimes during quiet times—when I first started, it was when I was busy—I would be sweeping up or cleaning up and thoughts just started coming. I used to take a piece of paper and just write write write write.

And I have some friends who ask me to do poems—personal poems—for birthdays, Valentine’s Days, stuff like that.

Who are your favorite poets?

Susan Lyons: There are a couple of female poets that I really like—it’s always hard because they both had pretty tragic lives—but I like the work of Sylvia Plath and I like the work of Anne Sexton. And just in terms of a poet who’s prolific and funny I really like Billy Collins.

Max Drake: T.S. Eliot was for a long time a great favorite. I admire the simplicity of William Carlos Williams. But of course Shakespeare. And for the interplay of memory and experience, Wordsworth. Among the classical poets I’ve always loved Catullus and Ovid — they were renegades and outsiders.

What would you want people to know who are discovering poetry for the first time?

Susan Lyons: I think it’s like anything—you just have to experience it and see what you think about it. In uncharted territory chances are you’re going to come out with a different kind of awareness after you’ve heard something or listened to something than you might have had before. And I think that experience too shouldn’t necessarily be so intimidating–it’s pretty universal.

I had someone say to me who was very involved in The Poetry Foundation—he’s an older gentleman—that he was very proud of the fact that the Poetry Foundation was rolling out the equivalent of a spelling bee where high school students had to learn to recite poetry. He was really, really happy about that, and he thought that would be a good way for kids to get in touch with poetry and understand some of the significant poets. I said that I think a lot of kids these days really are poets, you may not appreciate it or they may not be able to recite some famous poem but all of the music they listen too—even if it’s pop music—I believe has an element of poetry. So there’s a connection to music. I think some of us can get a little bit snobby almost about it having to be intellectually rigorous or in this classical genre when in fact it’s out there all the time—it’s just in a more unstructured or looser environment.

So there’s always that emphasis on what’s really good, and I think it’s too soon to judge. Kids are reciting the lyrics of a song that they like and that’s obviously having an impact on them.

Max Drake: Poetry opens the imagination and the heart. The best poems are denser and more rich than most prose. There are so many structural disciplines, as well, but I’ve always been a fan of free verse.

Henry Leach: Just tell what you really feel. Don’t try to cover it up or jazz it up to satisfy somebody else ‘cause it’s your thoughts and your feelings. So be real with it, just write what you want, what you feel. ‘Cause if you’re trying to do it according to what someone else would do then it’s not your work. Just be yourself, be real, do what you want, what you really feel in your heart.

Concert Manager’s Notes: Rush Hour Community

“Come and show me another city with lifted head singing/so proud to be alive…” challenged poet Carl Sandburg. Of the many musicians, artists, poets and writers who have portrayed Chicago through jazz, painting, poetry or prose, perhaps Sandburg did it best.

He called Chicago the “City of the Big Shoulders”, likening it to a corn-fed fighter, fierce and proud. But, though the fighter may be a coarse braggart, it is because “under his ribs [is] the heart of the people.” Despite its size and prominence, Chicago is not a daunting or intimidating city. It lacks the coldness of many big cities and the disjunction one feels there. Like the stereotypical Midwesterner, Chicago is husky but friendly.

Chicago has a unique feel that is neither East Coast nor West Coast. It is called (as I recently learned from the name of recent Rush Hour performers) the Third Coast. In part, Chicago’s personality comes from the diversity of the city. Chicago is made up of a bunch of neighborhoods and enclaves, each a little different: there’s Chinatown, Germantown, chic Wicker Park, and the South Side (where gospel was supposedly invented), just to name a few. But while Chicago is a city of neighborhoods, it is not a city divided. Each neighborhood has a distinct flavor, yet it seems that each takes pride in being part of Chicago as a whole.

This is a sentiment which I have met over and over again working with our community sponsors. For example, early in the season we presented a Chinese-themed concert event in partnership with the Chinese Consulate General. Working with them as well as the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, we were able to branch out from our base at St. James Cathedral to work with businesses and institutions in Chinatown like the Chin Quo Bakery and the Chinese-American Museum. It was clear that these two places are proud of their Chinese heritage and are eager to share this with others. But, they also seemed proud to be a part of the city at large, contributing not just for the sake of spreading their culture, but in an effort to be involved in the greater community of Chicago. The different enclaves of the city do not keep to themselves; they fuse and meld, working together to make up the fabric of Chicago.

In large part, it is the nature of Chicago that allows Rush Hour to be so multi-faceted both in the type of music we present and who we work with. This year alone, we have put on concerts in partnership with the French, British, Chinese and German consulates. We have worked closely with The Poetry Foundation to create an event combining music and poetry. Perhaps because the city is so eclectic, Chicagoans and Chicago visitors are open to trying something new and experimenting a bit. Because of this, Rush Hour can present concerts with a wide array of influences. Where else can you hear Cage and Reich one week, and Bach the next? There is no prototypical Chicagoan, and there is no typical Rush Hour sound.

For me, Rush Hour has been a stage from which I have discovered and explored many of the different cultures and aspects of the city. I hope that this is true for our audience, too. But, Rush Hour’s involvement with the community is two-fold: in addition to providing an introduction to many of the different sides of Chicago, it provides a space to gather.  This, in itself, is the basis of community.